To what extent were Agamemnon and Clytemnestra responsible for their own deaths.

To what extent were Agamemnon and Clytemnestra responsible for their own deaths

In order to consider to what extent Agamemnon and Clytemnestra were responsible
for their own deaths, the reasons for these deaths should be examined. Some factors,
such as previous murders, are directly responsible to either Agamemnon or
Clytemnestra. However, family feuds, social position and divine intervention are also
factors. These factors although less accountable to the individual, are no less
important. Ferguson (1979), stated that the question of responsibility in the Oresteia
was a futile pursuit. This essay will attempt to prove him wrong, and show that guilt,
responsibility and accountability are of paramount importance and interest in the
Oresteia.

Agamemnon died at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus.
Each of these two had a grudge to settle with Agamemnon. In the case of
Clytemnestra, Agamemnon had sinned against her by killing their young daughter
Iphiginia. This was done in response to the command of the Goddess Artemis who
was holding the Greek ships in port with an unfavourable wind. Agamemnon was
undertaking a quest to Troy at the order of Zeus, defender of guest friendship. It was
this tradition that had been broken by Paris when he abducted Helen. Agamemnon
can here be seen as a Pawn of the Gods, torn between his duty to Zeus and the
sacrifice demanded by Artemis (JONES 1962). In contrast Agamemnon's sacrifice of
Iphiginia can be interpreted as a man purely trying to maintain his personal honour
before his army. Choosing to sacrifice his child for a wicked woman rather than risk
the embarrassment and humiliation of discontinuing the mission to Troy,

" Can I.....leave the fleet in the lurch shirker deserter
let down the allies we`ve all sworn allegiance"

Clytemnestra was also provoked by the presence of Cassandra, Agamemnons
mistress. Although she can merely be regarded as spoils of war, she can also be
regarded as a symbol of the further severing of morality from the oikos. Agamemnon
has committed both murder and adultery in Clytemnestra's eyes. Agamemnons
aggravation of Clytemnestra, whether deliberate or accidental was a reason for his
death, and thus his death can be seen, at least in part to be his responsibility.

Agamemnon had killed a child no less Clytemnestra's than his own. His sins were
not only against marriage (through his adultery), or family (by the action of killing his
daughter), but he also has struck at the status of a woman within a marriage. He has
undermined her role as a mother. In doing this Agamemnon initiates a theme within
the play which, in the Eumenides, culminates in the obliteration of the role of
motherhood.

"The mother of what's called her offspring's no parent
but only the nurse to the seed that's implanted"

As mentioned, Aegisthus also had a grudge against Agamemnon. This grudge was
not concerned with the actions of Agamemnon himself, but with the actions of his
father Atreus. Atreus, on discovering his brother Thyestes had committed adultery
with his wife slew Thyestes' children and served them to him at a banquet. Aegisthus,
Thyestes surviving son, is extracting revenge for his father. These events are part of a
longer family curse on the house of Atreus, which this play shrouds in mystery. To a
modern reader, Aegisthus' claim of justice done,

".......happy now bloodright's
got Agamemnon caught fast in fate's trammel."
may seem a weak one, but at no time is his course presented as invalid or
dishonourable (JONES 1962) Agamemnon must pay for the crimes of his father.

Within the play, Clytemnestra can be seen to attempt to fuel the disapproval or
displeasure of the God's towards Agamemnon. Clytemnestra tempts Agamemnon to
walk on fine tapestries into his house. This ruining of the tapestries can be interpreted
as almost sacrilegious, as it bears similarities to the sacrificial destruction of objects.
Agamemnon, although reluctant, complies with the wishes of his wife, risking divine
displeasure, but also visualising his families curse- the oikos continues to wound itself.

Lesky (1983) argues that Agamamnon must die, that his death is the only valid
atonement for the killing of Iphiginia. He presents Agamemnon's death as either the
consequence of the earlier wrath of Artemis, or as the will of Zeus. Agamemnon can
be seen to be a pawn of the Gods, he is obliged to kill his daughter for Artemis in
order to obey the commands of Zeus. It is his obedience to the Gods in this action
which angers Clytemnestra, and therefore prompts his murder.

Agamemnon's difficult return journey from Troy is also an indication of divine
displeasure. His fleet were caught in a storm initiated by the 'She-Gods', it would be
logical to assume that these refer to the Trojan champions Aphrodite and Hera. We
can only speculate as to what fuelled their anger, but the conquest and ill treatment of
their Trojan favourites by Agamemnon and his army, no doubt were a factor.
Agamemnon's responsibility for his death springs from the ill will of his wife, his
cousin and certain Gods. It was his actions, or those of his ancestors which provoked
their hostility towards him.

Clytemnestra met her death at the hands of her son Orestes, who had grown up in
exile. Orestes was fulfilling the command of the God Apollo, and avenging his father's
death. Yet from Clytemnestra's perspective, she has merely punished her husband for
the sacrifice of Iphiginia. In some respects it is easy to understand her action.
Agamemnon is puffed up with pride, and behaves arrogantly about his victory over
Troy,

"Troy! you can almost see the rubble smoking from Argos!"

however, this victory was achieved at the price of his daughters life. Clytemnestra is
constantly, if indirectly reminded of her daughters sacrifice, a reminder which fuels
her bitterness and anger.

