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Author: Aeschylus (525/524 - 456 BCE)
Date of Publication: 458 BCE (part of the Oresteia trilogy)
Place of Publication: Athens
Language: Greek
Genre: Drama Tragedy
Quick Summary
Quick Summary
Agamemnon takes place directly after the fall of Troy and focuses on Clytemnestra, the wife of Greek general Agamemnon (brother of Menelaus) and sister of Helen (the wife of Menelaus). Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus (Agamemnon's cousin) murder Agamemnon and his concubine, Trojan princess Cassandra, upon his return.
Chorus: Old men of Argos
The Oresteia: This play is the first play of the only surviving dramatic trilogy from ancient Greece, known as the Oresteia. The other plays in the trilogy include the Libation Bearers and the Eumenides and depict the cycles of violence in Agamemnon's family. In the Libation Bearers, Agamemnon's children Orestes and Electra revenge their father by killing their mother Clytemnestra. In the Eumenides, Orestes is hounded by the furies for his part in killing his mother.
Historical Context
Historical Context
During the Greco-Persian wars (499-449 BCE), Athens emerged as a super power in the Greek world as a leader of the Delian League. It essentially became a central bank for Greece, and culture, including the arts, flourished in the 5th BCE because of this wealth
Sparta did not like that Athens had grown so influential and the two cities fought a series of wars called the Peloponnesian Wars. Agamemnon was written and produced during the First Peloponnesian War.
Background Myths
Background Myths
Trojan War. The Trojan War began after Trojan prince Paris (also known as Alexander) ran off with Helen, the queen of Sparta and wife of Menelaus. Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon (the king of Mycenae) raised an army of Greeks (also called Achaeans) and laid siege to Troy for 10 years. Before they left for Troy Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigenia, his daughter with Clytemnestra, to the gods. This sacrifice was the reason for Clytemnestra's revenge.
House of Atreus. Menelaus and Agamemnon were the sons of Atreus, the king of Mycenae. Their family had a long history of murder, beginning with Tantalus, the son of Zeus and the nymph Plouto.
Generation 1. To test whether the gods were omniscient, Tantalus killed his son Pelops and fed him to the gods. Most of the gods realized they were being fed human and refused it.
Generation 2. Pelops accidentally killed his future father-in-law, King Oenomaus, my sabotaging his chariot before a race. To hide the sabotage, Pelops killed a servant named Myrtilus, who cursed his house.
Generation 3. Pelops and Hippodamia had several sons, including Atreus, Thyestes and Chrysippus. Atreus and Thyestes were banished to Mycenae for killing Chrysippus.
Because he thought Thyestes was having an affair with his wife, Aerope, Atreus murdered Thyestes's children (except for Aegisthus) and fed them to Thyestes.
Generation 4. Atreus and Aerope had several children, including Agamemnon and Menelaus. The brothers married sisters Clytemnestra and Helen. Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia for the sake of the Trojan War, which led Clytemnestra and Aegisthus to kill him upon his return.
Generation 5. Orestes and Electra, the children of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, killed their mother to revenge the murder of their father.
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