In contemporary culture is the idea of the
family tends to be one of those things that everyone just embraces.
A family has that kind of core of support, and great values, and nurturing, and all
these things that produce the next generation with good values and all the
other things that go attached to families in contemporary culture discourses.
In the Greek material, sometimes those kind of things show up around the idea of
family. But, more often, what shows up, and especially shows up in tragedy, is
something completely different. The family structure is something where
people are just, kind of on top of one another. It's a highly claustrophobic
space in the plays that we're going to be looking at.
There's just too much connectedness. They're, they can't quite find space in
the world to settle themselves and all these,
All this family stuff is stuck on top of them.
It's typically not thought of as a supportive, generative, helpful
environment. It's thought of as an entangling and a
nasty one. Quite a contrast, interestingly, with the
possibility of families that we saw built into Hesiods's Theogony.
Where genealogical structures were seen as possibly ordering the whole universe.
So, a large family tree was a way to bring order out of chaos.
And then, a very different thing also, yet another different thing in Homer, where we
saw the connection between Penelope and Odysseus as being incredible powerful,
supportive, and nurturing. When we get to Greek tragedy, though,
we're going to see a very different approach to the whole concept of family.
Something quite different is happening. Now, getting to this story of Agamemnon,
which is going to be the first play that we read, looking at Aeschylus's wonderful
trilogy, the Oresteia. We're going to read the story of the
Agamemnon. This is the first installment of a group
of three plays that went together in this trilogy form.
All of ancient tragedy was, in fact, originally performed this way.
We only have one trilogy to survive from antiquity in tact where all three players
come together. And this is the Oresteia that we'll be reading all that we'll be
reading for our course. The Agamemnon starts off in a story that
tells about the house of Atreus. Atreus's house located here, eventually,
at Mycenae and I'm going to tell the story of, of the broader story that leads up to
this particular point. We know that Agamemnon is from Mycenae,
We hear that in Homer's narratives. We have this strong connection of this
hero with this grand, great citadel back then.
We've made mention of it up till' now. The family, though, that inhabits this
great citadel, is not quite architecturally sound, the way that their
monuments are and the way that their walls are.
You'll notice, as you're reading Aeschylus's play that he refers to it as
Argos. There is another city called Argos.
Argos can also refer, in a broader geographical sense, to the whole region in
which both the city of Argos and Mycenae are located.
It's likely that what Aeschylus is doing with the term Argos is referring to the
whole region. So, not changing a tradition so much is
giving a slightly different term to a long standing tradition.
Now, hearing the story of the House of Atreus, we have to hear the background
story. We know that there's Agamemnon, we know
that there are troubles that Agamemnon faces.
We learn this in, in Homer's Odyssey. But, we don't quite yet know the full dimension
of what these troubles are. The Oresteia are going to, is going to
help us zero in on what this is all about. We're going to, especially, look at that
scene that Agamemnon kept telling us about in the Odyssey, my wife kills me.
Spoiler alert, that's coming up. We're also going to see that there's a
very rich and complex tradition that lies behind that and I wanted to take some time
at the beginning here of our treatment of the,
Of Aeschylus's Agamemnon to talk about the oldest parts of this very complex story.
It all starts with a figure called Tantalus.
You'll recall from the Odyssey, remember Tantalus in the underworld is being
punished for all eternity for some horrible crime.
We talked about it as a food crime. One of the versions of this awful crime of
Tantalus comes out and is connected with the House of Atreus.
Tantalus thought it was one day a good idea to take his own son, Pelops, carve
him up and turn him into a stew. So, he made a stew out of his own son.
The next brilliant idea was that he should invite the gods to have a special dinner
with him, ladling out the stew of his own son into the bowls that the gods were
going to eat. The gods, right away catch wind of what's
happening and they're just disgusted. So, they take Tantalus and hurl him into the
underworld to be severely punished forever and ever and ever.
And they peel back out, take back out the little pieces of Pelops.
Get them all sewn back together so this kid can go on with his life.
It just so happens that one piece of the shoulder was swallowed by one the gods by
accident, so they replaced that with an ivory shoulder.
As if to say, you know, sorry Pelops. Pelops then,
Goes on with his life. He takes off for an area of the world goes
to this land called Pisa. And, at that point, he finds this a young princess that
catches his eye, Hippodamia. He wants to try to find a way to get this
princess, but it turns out that the father of the princess will only give her away in
marriage to someone who can beat him in a chariot race.
