Term 3 - Lecture 1 - Oresteia (Agamemnon)

Question 1

What is the relationship between tragedy and democracy?

Answer 1

Oresteia was written by Athenians, for Athenians.

As democracy emerged in the late 6th century, tragedy also emerged.

Question 2

What were the settings of tragedies?

Answer 2

Archaic settings. The time of the Trojan war and Heracles, but the stories were tailored to fit better with the current political situation

Question 3

What tension does tragedy often highlight?

Answer 3

The tension between loyalty to the polis or to oikos

Question 4

What is polis?

Answer 4

The larger community

Question 5

What is oikos?

Answer 5

The family and household

Question 6

What two texts highlight Agamemnon’s homecoming?

Answer 6

The Odyssey and the Oresteia

Question 7

Where would the Oresteia typically have been presented?

Answer 7

At the City Dionysia, all three plays in the trilogy would be played in the same day.

Question 8

How many plays are part of the Oresteia?

Answer 8

Three - it is a tragic trilogy.

Question 9

What contributes to the feeling of tragedy and doom in a tragic story?

Answer 9

The fact that the audience already knows the basic plot of the play. The interest lies in how the playwright chose to interpret the story.

Question 10

What is the family tree of the house of Argos?

Answer 10

Tantalus has Pelops.

Pelops has 2 children, Thyestes and Atreus. Thyestes and Atreus fight for the throne.

Thyestes has 2 sons who are killed, and another son Aegisthus.

Atreus and Aerope have 2 children; Agamemnon and Menelaus

Question 11

Who was Tantalus?

Answer 11

A SON OF ZEUS.

He was invited to dine with the gods. He stole their divine food (nectar and ambrosia), and fed his son Pelops to the gods.

He is punished in the underworld by being “tantalized” by food and water, just out of his reach.

Question 12

What did Pelops do that got his family cursed?

Answer 12

He wanted to marry Hippodameia. He deceived and killed her father King Oinomaos in a chariot race.

As King Oinomaos died, he uttered a curse.

Question 13

Who does Agamemnon take as a wife? Who does Menelaus take as a wife?

Answer 13

Clytemnestra and Helen of Sparta

Question 14

Which god takes a bite of Pelop’s shoulder?

Answer 14

Demeter - it is replaced with ivory

Question 15

Who uttered the curse that cursed the family of Tantalus at Argos?

Answer 15

King Oinamaos, the father of Hippodameia

Question 16

Who inherits the throne, Atreus or Thyestes?

Answer 16

Atreus

Question 17

What does Thyestes do in anger of Atreus winning the throne from him?

Answer 17

He sleeps with Atreus’ wife Aerope.

Question 18

How does Atreus react to finding out that Thyestes slept with his wife Aerope?

Answer 18

He is so angry, he pretends to reconcile with Thyestes by inviting him over. He boiled both of his sons in a stew and Thyestes ate it without knowing what he was eating.

Question 19

Children of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra

Answer 19

Iphigeneia, Electra, Orestes

Question 20

What are the 3 parts of the Oresteia?

Answer 20

1. Agamemnon
2. Libation Bearers
3. Eumenides

Question 21

Who wrote the Oresteia?

Answer 21

Aeschylus

Question 22

In the Oresteia, does Iphigeneia die?

Answer 22

No, she has already been killed. The play just depicts the consequences of Agememnon sacrificing her.

Question 23

Who make up the chorus in the Agamemnon?

Answer 23

The men who were too old to fight at Troy

Question 24

How does Agamemnon in the Oresteia begin?

Answer 24

A watchman is on the roof of the palace of Argos, told to signal Clytemnestra when the fall of Troy can be seen. He goes and tells Clytemestra.

Question 25

Where did the Greeks meet for the battle of Troy?

Answer 25

At Aulis

Question 26

Clytemnestra saw two eagles in the sky. Where did she go to interpret this symbol?

Answer 26

She was to Calchas, the priest of Apollo, who interprets it as Menelaus and Agamemnon taking the city of Troy.

Question 27

When Clytemnestra is told by Calchus that the Greeks are taking Troy, what does Artemis do?

Answer 27

She becomes offended, because she is the protector of wild animals (eagles). She makes Aeoleus the wind god prevent the Greeks from arriving at Aulis.

Question 28

Who does Agamemnon need to appease before he can sail to Troy? How does he do this?

Answer 28

He has to appease Artemis by sacrificing his daughter Iphigeneia

Question 29

When Artemis presents Agamemnon with the choice to sail from Aulis to Troy, does he choose oikos or polis?

Answer 29

Oikos

Question 30

In Euripides version of Agamemnon's sacrifice of Iphigeneia, what is different?

Answer 30

Agamemnon plays a trick on Clytemnestra. He says to send Iphigeneia on the ships so she can be married to Achilles. She gets her all dressed up and everything, and Iphigeneia is sacrificed. She is a bride of death.

Question 31

Does the chorus treat Clytemnestra like a girl or a boy?

Answer 31

Like a boy, they mock her for acting like a girl

Question 32

Who was the messenger that brought Clytemnestra the news so quickly?

Answer 32

The god of Fire

Question 33

What does Agamemnon bring home with him?

Answer 33

He brings Cassandra, and other spoils of war.

Question 34

Where does Clytemnestra say their son Orestes is?

Answer 34

She says that she sent him away to live with an old friend

Question 35

How does Clytemnestra make use of textiles?

Answer 35

She ays out the best, royal purple textile beneath Agamemnon when he enters to lead him into a "home unhoped for". Agamemnon thinks he should be honoured not as a god but as a mortal. Clytemnestra insists. Agamemnon demands proper care of Cassandra.

Question 36

What story does Cassandra tell in the house of Agamemnon?

Answer 36

She tells the chorus her prediction. Apollo gave her the gift of prophecy but no one believes her. She predicts that the House of Atreus will drop with blood. She prophesies that a woman-lioness who goes to bed with a wolf will inflict the harm.

Question 37

How does Clytemnestra finally kill Agamemnon and Cassandra? Who does she claim to be acting in accordance with?

Answer 37

She wraps them in the purple textiles. She claims to be acting in accordance with Zeus' justice

Question 38

Who does Clytemnestra take as a husband when Agamemnon is away at war?

Answer 38

Aegisthus. He is the son of Thyestes. His motivation is to get back at Agamemnon for his father's actions - killing his brothers. Aegisthus is overjoyed when Clytemnestra kills Agamemnon

Question 39

After Agamemnon has been killed by Clytemnestra, what does the chorus warn Aegisthus?

Answer 39

That if Orestes comes home, he will execute both him and Clytemnestra. These words are dismissed as empty threats.

Question 40

How does the Oresteia end?

Answer 40

With Clytemnestra saying to pay no heed to idle clamor, and that her and Aegisthus will direct the house well.

Question 41

What are the three main themes of Agamemnon?

Answer 41

1. Oikos vs. polis (Agamemnon) 2. Gender conflict (Clytemnestra) 3. Private vs. public