At Hour 25 we are studying the Oresteia, starting with “Agamemnon.” Currently, I am researching the occurrence of
“erinyes” in the text. My notes are
getting out of control, so I am publishing some random thoughts here to make
room for the Erinyes. (There’s a phrase
you don’t hear often!)
At line 60-75 Aeschylus compares the
Atresides to two eagles whose fledglings are gone. Universally this is supposed to represent
their reaction to Helen’s disappearance. In response to the eagles screams,
Zeus sends a Fury to take revenge on the transgressors. Then at 73 Aeschylus says “in just that way mighty Zeus…sends those
sons of Atreus.” As though they are
Furies bent on mad revenge. This could
explain Agamemnon’s constant bouts of “ate”.
“For every god our city
worships— all-powerful gods above the earth,
and those below, and those in heaven, and those in the marketplace their
altars are ablaze with offerings. (111)
They are; “Zeus, our highest god, and to Apollo, lord of Pytho” (607)
including Hermes, whom I honour, (614) Here’s
my question; “Where’s Hera?” This is one
of her three favorite cities and she is not included in the list of gods of the
city.
At line 228 of the
Agamemnon by Aeschylus, the seer Calchas declares that it is the goddess
Artemis that keeps the Troy-bound Achaean fleet wind-bound at Aulis. It is interesting already we see the conflict
between Artemis and her step-mother Hera which culminates during the Theomachy
in Book XX of the Iliad when Artemis gets slapped around and sent on her
way. Hera, of course, wanted to see the
destruction of Troy so badly that she offered to exchange its destruction for
the unhindered destruction of Agamemnon’s city of Mycenae (Iliad 4.5o) So, once
again; “Where’s Hera?” Artemis is
screwing with Hera’s master plan to destroy Troy and she doesn’t even show up
to complain? What?
At line 326 the Chorus asks
Clytemnestra how she knows that Troy fell, “Has some vision persuaded you of this, something in a dream, perhaps?”
To which she sharply replies “Not at all.
As if I’d listen to some dozing brain.” This in sharp contrast to her husband who was
famously tested by a false dream sent by Zeus in Book II of the Iliad.
Lots of Net
imagery
- (Zeus’) all-encompassing hunting net, and no one, young or old, escaped its enslaving fatal mesh that overpowered them all. (376?)
- Around Troy we’ve cast a savage net. 966
- 1019 If my husband had had as many wounds as I heard rumours coming to this house, he’d have more holes in him than any net.
- 1380 Thus have I done the deed – deny it I will not. Round him, as if to catch a haul of fish, I cast an impassable net – fatal wealth of robe – so that he should neither escape nor ward off doom.
- 1514 “Alas, alas, my King, my King, how shall I bewail you? How to voice my phrēn that is dear [philē] to you? To lie in this spider's web, breathing”
Clytemnestra
gets called a dog a lot;
- 729 where she also admits that “he’ll find his wife as faithful as when he left, a watch dog of the home”
- 895 Where she asks Agamemnon to take over her role of “watchdog of the fold,”
- Finally Cassandra speaking of Clytemnestra says “the hateful hound, whose tongue licked his hand, who stretched forth her ears in gladness, 1230 like treacherous atē. Such boldness has she –“
Around 615, the chorus asks
“But tell me, herald, can I learn
something of Menelaus, this country’s well-loved king…” The herald replies “I can’t lie.” But then says nothing of
consequence without further encouragement from the chorus, then “Menelaus disappeared—the army lost sight of
him and his ship. That’s the truth.”
We know from studying the Odyssey that when people repeatedly affirm
that they are speaking the truth, that in fact, they are lying. The chorus asks; “ Did you see him sail off from Ilion, or
did some storm attack the entire fleet and cut him off from you?” Rather
than the lie direct, the herald replies,
“ …your last question briefly tells
the story.” The chorus asks, “ Is he alive or dead?” The herald again avoids a
direct answer, “ No one knows for certain” Chorus “ Tell me how that storm struck” Avoiding
an answer the herald says “It’s not right I talk of our misfortunes…” Then finishes with “there’s hope…” and the
always suspect “ you’ve listened to the truth. “
Was this an elaborate avoidance of the fact that the brothers argued
and parted?
Starting at 337, is the signal fire
possible? Flames racing from one beacon to the next? See http://roborant42.appspot.com/show/entry/2031
“For a woman’s sake, the beast from Argos,
born from the belly of that wooden
horse,
in the night, as the Pleiades went down,
jumped out with their shields and razed the
city
Leaping over walls, the ravenous lion
gorged itself on blood of royalty.”
Clytemnestra
speaking of rumors about Agamemnon says at 1023 “If he’d died as many times as rumour killed him, he
could claim to be a second Geryon, that triple-bodied
beast, and boast of being covered up with earth three
times, one death for every separate shape” eventually she describes his
death; three fold also, (1384) “Twice I struck
him, and with two groans 1385 his limbs relaxed. Once he had fallen, I
dealt him yet a third stroke as a prayer of gratitude [kharis] to the infernal Zeus”,
910
“Quick! With purple let his path be
strewn, that dikē may usher him
into a home.” The whole conversation is a trap to get
Agamemnon to commit hubris.
1055
“I have no time to waste with this woman
here outside; for already the victims stand by the central hearth awaiting the
sacrifice”
says Clytemnestra jokingly about Agamemnon as victim for her sacrifice to
Erinyes.
“Scamander, my
native stream! Upon your banks in bygone days, unhappy maid, was I nurtured
with fostering care; (1160) but
now by Cocytus and the banks of Acheron, I think, I soon must chant my
prophecies.” Beautiful
and sad.
1555
No! Iphigenia, his daughter, as is due,
shall meet her father lovingly at the swift-flowing ford of sorrows [akhos pl.], and shall fling her arms
around him and kiss him.
In many of the “Nostoi” plays the absence of the men who went off to war is felt. In Agamemnon there is no male population to revolt against Clytemnestra, just the men too old for war ten years before. And in the Odyssey, the old men were too old twenty years before and the boys who grew into men meanwhile seemed to have been raised without heavy-handed fathers to teach them manners.
At 511(?) Aeschylus writes “In his dreams he sees sad images with memories of earlier joy— a vain relief, for when the man thinks he sees such beauty there, all at once it’s gone, slipping through his hands, flying away along the paths of sleep.” Is this a reference to Helen? “such beauty” “slipping through his hands, flying away” and according to Stesichorus and Hilda Doolittle’s “Helen in Egypt” living a dream-like existence in Egypt among the “paths of sleep”.
Today
at the Center for Hellenic Studies open house we talked about Penelope and
weaving with Olga Levaniouk It struck
me during the conversation that Helen and Penelope controlled times at their
looms. In Book II of the Iliad, when Helen stops weaving about
the war, battle stops. When Penelope starts unraveling the shroud on her loom
each night, she is unravelling the suitors’ plans to marry her off – the plot
line in Ithaca stops moving forward. Bellephron at Hour 25
points out that “It seems to my
lay-person paradigm that if there is weaving that is shaping Fate, it would
have to be related to the Moirai.” This is brilliant and I need to think
more on it. Then I finished reading Agamemnon and heard Clytemnestra sing at
1580, “now that, to my
joy, I behold this man lying here in a robe spun by the Erinyes”!
