1. The nostos of Agamemnon and the Oresteia

2. Aeschylus, Oresteia (first produced 458 BCE, Athens)
Oresteia is title of trilogy of plays by Aeschylus:
the Agamemnon (killing of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus on his return)
the Libation Bearers (return of Agamemnon’s son, Orestes, and killing of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus)
the Eumenides (Orestes is pursued by the Furies or Erinyes, finally absolved of guilt by trial at Athens)

3. The Agamemnon Play opens with fire signal that Troy has been taken
Chorus and events at Aulis: sacrifice of Agamemnon’s daughter Iphigeneia to appease wrath of Artemis (pp )
Danger that attaches to being a victor and conquerer (p.60, 70): theme of excess – hubris (pride, insolent behaviour) – destruction throughout Oresteia.
Hubris – koros [“excess, glutting”] – atê [“folly, destruction”]
Chorus’ mistrust of Clytemnestra, suspicion and underestimation of feminine intelligence (pp ,64)

4. Agamemnon debates whether to sacrifice Iphigeneia, Agamemnon p.52
“My fate is heavy either way: Heavy if I refuse to obey, And heavy too if I kill my child, Pride of my house, staining these father’s Hands with the streams of maiden blood Spilled at the altar. Which way is free From evil? Can I desert my ships? Fail all my allies? For in the eyes Of heaven, that they, with too eager passion, should crave a sacrifice, even Of maiden blood, to still the winds, Is right. May it all be for the best.”

5. Chorus describes sacrifice of Iphigeneia, Agamemnon p.52
…and her father, After praying, though she clasped His knees, begged him with all her heart, Ordered his men to lift her like A goat, face downward, above the altar, Robes falling all round her, and He had her mouth gagged, the bit yanked Roughly, stifling the cry that would Have brought a curse down on the house… What happened next I neither know Nor speak.

6. Roman fresco painting showing version of myth used by Euripides
Roman fresco painting showing version of myth used by Euripides. Sacrifice of Iphigenia. In the sky, Iphigenia taken away at last moment, substituted by deer.

7. Secrets of the house: watchman (p. 46), chorus (p
Secrets of the house: watchman (p.46), chorus (p.63) refer indirectly to Clytemnestra’s betrayal of Agamemnon with his cousin, Aegisthus.
Chorus on Helen and destruction caused by her (they etymologize her name as being from a Greek root hel- “take, destroy”), animal imagery in the story (myth?) of the lion cub
Older secrets of the house: references to the story of feuding brothers Atreus and Thyestes and the meal of the latter’s children served to him by the former. (p.100)

8. Chorus on problems of being a victor, Agamemnon p. 60
For the gods In their own time see to the ones who kill so many, and the black Erinyes deliver, piecemeal, Down into darkness one who thrives Unjustly, grinding his life away Until his luck is turned around… The price of excessive glory is Excessive peril. The thunderbolt Strikes truly from the eyes of Zeus. May I provoke no envy: Be neither conqueror, Nor eat my life away As captive to another,

9. Chorus on Helen and her name (hel- “destroy”), Agamemnon p. 68
Who can have named her so Exactly? Someone now Invisible whose power To see, so long ago, What far ahead was fated To happen, rightly led His tongue, his lips, to name That spear bride, source of killing, Helen: destroyer

10. Chorus on the story of the lion cub. Agamemnon,p.69
A man raised as his own A lion cub, not weaned Yet, robbed of the breast, Gentle in the beginning, The children’s pet, and to The old a quiet pleasure. And often in his arms He rocked it like a baby, Its bright eyes ever turned To the hand it nuzzled To ease the belly’s hunger. But as time passed it showed The color of its bloodlines, And in return for all The kindness it received From those who fostered it, It made a bleak, forbidden Feast, cruel slaughter of all The cattle, the house foul With blood, since no one could Beat back the agony, And all about them, near And far, a chaos of strewn corpses. A priest of death And ruin [atê], ordained by god, Was nurtured in the house.

11. The family of Pelops

12. The purple carpet scene
Arrival of Agamemnon, scheme of Clytemnestra to get him to walk on purple tapestries (pp ). Why is this such a big deal?
Theme of excess leading to hubristic [prideful, insulting, blasphemous] behavior, envy of gods and men, blindness, destruction and ruin.
Purple from murex, sea mollusk, and expense and difficulty of producing this dye.

