Aeschylus’s plays “Agamemnon”, “The Libation Bearers”, and “Eumenides” were all based on one parent child conflict that gradually manifested into one the best-known curses in Greek mythology. Tantalus, one of Zeus’s many sons, started this havoc when he attempted to serve the Gods a dinner consisting of his son, Pelops. The reaction of the angered Gods resulted in the curse on the House of Atreus, which would prove effective as it plagued parents and their children for generations to come. The first of these conflicts is presented in “Agamemnon” as a wife slays her husband in punishment for being a negligent father. An ever deeper dilemma is presented in “The Libation Bearers” as a son avenges his father’s death by murdering his mother. The last of the plays, “Eumenides”, brings about a sense of closure as the question over parental love and loyalty is raised in a divine trial.
After ten years at war Agamemnon returns to Troy only to be slaughtered at the hands of his loving wife, Clytaemnestra. This is not only because of his “
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Although Iphegina is dead far before the tale ever begins, she still manages to play an overwhelming powerful role including being the source of her mother’s madness. However his loyalty lies with doing Apollo’s bidding and avenging Agamemnon’s death and so he kills her as well. In order to leave port and sail to war, Agamemnon had sacrificed his eldest daughter, Iphegina. ” (“Agamemnon”, 207) To Clytaemnestra this was a great betrayal as she felt her husband had chosen the life of a soldier over that of a father. ” (“The Libation Bearers”, 275) In this case the conflict lies between Clytaemnestra and Orestes, the mother and son. After examining the situation it seems apparent that Orestes killed Clytaemnestra because he had to, not because he was cold-hearted. “It is law: when the blood of slaughter wets the ground it wants more blood.
In punishment for sacrificing a daughter, a wife murders her husband.
In “The Libation Bearers” Orestes embodies the true example of parent and child conflict as he returns to Troy upon Apollo’s words, desperate to avenge his father’s death. “Oh, but doom will crush me, once I rend my child, the glory of my house- a father’s hand stained, blood of a young girl streaks the altar. In punishment for murdering a father, a son incited by Apollo slays his mother. ”(LB, 394) Thus another piece to the puzzle is added only to equal the culmination in Athena’s trial. These stories being those of Orestes and his trial, thus creating one of the most famous unofficial Greek trilogies to survive perish. She based this on the fact that a mother is not required to create a child, because she was born out of Zeus’s head without a mother at all. There is however a moment in which guilt swallows him as she begs for her life, he remembers that she is still his mother.
Approximate Word count =
697
Approximate Pages =
3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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