So, Pelops saddles up to this man, Myrtilus, who is a supporter, is one of
helpers of the king, the king named Oenomaus.
And tricks Myrtilus, says to Myrtilus, if you can only help me and replace the
cutter pins of the axle that are holding the wheels of the king's chariot on with
wax, Then I'll be very good to you and you can
have great gifts from me. Well, Myrtilus goes ahead and does this.
And, when Oenomaus and Pelops have their chariot race to determine if Pelops can
get can take his daughter Hippodamia in the marriage,
Of course, the wax melts and the cutter pins fall out and the wheels fall off
while Oenomaus goes head over heels and loses the race.
At that point, Pelops now gets to win Hippodamia.
He betrays Myrtilus. He doesn't give him any of the things he promised, takes the
kingdom and renames it Peloponnesea. And this is, indeed, where the name,
Peloponnesian comes from. It's the mythic background gives us a
story connected to where the name comes. So now that he's won, he's got his
kingdom, he's got his girl, he has some children, Thyestes and Atrius. Nearby,
there's a kingdom, Mycennae. And, at that point, the king, there's a king there that
dies. And, there's an oracle that a son of
Pelops is going to take over the kingdom. They then figure that, well, a son of
Pelops we should go with the oldest son so this should really belong to Atreus who's
older than Thyestes. But, Thyestes proposes and says, you know,
we're always talking about how the oldest son is supposed to be getting the, the
background here. But, why don't we just have a different kind of context that,
contest that at least gives me a chance? And, Thyestes then proposes that, whoever
can produce the nicest sheep should be the one that takes the kingdom.
Well, Atreus thinks this contest is just fine because he himself has taken a sheep
and he knows it's beautiful. It's a golden sheep.
It's something that he knows he's got, he's got a kind of ace in the hole.
He's definitely going to win this contest. This is one that he promised to give to
Artemis but kept for himself. So he says, sure Thyestes.
Let's see who can produce, produce the nicest sheep.
Next morning comes round and guess what? Thyestes has this golden sheep,
Atreus can't find his. At which point, Atreus smells foul.
Something's happened. Thyestes, where did you get this thing?
Thyestes kind of fudges, fudges the question.
Well, Thyestes had taken up with Atreus's own wife, Aerope, and Aerope helping him,
helped him sneak away the sheep from Atreus so Thyestes could produce it.
So now, Thyestes has won the contest. He should be the one that takes over as king
of Mycenae. But,
The Atreus enters in and says, wait a minute. I smell, something has gone wrong
here let me propose another contest. If the sun should rise in the west
tomorrow, then I should be the rightful king of Mycenae. Thyestes thinks this is
ridiculous. This could never happen.
So, he goes out and agrees to that. Well, Zeus, it just took, so happens
overhears what's going on. Thinks Atreus should get the kingdom,
So Zeus does, indeed, make the sun come up in the West.
When it does, it's obvious that Atreus should have this kingdom.
He goes and takes it. Thyestes then slinks away.
Not the end of the story. Atreus finds out that Thyestes and his
wife Aerope have been having this affair. So he's not only upset that Thyestes had
stole his golden sheep through Aerope as, as, as an intermediary,
But he's also livid with his own brother for having an affair with his own wife.
So, he invites Thyestes to dinner. Now, if someone in this family invites you
to dinner, you should be careful. And, indeed, that's what's happening here
when Atreus invites Thyestes to dinner. He carves up Thyestes's own sons, turns
them into a stew and Thyestes, unlike the gods, goes ahead and eats.
Thyestes then devours his own son by accident in a cannibalistic stew that his
own brother made for him, feeding his children to him.
Oh, poor Thyestes. Thyestes, at that point, runs away
screaming mad to Delphi. He tries to figure out a way, how can I
get revenge against my brother? Delphi, at that point, tells him, the only
way you'll be able to revenge against your daughter, or against your brother is if
you have a child by your own daughter. At which point Thy, Thyestes thinks, oh,
my God, Delphi. This is an awful kind of omen to give me.
What a terrible thing to say. He goes and, and makes a, goes away.
He sets up a camp site, gets very drunk around a camp fire.
