Aeschylus' The Oresteia: Agamemnon | Video 11 | Great Books of the Western Canon series

Comments · 12

• OL

  @OldEnglandCathedral · 3 years ago

  Homer’s Iliad story was know to the writers coming after his time. Interesting

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• MA

  @MagicJesus · 9 months ago

  The humans and animals often get mixed up in roles, making a stark suggestion that things are not as they should be, at Grandma's house for  "scarlet maiden" =Red Riding Hood and at the Bear family house ="golden girl" Goldilocks. The woman clothed in the sun.

• RE

  @reginasemenenko148 · 3 years ago

  Agamemnon murdered his own daughter and he was murdered as well.  What comes around goes around.  Iphagenia was a young innocent girl who never should have been sacriced.  Helen wasn't worth the trouble.

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• DV

  @dvmahon99 · 8 months ago

  I find the argument of was it necessary a bit weak. We have to remember that Zeus had charged Agamemnon with the destruction of Troy due to Paris absconding with Helen. Yes Agamemnon could have rejected Artemis's demand to sacrifice Iphigeneia, but that would have resulted in him failing to fulfill Zeus's demand. It's my opinion that what Zeus would have done if that had happened would have made Artemis's demand look like nothing in comparison.

• RE

  @reginasemenenko148 · 3 years ago

  Agamemnon murdered his own daughter and he was murdered as well.  What comes around goes around.  Iphagenia was a young innocent girl who never should have been sacriced.  Helen wasn't worth the trouble.  It would have been great if Agamemnon could have told Menaleus that the personal cost for him was too high.

• AN

  @ancientalemanni · 3 years ago

  Weak logic. The “was it necessary?” argument. Agamemnon didn’t choose his daughter over other choices. Artemis, the offended goddess, told the prophet Calchas that Iphigenia was the sacrifice required. Replacing a sheep or bull would anger the goddess and ensure disaster for the army and entire war. If one can’t accept the premises of the play and the people who wrote it, that gods exist and must be honored and obeyed, then perhaps one shouldn’t be involved in a discussion of it. Lol - “couldn’t he have just replaced her with a sheep?” Logic fail. Does killing a sheep change the winds? If sacrifice is rendering sacred a gift to god, then how is ignoring that god’s demand going to work? The belief is sacrificing what god wants will grant the god’s favor to you, thus the god will give you favorable winds. Artemis demanded his daughter. Could he have ignored that? Yes, and no Trojan war.  He chose to put on the yoke of his fate. Personally I argue he deserved to die by his wife’s hand because of this. But Clytemnestra also knew the rules of gods vs men. In her speech imagining the victory night in Troy, she prays the victors don’t go too far to offend the gods there or bring on the curse of the vanquished. Why? Because she knows the gods punish those who offend them or disobey. Abraham also knew; he brought Isaac to the altar just the same.

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