by Aeschylus
Destructive images and themes in A will often find a positive expression in Cassandra, as if she had a redemptive power over them and could foresee their eventual regeneration; see 1346ff., where she invokes the sun as the source of future retribution.
30 Lift a cry of triumph: see 580, 1121, 1246; LB n. 383, E n. 1053.
35 Triple-sixes: in the game of petteia or ‘falls’, an ancient version of backgammon, a throw of triple-sixes allowed the player to occupy the board and win.
45 Great avenger: Aeschylus describes Menelaus and Agamemnon as Priam’s ‘adversary in a suit’, using the singular to unify the brothers. He breaks with tradition by removing Menelaus from Sparta to Argos, where he and Agamemnon share a common residence and so a common legal claim against the Trojans. The legal metaphor controls the Oresteia. It informs the punishment of Troy, the execution of Agamemnon, the indictment of Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus by the chorus, and their subsequent execution by Orestes in LB. The metaphor will materialize when Orestes is acquitted in E and Athena establishes the Areopagus in Athens.
49 Atreus’ sturdy yoke of sons: the metaphor is drawn from animal husbandry and joins the Atreidae in mutual power, conjugal hardship, and the destiny they must shoulder. Images from husbandry have a brutalizing effect in A (653ff., 1671ff.); the yoke is associated with the yoke of necessity (217) and slavery (951), with the hunt and the net (129 and n.), and every form of taming and suppression in the play (133f., 1066f.). Like its fellows, the yoke has a recoiling force; it will oppress Agamemnon’s daughter Iphigeneia (235f.), his enemies (331) and himself (1524). Cassandra ultimately rejects her yoke; see 1280ff; LB n. 74, E n. 116.
61 Someone hears on high: Apollo presumably as god of prophecy, Pan as god of the natural world, Zeus as god of the sky and universal justice.
63 These guests: Metics, resident aliens; the term will apply to Orestes and the Furies; see LB n. 959, E n. 1021.
65 Fury: Clytaemnestra is its embodiment, and perhaps at this moment, as if evoked by mention of the Fury sent to punish Troy, she enters and performs her rites preliminary to her punishment of Agamemnon, (Aeschylus was known in antiquity, and ridiculed by Aristophanes, for his use of the ‘silent actor’.)
66 Zeus the god of guests: Zeus Xenios presides over the rites of hospitality; these were violated by Paris who abducted Helen while he was the guest of Menelaus.
68 A woman manned by many: Helen, who was won by Theseus, Menelaus and Paris among others, and many more pursued her to their graves (1484f.). She was also Clytaemnestra’s half-sister, and these lines may include a glance towards the queen.
71f First blood rites: the proteleia were sacrifices preliminary to the consummation of a rite, often that of marriage; see n. 226. A suggestive word-family in Aeschylus associates teleia (the rituals fulfilled) and teleios (an adjective for the perfect victim, or as applied to Zeus, the god who brings all things, especially all rituals, to perfection) with the noun telos (culmination) and cognate verbs for ‘consummations’ that bring to birth or bring to an end, destroy; see 629, 740, 791, 924, 974ff., 1000ff. Cassandra turns her death into a ritual with prophetic powers. The blasphemous rituals of Agamemnon and his diabolic queen will yield to the magnificent civic rites of Athens. The deadly ‘ends’ that begin the trilogy will culminate in the perfect ‘ends’ of humanity, the marriage of our supernatural and our human powers, the inception of our culture. See Froma Zeitlin, ‘The Motif of the Corrupted Sacrifice in Aeschylus’ Oresteia’, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, xcvi (1965), 463-508.
75ff The subject is left indefinite in the Greek, ‘anybody’. It could include a reference to Paris; Agamemnon who sacrificed Iphigeneia; and Clytaemnestra who is sacrificing now before she kills her husband.
89 Three legs at a time: a reference to the notion that an old man’s walking-stick is a third leg (as in the riddle of the Sphinx).
91 A dream: dreams in Aeschylus have been the subject of profound studies. Here we can only suggest that in A dreams extend from metaphors for insubstantiality or escapism to states of visionary experience. Such visions are used by Clytaemnestra to manipulate her listeners, to undermine her victim, finally to lead the chorus to their prophetic insights. Her visions, like those of Cassandra, are concentrated versions of reality. They fulfil the nightmare foreseen by Calchas, while subjecting it to the force of individual responsibility; see LB n. 42, E n. 42.