Well, it just so happens that a young girls stumble past,
Young enough to be Thyestes's own daughter.
He's so drunk, he doesn't realize what's happening.
He had sex with the girl not realizing who it is.
It's Pelopia, his own daughter. So, he has sex with his own daughter.
He, then stumbles away the next day, leaving behind in his drunken stumbling
his hangover the next day, leaving behind his own familial sword.
At that point, the poor young girl, Pelopia, who's now been made pregnant in
this in, in being forced having been forced upon by her own father, finds the
sword there, takes that with her, is wandering around.
At that point, Atreus sees this beautiful young woman wandering around.
Just so happens that nine months later, she gives births to a little child.
At that point, Atreus thinks, Well, this must have been my child.
The child is Aegisthus. Yes, indeed, poor Aegisthus is the product
of incest, rivalry, family betrayal, all the worst possible, cannibalism, all of
this leads up to this figure Aegisthus. He's one that we get to know very well in
the story. Poor Aegisthus.
I mean, talk about a messed up family background.
Some of us can bemoan our own but nothing like Aegisthus's.
Now, as time goes by Atreus keeps looking for Thyestes.
He wants to make sure that this revenge against his brother is complete and
realizes that Thyestes must be pretty upset with him at this point.
He then sends Agamemnon, his own son, and Menelaus, his other son, see here.
Atreus has given birth in the meantime to Agamemnon and Menelaus.
They've grown up, along with Aegisthus, as if they're all in the same family.
He sends Menelaus and Agamemnon off to Delphi to figure out what they're supposed
to do to find Thyestes. As they get there, they actually see him.
Thyestes is hanging around Delphi trying to figure out what to do.
Agamemnon and Menelaus drag him back home. At that point, we have Atreus who takes
his other son, Aegisthus, and says, Thyestes, we will now kill you.
My own brother Thyestes, we will now kill you.
Aegisthus, here take the family sword and go off and kill this awful miscreant,
Thyestes. At that point, Aegisthus drags Thyestes
away. He takes the sword and is about to kill
him. At that point, Thyestes recognizes the
sword. Oh, my gosh.
Where did you get that? That's my own sword.
And Aegisthus says, no. It's mine.
At that point, they call away for Aegisthus's mother to figure out what's
the deal with the sword. At that point, poor Pelopia comes back.
She hears the full story. You, Thyestes, you're my father and you're
my own son's the whole family awfulness comes back.
The father and husband, Thyestes, of Pelopea is facing her.
She's obviously a little upset, she takes her own life with the sword.
Aegisthus and Thyestes are trying to figure out what's happening.
They've got a bloody sword now right next to them, they realize what's happened and
they reunite as father and son. And, Aegisthus goes back to and says to
Agamem, says to Atreus, yes. I've killed Thyestes and here's blood on
the sword to prove it. At that point, Atreus thinks all is done
and all is well and is getting ready to wash out the stain in the family. Clean up
and purify from all this nasty, nastiness that goes on. and, the reunited Aegisthus
and Thyestes return. And, during the rejoicing of, of purification that Atreus
is doing, they come in and kill Atreus. Now, with Atreus gone away, Thyestes can
take over the throne. Aegisthus sits at his right hand.
Menalaus and, and Agamemnon are off in their own they get banished, and they're
off on their own. Well, at that point in their banishment
link up with Helen and Clytemnestra. And then come back later to take over the
kingdom from Thyestes and Aegisthus. When Menelaus and Agamemnon take it over,
then Agamemnon, now, becomes the true king of the House of Atreus. He owns the palace
at Mycenae Argos, and becomes the, the obvious, and now rightful, and clear, and
concise ruler of this whole wonderful kingdom.
Well, just so happens that there is this Aegisthus figure out there and he's
orbiting around in the background in Agamemnon's tale, waiting to find a moment
where he can come to roost. The awfulness of this family of in the
House of Atreus leads to all kinds of terrible things.
These failed con, failed relationships have horrific consequences not least all
the things we're learning about in the Oresteia and the horrible things that
happened to them. The Trojan War itself emerges out of the
nasty dynamics of this family Helen and Menelaus and Agemennon, and his
relationship with his brother. At this home in Argos, Mycenae the next
story in this heartwarming tale of this family, it's going to lead us right into
the core of the story of Aeschylus's Oresteia beginning with the Agamemnon.