13. L. Red carpet unrolled for President. R
L. Red carpet unrolled for President. R. Agamemnon about to tread on purple wall hangings, production of Peter Hall for National Theatre, London

14. Cassandra (pp )
Daughter of Priam, given prophetic powers by Apollo in exchange for sex, but she later refuses to go through with deal. Punishment of never being listened to.
Foresees death of Agamemnon caught in net by Clytemnestra and murdered in his bath.
Also sees history of house and bloodshed surrounding Atreus’ killing of Thyestes’ children (pp )

15. Killing of Agamemnon
Clytemnestra’s claim to be a spirit of vengeance, exacting justice for killing of Iphigeneia.(p.92-99)
References throughout play to figure of the Fury or Erinys (plural is Erinyes), blood-drinking female spirits of vengeance that pursue the killer and his family and descendants.
Aegisthus and Clytemnestra’s vain hope that the cycle of vengeance is broken and Erinyes satisfied.

16. Death of Agamemnon, trapped in net-like garment. Aegisthus wields sword. Clytemnestra is behind Aegisthus. How does this differ from the version in Aeschylus’ play? Athenian red figure krater, 5th c. BCE

17. Variations on the killing of Agamemnon
Homer (Odyssey Book 11, pp. 344): Clytemnestra is merely Aegisthus’ accomplice (?)
[Hesiod: Clytemnestra is primarily responsible]
[Stesichoros: Clytemnestra is dominant, Apollo instigates her murder]

18. The shade of Agamemnon talks to Odysseus in the Underworld, Odyssey 11, pp. 344-345
Aegisthus was the cause of my death. He killed me with the help of my cursed wife After inviting me to a feast in his house, Slaughtered me like a bull at a manger. …The floor steamed with blood. But the most piteous cry I ever heard Came from Cassandra, Priam’s daughter. She had her arms around me down on the floor When Clytemnestra ran her through from behind. I lifted my hands and beat the ground As I lay dying with a sword in my chest, But that bitch, my wife, turned her back on me And would not shut my eyes or close my lips As I was going down to Death. Nothing Is more grim or more shameless than a woman Who sets her mind on such an unspeakable act As killing her own husband.

19. Orestes kills Aegisthus, then Clytemnestra
Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers (text is no longer required reading, just content below)
Orestes, son of Agamemnon, spirited away out of Argos as child to avoid being killed, returns as a young man with friend Pylades.
Electra, his sister, and servant women forced by Clytemnestra to bring offerings to her father’s tomb to propitiate him for dream she has had (p.126) of giving birth to a serpent, whom she suckles at the breast, and who bites her breast. (Hence title “Libation Bearers”.)
Orestes kills Aegisthus, then Clytemnestra
He then is pursued by the Erinyes (p ) and goes in search of purification.
Is there any way to break free of the cycle of vengeance and killing? See last speech of chorus, p. 146

20. Opposite side of vase showing killing of Agamemnon
Opposite side of vase showing killing of Agamemnon. Orestes kills Aegisthus. Clytemnestra moves up behind with ax.

22. Orestes at Delphi, surrounded by Erinyes
Orestes at Delphi, surrounded by Erinyes. On the left is Athena, on the right Apollo

23. Apollo purifies Orestes at Delphi with a piglet
Apollo purifies Orestes at Delphi with a piglet. Sleeping Furies surround them, ghost of Clytemnestra tries to rouse them

24. Aeschylus, Eumenides (text is no longer required reading, just content below)
Though Orestes is purified by the god Apollo, he is still pursued by the Erinyes, who refuse to recognize this purification.
Note connection to Athens and Athenian myth: motif of the wandering hero (e.g. Herakles, Oedipus, Io) connected to local myth
The first ever trial for homicide is set up in Athens (origin myth of Athenian institution of assembly of Areopagus, body that eventually deals with cases of homicide)
Apollo pleads Orestes’ case [note argument p.174 on question of role of mother: the father is he who mounts, the mother is just a receptacle for the seed], the Erinyes plead their side. The jury of Athenians is split; Athena lends her vote in favor of Orestes.
Erinyes threaten to inflict infertility and disease on the land. They have to be persuaded by Athena to respect the outcome; they become revered goddesses who “send up good things” from below and help with agricultural and human fertility (worshipped as the Semnai “revered ones” [cf. their grove at Colonus, connection with Oedipus myth) or as the Eumenidai (“kindly ones”))