Agamemnon And Oedipus Comparison

Aeschylus' Agamemnon and Sophocles' Oedipus the King are considered as the best written tragedies that we have from the two great playwrights. These two plays have their plot constructed under Aristotle's guidelines of a successful tragedy, and therefore are taught in many literature and classics classes as great examples of Greek drama. The plays contain some major similarities as well as differences in their method of plot progression, which comes from the slight difference of their understanding of what ultimately is considered as 'tragic'. From their distinctive portrayal of the Agamemnon and Oedipus' aftermath , both playwrights successfully demonstrate their conflicting ideas about a tragedy. According to Aristotle, a good tragedy demonstrates
The sufferings of Agamemnon begins from the curse that depraved the house of Atreus. Atreus, the father of Agamemnon, deceived his brother Thyestes and made him to feast on his own sons which resulted in Thyestes putting on a curse over Atreus' bloodline. Similarly, the sufferings of Oedipus is a result of a curse that his grandfather Labdacus received from Dionysus by him disrespecting the god. Accordingly, Labdacus' son Laius is given an oracle that his son will murder him (Oedipus 784-790), so he exposes his son Oedipus which begins the twisted fates of the characters. Also, both Agamemnon and Oedipus each commit critical mistakes themselves which ultimately leads to their tragic ends. In order to go out to war, Agamemnon decides to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia. The chorus describes this act of Agamemnon as a misjudgment with words "fate will be heavy...polluting her father's hands with slaughter streaming from a maiden...what is there without evil here?" (Agamemnon 206-210), which hints about the consequence that Agamemnon will be paying for his decision. Oedipus ends up killing his father just as the oracle had declared as his fate, which brings upon the deadly drought which leads him to find out the terrible deed that he
When Agamemnon was to make the decision to sacrifice Iphigenia or not, he had to go through several internal conflicts, before he could come to his conclusion. First, he had to decide whether he will choose Iphigenia and give up on going to war, or choose Helen and give up on Iphigenia to go to war. This decision leads him to the decision between choosing his family's stability or the country's position, which ultimately get to the decision between defending his pride or keeping the common good. Throughout the play, Oedipus have trouble getting straight with his internal conflict considering whether to accept or refuse the fate that is set upon him. Even though the oracle and his fate is unavoidable, he attempts to deny those things because they contradict with his pride and ego. This struggle of him is best portrayed in his encounter with Tiresias and the behavior he shows. At first, it seems as if he has trust in Tiresias' ability as a seer and wishes to know the truth that he knows (Oedipus 340-346). However, once Tiresias tells him the truth that he himself was the murderer of Laius, Oedipus changes his behavior and does not accept the words of Tiresias and even denies his ability as a seer which he praised before himself all because of his pride (Oedipus 408-422). This conflict is continued consistently until