As with Agamemnon, Clytemnestra can be seen to be at the mercy of the Gods. One
child taken from her in sacrifice to Artemis, and Orestes, motivated by divine
command to take her life. Clytemnestra has indeed shunned religion in her refusal to
offer Agamemnon's ghost mourning rites. His spirit is not yet at rest. In addition when
she does send mourners to appease his spirit, they are Trojan women, Agamemnon's
sworn enemies.

The carpet scene has already been interpreted as Clytemnestra's attempt to bring the
families daimon to bear on Agamemnon. She is encouraging the moral downward
spiral of the oikos, which culminates in her own death at the hands of her son.
Clytemnestra tries to ward the daimon away from herself and the house of Atreus. She
considers all injustice now atoned for,

"No my dear, no more blood-letting,
There's been enough. Enough."

and agrees she will be content with a small proportion of the families wealth (JONES
1962). This however, can be interpreted as an attempt to buy divine favour, perhaps
turning them, and the families daimon against herself.

Clytemnestra was wrong, all injustice has not been atoned for. In killing
Agamemnon, her role shifted from that of 'Victor and punisher to victim and
transgressor' (GOLDHILL 1992). She and Aegisthus are a polluted pair, the bad flesh
of the oikos which must be cut away (JONES). There was no hope of forgiveness or
reconciliation for them. Their deaths were necessary if the house of Atreus was to be
freed from it's curse and allowed to continue and prosper. Clytemnestra did not act
alone in the murder of Agamemnon. Her guilt and therefore her responsibility are
shared with Aegisthus. He not only admits his involvement, but presents the murder as
his idea, lifting some of the responsibility from Clytemnestra,

"I wove the net we got him ensnared in
Third son of Thyestes, I plotted for bloodright".

The Oresteia is a play centred around male/female roles and relationships. The
responsibility of Clytemnestra for her actions and her death, must be examined in
relation to her position as a woman. Clytemnestra perhaps hated Agamemnon, not
only because of his sacrifice of Iphiginia, of even because of her love for Aegisthus,
but because of his position as a man. A position she, to some degree has enjoyed in
his absence,

"It is right that we honour the wife of the clanchief
when the manlord himself's not here on the thronestone."

Winnington-Ingrams view is that Clytemnestra is avenging herself on Agamemnon's
male supremacy. Indeed, her jealousy of him and anger towards him do eventually
lead to her downfall.

An example of Clytemnestra's jealousy towards Agamemnon can be found in the
carpet scene, if it is interpreted as Clytemnestra's attempt to demonstrate herself as
stronger than her husband. Perhaps if Agamemnon had not conceded to her wishes,
Clytemnestra would not have felt superior enough to initiate his murder.
Clytemnestra's bitterness at her loss of position would have been compounded by the
fact that either Chryses or Cassandra had shared Agamemnon's life on the battlefield
and on the voyage home. Both locations traditionally being male preserves.

In taking a lover, Clytemnestra defied what was accepted as the natural order. A
woman's place was concerned with the home and the domestic duties of the
household. Women who operated, for whatever reason, outside of the home were a
matter of concern for their men folk.

'The threat of the misuse of the female body is a
threat to the social position of the

male' (GOLDHILL 1992),

for example the question of a male child's citizenship and
the questions about the validity of an heir, could be raised if a woman were suspected
of adultery. Clytemnestra's adultery could not have been accepted even if it were not
combined with the murder of her husband, because 'Patriarchy requires the sexual
control of women' (GOLDHILL 1992).

It was their respective guilt in other actions which would allocate responsibility to
Agamemnon and Clytemnestra for their own deaths. Clytemnestra argues that
Agamemnon had killed her child and brought home his mistress, yet she herself
allowed her son to grow up in exile, and took a lover. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra
risked angering the Gods, for example Clytemnestra inviting Agamemnon to walk on
fine tapestries, and Agamemnon by complying. Both can be viewed as victims of fate,
under the curse of the families daimon. Each is a victim of divine command and
manipulation, neither had any easy, or obviously correct course of action open to
them. Clytemnestra as a woman broke with her traditional role, and in doing so made
her punishment inevitable. Agamemnon too had to die in atonement for his sacrifice
of Iphiginia. Although victims of fate, both characters were guilty of various crimes
against each other, and against the Gods and as such were largely responsible for their
own fates.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

JONES J. ON ARISTOTLE AND GREEK TRAGEDY
CHATTO AND WINDUS 1962

KITTO HDF. GREEK TRAGEDY
ROUTLEDGE 3RD ED 1961

SEGAL E. (ED) OXFORD READINGS IN GREK TRAGEDY
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1983

(DECISION AND RESPONSABILITY IN THE TRAGEDY
OF AESCHYLUS-ALBIN LESKY)

(CLYTEMNESTRA AND THE VOTE OF ATHENA-
WINNINGTON-INGRAM)

PLAY-TEXT USED: THE ORESTEIA- TONY HARRISON (TRANS)

IN: CLASSICAL TRAGEDY GREEK AND ROMAN
APPLAUSE 1990