107 Heal us: Aeschylus often uses medical terms for measures that promise cures but only aggravate the illness. See 199ff, and the futility of appealing to Apollo the Healer (1261) or Clytaemnestra here. There are no cures in A (390), merely palliatives (539) or remedies as remote as Orestes (1105) or cruel as the homeopathy of pain that actually intensifies the pain (180f.); see 832ff., 1004ff., 1017ff., 1507f.; LB n. 69ff., E n. 65f.
109 Now the hope shines, etc. The ambivalence of Clytaemnestra’s fires, like the light-in-darkness theme, will prove benighting; see n. 25, 281ff., 581ff.; LB n. 950, E notes 7, 13.
112ff The gods’ command . . . the twin command: the word kratos, ‘power’ or ‘authority’, applies both to the gods’ mandate and to the Greek commanders - the omen and its agents act as one.
113f Power . . . fighting strength: Peitho or Persuasion, the power to win belief, is what the old men have instead of military prowess; see n. 378ff.
120 Spearhand right: the side on which auspicious omens appear.
125 Cry, cry for death, etc. The refrain modulates from exultation to anguish (139) to a blend of both, stalwart resignation (160); ironic echoes may be heard at 256, 353, 567.
126 The loyal seer: as at the outset of the Iliad, Calchas foresees much hardship for the Greeks and Agamemnon. The ambiguities in his vision are heightened by his oracular style. His antecedents are general (the wasted kingdom, 131, may include Argos as well as Troy); his verbs are set in a historical present that unifies the past and future, the legend of the house and the repercussions of the war.
129 The long hunt nets, etc. The image of the hunt will associate the vengeance wreaked on Troy (810ff.) with the vengeance wreaked on Agamemnon (1402ff.), as the hunter becomes the hunted. The image will also describe Cassandra’s victimization (1047), her pursuit of the origins of the curse (1187f.), and her vindication (1338); see n. 49; LB n. 335, E n. 116. For the image of the net, see Introduction, pp. 50f., 68, 90f.; LB n. 493, E n. 116.
131 Fate: Moira denotes not fate in general, as Fraenkel observes, ‘but the particular fate which causes the appropriate penalty to follow inevitably upon every sin. Moira is the goddess who sees to it that this connection between cause and effect, i.e., in the sphere of moral or legal obligations, between debt and payment, or between guilt and atonement, is safeguarded against any disturbance.’ This moralized conception of fate, and its evolution from a retributive force to a creative challenge - from fate to self-determination, in effect - will dominate the Oresteia; see n. 1021, 1025ff.; E n. 1055.
135ff Artemis: according to the account in the older epic Cycle, later adapted by Sophocles, Artemis was angered when Agamemnon shot one of her sacred deer and boasted that his archery was superior to hers - an act of rashness rather than of tragic destiny and choice. Here Agamemnon’s action provokes Artemis as the goddess of childbirth (ironically invoked to fulfil a prophecy that involves the death of children); but it is as Potnia Thêrôn, the queen of wild beasts and a representative of Mother Earth, that Artemis will unleash her fury against the Olympians, the powers of the Sky.
138 The eagles’ feast: the image will unite Thyestes’ feast, which precipitated the curse, with the violence that follows in its wake, the murders of Iphigeneia, Cassandra and Agamemnon (242ff., 1475, 1531ff.). The image is consistently perverted: as a sacrament it is a slaughter, as a communal joy it nourishes desires for revenge; see 726ff., 813f., 1226ff.; LB n. 261, E n. 110.
148f The adjectives for the sacrifice of Iphigeneia make it seem unique; it is ‘unlawful’ or ‘unaccustomed’, but Tantalus
and Atreus familiarized Argos with child-murder; it is ‘unattended by feasting’ among the present celebrants, but it is part of the legacy of Thyestes’ feast. The second term may also refer to offerings to the dead, presented to them but never consumed by them.
150 The architect of vengeance: images of crafts and artistry have a negative effect in A; either the practitioner is distraught (1030f.) or the skill in question makes an art of fear or guilt or death (1154ff., 1189ff., 1594). Orestes the mason (1306) will not have perfected his work until the end of the Oresteia; see LB n. 233, E n. 308.
156 Calchas invokes the muse of the Iliad, Mênis, Wrath or Fury, but here instead of implementing Zeus and Zeus’s will she fights his agent to the death.
