1. In this difficult day, in this difficult time
for the United States, it is perhaps well to
ask what kind of a nation we are and what
direction we want to move in…
…My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He
wrote: “Even in our sleep, pain which
cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the
heart until, in our own despair, against our
will, comes wisdom through the awful
grace of God.“…
…Let us dedicate ourselves to what the
Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame
the savageness of man and make gentle
the life of this world…
Go back to first day of class: what were the circumstances around RFK’s speech?
What was the point of his speech? US is at a crossroads: Revenge and polarization?
Theater was closely related to religious festivals – for Athens the theater was associated with a sacred spot devoted to the god Dionysus.
Was a competition: An urn from each of the 10 tribes contained the names of citizens eligible to serve as judges; to prevent bribery, one name was drawn from each urn at the start of the festival
35 minutes (with worksheet)
Performed 458 BCE and won first prize
CURSE OF HOUSE OF ATREUS:
- Atreus, the king of Mycenae, had a brother Thyestes who bitterly resented Atreus’ kingship. Thyestes seduced his brother's wife, and in revenge, Atreus invited Thyestes to a “reconcliation dinner,” during which Atreus served a stew whose main ingredient was the flesh of Thyestes’ own sons. After Thyestes found out what Atreus had done, he pronounced a terrible curse on the house of Atreus—that generation after generation of family members would destroy each other.
- Thyestes’ only surviving son, Aegisthus, grew up nursing a bitter hatred for his cousins. Atreus’ eldest son, Agamemon, succeeded to the throne of Mycenae/Argos, while his brother Menelaus married Helen and assumed kingship of Sparta. Agamemnon married Helen's half-siste rClytemnestra and produced three children, Iphigeneia, Electra, and Orestes:
As the Greek fleet assembled at the port of Aulis to sail for Troy, Agamemnon angered the goddess Artemis in some way, possibly by killing one of her sacred deer. Adverse winds made it impossible for the fleet to sail, and through the priest Calchas, Artemis ordered Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter Iphigeneia in order to obtain favorable winds. Though reluctant, Agamemnon performed the sacrifice, and the Greeks sailed to Troy.
Cassandra was one of the daughters of Priam, King of Troy. The god Apollo, desiring her, gave her the gift of prophecy, but when she refused to have sex with him, he added a curse—although she would always foretell the truth, no one would ever believe her predictions. Upon the fall of Troy, Cassandra, like all the other Trojan women, was enslaved; Agamemnon claimed her as his concubine and brought her back to Mycenae/Argos to live with him in the palace. Cassandra being savagely torn away from the statue of Athena, where she had taken refuge when the Greeks invaded her city. This wooden statue of Athena, called the Palladium, was especially sacred to the Trojans, because its presence was supposed to keep the city safe.
Agamemnon begins with a watchman awaiting a signal fire that will announce the end of the Trojan War and the imminent return of the victorious general, Agamemnon. But as the watchman complains about the long hours and the dew and the cold, he also hints that something is rotten in the city of Argos.
When Agamemnon finally arrives home, brimming with pride and pomp he brings in booty and Cassandra.
He is lavishly welcomed by his apparently loving wife Clytemnestra, who has spread costly tapestries on the ground in his honor. At first, Agamemnon resists walking on the blood-red carpets, calling it an extravagant honor more appropriate to a god than a man, but eventually this self-important warrior yields to his wife’s shrewd blandishments.
Once inside the house, though, the unsuspecting Agamemnon—naked and unarmed as he prepares to enter, or possibly leave, a purifying bath—is suddenly entrapped in a kind of netlike cloth. The duplicitous and adulterous Clytemnestra then brutally, exultantly hacks him to death. The murder is immediately followed by that of Cassandra, who had foreseen it all—though, as usual, nobody believed her frenzied, prophetic wailings. These two deaths accomplished, Clytemnestra reappears onstage with her lover, Agamemnon’s cousin Aegisthus, who has been essentially skulking in the wings. They will be the new rulers of Argos.
Killed Agamemnon for what he did to Iphigeneia, and for her love of Aegisthus
Clytemnestra & Aegisthus murder Agamemnon
Some years now pass before The Libation Bearers opens. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, has grown up in exile and been commanded by Apollo to avenge his father’s murder. He is warned that if he fails to carry out this act of justice, even though it does require matricide, he will be sucked dry of his blood by the Erinyes (the Furies). As the play begins, Orestes and his friend Pylades are offering up prayers at Agamemnon’s grave when they are interrupted by a procession of mourners, among them Orestes’ sister Electra. The two conspire to kill their mother.
Orestes is torn about whether to take vengeance on his mother, but he is encouraged by the idea that he should not anger the Gods…although there are other gods who will also not be pleased by this.
Duty to father…and duty to mother! Question of moral obligations.
The FURIES appear at the end of the play to torment Orestes for committing matricide.
Orestes to Athens, where the justice of his actions—and whether he should be punished for them—will be determined in a trial by jury. He will be defended by Apollo and prosecuted by the Erinyes, while Athena presides over the proceedings.
