Cassandra's importance in Oresteia

Aeschlyus’s trilogy, The Oresteia, is a tragic manifesto that painfully paints a bloody chain of murder and revenge within the royal family of Argos. In the first respective play of the trilogy, “Agamemnon,” the character of Cassandra plays a vital role to the play and the trilogy as a whole, in numerous distinct ways. Cassandra, as seer and prophetess, connects the present with the past, and more importantly, draws a foreshadowing veil of doom for the future. In her short yet powerful scene after meeting Clytaemnestra, the mischievous wife of Agamemnon, Cassandra gives a voice, a past, and a portrait to each of the three plays in the trilogy. Moreover, she is able to accomplish this remarkable feat in a divinely poignant manner. Cassandra possesses a woeful vulnerability as victim to both Apollo, her architect of prophecy, and Clytaemnestra, her murderer.

“Agamemnon,” the first play of The Oresteia follows the ill fate of the victorious King of Argos, Agamemnon. Upon arriving home from war, royal mistress, Cassandra, at his side, Agamemnon is brutally murdered by his own wife, Clytaemnestra and accomplice, Aegisthus. Clytaemnestra distraught and enraged over Agamemnon’s affair with Helen of Troy, coupled with his

. . .

View the whole essay, without interruption

Cassandra “trusts” that the poor charred babies, eaten by their duped father, are indeed the impetus for such horrible deeds (1095).

As a result of this curse, Cassandra’s prophecies to the people are delivered in an urgent, shrieking manner, clinging to the hope that her words will not fall on deaf ears.

A lion who lacks a lion’s heart,

he sprawled at home in the royal lair

and set a trap for the lord on his return. A wanderer, a fugitive

Driven off his native land, he will come home

To cope the stones of hate that menace all he loves.

It can be argued that the most tragic character in The Oresteia is the vulnerable victim and prophetess Cassandra.

The gods have sworn a monumental oath: as his father lies

Upon the ground he draws him home with power like a prayer.

Aieeeeee! Earth – Mother –

Curse of the Earth – Apollo Apollo! (1071-1072)

Throughout the scene, Cassandra speaks through this very sense of vulnerable urgency, pressure, and horror that casts an undeniable suspense to the play and the actions that are to unfold before the audience’s eyes. In this passage, the prophetess utilizes even more horrid images to convey the pain that Aegisthus’s father bore.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Bibliography**

. Orestes is found innocent because of this very oath made by Apollo and the mighty god Zeus, himself.

The first time we, as an audience, view Cassandra is during the arrival of Agamemnon to Argos.

There will come another to avenge us,

Born to kill his mother, born

His father’s champion. Then in a sweeping dramatic gesture, she connects her own torturous past to her now imminent death at the hands of Clytaemnestra and Apollo. A seer for the seer

He brings me here to die like this.

Following her moans of anguish to Apollo, Cassandra begins to cast an ominous light onto the stage.

Approximate Word count = 1742
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Simply subscribe to view this paper, and 100,000 others.