158 Calchas clashed out: the assonance between the prophet’s name and the sound of his cries, suggested in the verb eklangxen, is typical of euphonic devices which Aeschylus employs throughout this chorus to give emphasis and solemnity; see n. 688ff.
161 Zeus: the Greek phrase, ‘Zeus, whoever he may be,’ is a formula that points to a religious mystery: the namelessness of the divinity, the blasphemy of naming him at all, and the incomprehensibility, the all-inclusiveness of his power.
169ff Ouranos, Kronos, and Zeus - grandfather, father and son in the embattled generations of the gods; see Introduction, p. 21. This theme of ‘the third victor’, the one who throws his opponent three times to win the contest, will be exemplified in the fates of Agamemnon, Clytaemnestra and Orestes. For the motif of ‘three’, see n. 245. Athletic imagery, drawn from sports like archery and charioteering that are combat skills as well, generally describes defeat in A, or a victory like Clytaemnestra’s in the beacon-relay that spells defeat for her husband; see 346ff., 366ff., 624, 1211f. Archery, a deadlier sport, predominates; see LB n. 165, E n. 151.
182 Ripeness: in A the great ideal of sôphrosunê is degraded from the virtue of self-command (356) to discipline in its punitive sense - learning one’s place or else (1451, 1652).
185ff So it was that day, etc. The responsion between this and the preceding stanza yokes the law of Zeus to its example, Agamemnon’s quandary at Aulis. For the relationship between his will and the winds of destiny, see Introduction, p. 26f. The word pneuma means both the force of a wind and the vital spirit of a man; their ‘conspiracy’ here may generate not only the present storm (189ff., 218ff.) but all the storms that follow (646ff., 804ff., 1410ff.), ending in the deluge that engulfs the house (1561ff.). In contrast see Cassandra’s inspiration and its effects, 1182ff., 1302ff.; n. 1004; LB n. 203, E n. 250.
217 The strap of Fate: Anangke or Necessity as a universal force, though it may also be a compulsion designed to fit the individual. Attempts to derive the word from the verb ‘to strangle’ find support in the traditional metaphor for Necessity, the harness, or as Aeschylus refines it, the strap that fastens the yoke to the neck.
226 A bridal rite: proteleia; see n. 71f. In Iphigeneia’s sacrifice Lucretius saw a blood-wedding typical of barbaric religion:All too often Religion herself has wrought
Unholy crimes. Elite captains of Greece
Made foul the altar of the virgin goddess,
Diana of the Crossways, when these princes
Drew Iphigeneia’s blood. As she stood there,
Her virgin tresses neatly bound in place,
With two ribbons outlining either cheek,
She saw her melancholy father, there,
Before the altar, saw his ministers
Hiding their knives; she saw her countrymen
Crying at the sight of her. Speechless with fear,
She sank down to the ground on bended knees.
Little good it did her in this crisis,
That she, Iphigeneia, had been his first born child
And conferred the name of ‘father’ on the king.
The heroes lifted and escorted her
To the altar trembling, not that she should
Be attended by the joyous wedding hymn -
But be handled foully, an innocent girl
At the due time of marriage, a sacrifice,
Pitiful victim of the coup de grâce
Delivered by her father - the good omen
Of an auspicious sailing for the fleet.
Such evil can Religion bring men to!
- De Rerum Natura, Book I, Verses 82-101, trs. Palmer Bovie
In his ‘Dream of Fair Women’ Tennyson describes the victim’s feelings:‘I was cut off from hope in that sad place,
Which men call’d Aulis in those iron years:
My father held his hand upon his face;
I, blinded with my tears,
‘Still strove to speak: my voice was thick with sighs
As in a dream. Dimly I could descry
The stem black-bearded kings with wolfish eyes,
Waiting to see me die.
‘The high masts flicker’d as they lay afloat;
The crowds, the temples, waver’d, and the shore;
The bright death quiver’d at the victim’s throat;
Touch’d; and I knew no more.’
232 Like a yearling: a yearling kid was customarily sacrificed to Artemis for victory.
245 Third libations, sang to Saving Zeus: the first libation was offered to the Olympians, the second to the spirits of the dead, and the third to Zeus the Saviour, invoked to harmonize the first two groups of deities. See n. 169ff. In A the motif of ‘three’ or ‘triads’ is perverted. Its nadir occurs in Clytaemnestra’s murder of the king, accomplished with three blows (1407ff.) and offered to a trinity of gods (1459ff.). The salvation she administers is death (598, 1249); see LB n. 61, E n. 4.
