The story of the death of Agamemnon is told in both
the Homeric epic Odyssey and in
AeschylusÕ tragic trilogy the Oresteia. Although the basic plot remains the same, differences in presentation,
emphasis, and details show how myth is fluid and can be adapted to suit a
particular author, performance, and audience. This myth serves in the Odyssey
as an example of failed nostos caused by the breakdown of the heroÕs household,
and so it provides a foil for the successful return home of the epic hero
Odysseus to his intact household. On the other hand, in the Oresteia, the myth illustrates the overarching theme of the
nature of justice. Here the death of Agamemnon both illustrates the curse on
his household and also provides the necessary background for OrestesÕ important
role in the transformation of justice from oikos-based revenge to polis-based
trial by jury.
The Odyssey was composed in the 8th century BC and was performed for a society which was still somewhat
centered on the individual household. The Odyssey is the
story of a household under threat in the absence of its ruler. The story of
AgamemnonÕs death and the faithlessness of Clytemnestra is not the main focus
of the Odyssey, but it is still
featured quite prominently. Zeus refers to AegisthusÕ adulterous affair with
Clytemnestra, his murder of Agamemnon, and his death at the hands of Orestes in
the very beginning of the poem, where he tells it to the other gods as an
example of how humans, through their own folly, bring destruction upon
themselves. This not only illustrates one of the poemÕs themesÑfolly vs.
self-restraintÑ but it also foreshadows the punishment which the suitors will
receive in return for their similar attempts to destroy OdysseusÕ household.
Parallels are set up between the returning heroes Agamemnon and Odysseus, their
wives Clytemnestra and Penelope, and their sons, Orestes and Telemachus. Note
in particular that Aegisthus, not Clytemnestra, is named here as the murderer
of Agamemnon.
Soon after this, Athena, in disguise, meets with
Telemachus and tells him the story of
OrestesÕ murder of Aegisthus. Orestes is here offered as a heroic model
for Telemachus, who, as he comes of age, is being exhorted to take action to
preserve his household in the absence of his father. Note that here there is no
mention of OrestesÕ murder of his mother. His punishment of Aegisthus remains a
morally uncomplicated act of justice against a man who violated his household
and murdered his father.
When Odysseus visits the underworld in Book 11, he
meets the ghost of the dead Agamemnon. Agamemnon tells Odysseus the story of
his death to warn him of the threat posed by a faithless wife and hostile
usurpers. Here again, Clytemnestra's crime is infidelity. Although this
facilitates Aegisthus' plan to take AgamemnonÕs place, she is not the murderer
of Agamemnon. The crime is committed by Aegisthus in AegisthusÕ house. As a
result of this warning, Odysseus takes great care, in his arrival home, not to
fall into any such traps, but the audience also knows that his wife, Penelope,
is doing all she can to ward off her suitors and to keep herself and the
household intact for Odysseus.
In the Odyssey, then, Clytemnestra is presented as a weak and faithless wife, easily
seduced by AgamemnonÕs enemy. As such she is AegisthusÕ tool, but she is hardly
presented as an agent of her own will. Indeed, since in the Odyssey there is
never any mention of the sacrifice of Iphigeneia, Clytemnestra is not driven by
revenge and has no motive to murder her husband. Her infidelity serves as a simple foil to PenelopeÕs
faithfulness and strength of character.
What emerges at the happy ending of the poem is the successful
household, one which has avoided the folly and fate of the failed household of
Agamemnon.
In the Oresteia, written some 300 years later for an Athenian audience
proud of its newly-evolving democratic institutions, the story of Agamemnon and
Clytemnestra is much more complex. Clytemnestra is now portrayed as the
dominant partner in the adulterous affair with Aegisthus. It is she who
shrewdly plans and carries out the murder of her husband. Agamemnon is no
longer the innocent war hero of the Odyssey, but his character is laden with a complex history
resulting from an ancestral curse on his family. This has led to his sacrifice
of Iphigeneia, his daughter. This violation of the oikos for the sake of the project of the larger community
rouses ClytemnestraÕs grief and desire for revenge, which she treacherously
exacts as soon as Agamemnon returns home. His own hybris is illustrated by IphigeneiaÕs death, by the violation
of things held sacred at Troy, and by his treading on the purple cloths as he
enters the household that he violated and that will now destroy him in turn.
ClytmemnestraÕs murder of her husband then, in this version, is justified to
some extent by her rage over a lost daughter. (We might compare DemeterÕs rage
with Zeus at the loss of Persephone to Hades.)
OrestesÕ reaction to his fatherÕs death is also much
more complex in the Oresteia than
in the Odyssey. He is now obliged
to enact justice in the form of a murder of revenge committed not only against
a male outsider to his household, but also against his own mother. This imposes
on him a moral dilemma in which he is torn between the need to avenge his
fatherÕs death and his horror at killing his own mother. This dilemma is
dramatized in the divine realm as well, with Apollo supporting Orestes, while
the Furies, goddesses of revenge, persecute him mercilessly for matricide. This
moral problem, which is essentially about the nature of justice, is resolved in
the final play of the trilogy by AthenaÕs intervention and the introduction of
a new form of justice, based not in the householdÕs need for revenge, but in
the cityÕs need for stability. The first law court is established in a
celebration of an Athenian democratic institution. The polis has taken over the role of administrator of justice
from the oikos.
In summary, the differences between the
two versions of the story of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra are to be explained by
the differences in the thematic concerns of the two texts: preservation of the oikos in Odyssey; the transfer of the administration of justice from oikos to polis
in the Oresteia. These thematic
concerns can be related to the time and place of composition and
performanceÑthe epic was composed in the still quite oikos-centred Archaic period, interested in preserving the
values of the oikos, while the
tragic trilogy was performed in a city-sponsored festival in democratic Athens,
interested in celebrating polis-based
values.