248 I cannot see it, cannot say: there was a tradition, adopted by Euripides, Goethe, and Gerhart Hauptmann, that Artemis intervened to save Iphigeneia, as God intervened to save Isaac from his father’s knife, and spirited her off to the Tauri on the Black Sea, where she served as a priestess of the goddess. This tradition forms an alternative to the Oresteia, for according to it Iphigeneia, rather than Athena, later absolves Orestes of his blood-guilt. She represents the darker, sacrificial aspect of Artemis in Euripides’ Iphigeneia in Tauris, restoring Orestes to his throne in Argos, while migrating to Brauron in Attica, where she continues to safeguard the image of the goddess and conduct a modified version of her bloody rites. Goethe’s Iphigeneia however, represents the Olympian aspect of the goddess; a child of the Enlightenment who has rejected Artemis’ rites entirely, she redeems Orestes through the gentle, beneficent arts of neo-classical humanism. As an archetypal figure, then, Iphigeneia can represent either of the two great powers dramatized by Aeschylus, the Olympians or the Earth, though she gradually inclines towards the gods. In Hauptmann’s modern tetralogy on the House of Atreus, she finally consigns the image of Artemis to Apollo’s shrine at Delphi, and through her own self-sacrifice prepares the way for a total Olympian victory, purged of the Fates and the forces of the Earth, and in marked contrast to the Oresteia, where those forces undergo a mutual struggle with the gods and ultimately enjoy a mutual triumph; see Introduction, pp. 86ff; and Theodore Ziolkowski, ‘Hauptmann’s Iphigenie in Delphi: A Travesty?’, The Germanic Review, xxxiv (1959), 105-23.
257 Our midnight watch: the motif will evolve from Clytaemnestra’s surveillance over Argos to the Areopagus in E (720), the court whose night sessions keep eternal vigilance over Athens.
265 The womb of Mother Night: also the source of the Furies, who control this day (E n. 322). In A images of infertility predominate, fathers bequeath their crimes to children, and the Olympians derive their lethal power from the legacy of the curse; see 378ff., 745ff., n. 311; LB n. 131ff., E n. 322.
271 Expose your loyal hearts: more loyal to Agamemnon than to her.
281ff The beacons illuminate a geography of peril which includes the Euripos Straits where Agamemnon murdered Iphigeneia; Mount Kithairon where the infant Oedipus was exposed; the Corinthian headlands where predators lay in wait for Theseus; the Gorgon-eyed Marsh reflecting
the demon that threatened another Argive hero, Perseus (LB n. 818); and Spider Mountain which serves as a perfect vantage point for the Black Widow, Clytaemnestra (n. 309). Her beacons may contrast with the beacons set by Hypermnestra, another Argive wife. When the daughters of Danaos were forced to marry their cousins, Danaos instructed them to murder their new husbands on the wedding night. Only Hypermnestra refused. She was in love with Lynkeus, who had spared her virginity, and she helped him escape to the near-by city of Lyrkeia. She asked him to light a beacon when he had reached safety, promising to light a beacon from the heights of Argos in return. It was a testament to their faith, and the Argives commemorated it with a yearly torchlit festival. Clytaemnestra’s beacons, in other words, may evoke a more constructive meaning far beyond this play. They will actually have forecast the final torchlit march of the Athenians and the Eumenides; perhaps they will remind us too of the lampadêphoria run in honour of Athena at the Panathenaic Festival - as if even now the queen were acting, quite unconsciously, in league with the gods’ eventual designs.
Although the locations of some of the later stations in Clytaemnestra’s chain are uncertain, the general direction is clear: west from Mount Ida near Troy, to Hermes’ Rock on Lemnos, to Mount Athos in northern Greece; then south to Mount Makistos (presumably in Euboea, the large island off the coast of central Greece), over the Straits of Euripos to Mount Messapion (unidentified but evidently on the mainland), across the plain of Asôpos in Boeotia to Mount Kithairon near Thebes, to Mount Aigiplankton (presumably near the Isthmus of Corinth), and down the Saronic Gulf to Argos.
281 Ida: a mountain range which forms the southern boundary of the Troad; from its summit Zeus surveyed the Trojan war.
