Clytemnestra Deception

Clytemnestra, a very prevalent character in Aeschlyus’ play Agamemnon, stands as a center point among the most famous speeches in the history of Greek literature. Breaking with the traditions of other plays written during this time period, Clytemnestra wields considerable political power during the time period in which women were sidelines from affairs of the state. Possessing a “male strength heart,” as stated by the watchmen in the beginning of the play, Clytemnestra not only is able to attain political control but she also has the ability to deceive those that surround her. The chorus makes the queen’s deceiving ways apparent to the audience when noting to the Herald not to take everything Clytemnestra says at face-value, for they have learned
from personal experience the way she is and it is only them that know the real truth. In addition, the watchmen offer the reader an interpretive principle: silence often speaks volumes, while what needs saying is often left unsaid, and what is said is not always what is meant. With several instances of the queen’s deceit throughout the play, the most evident occurrence is within her famous speech in which Clytemnestra describes in detail her “love and concern” for her dear husband. Using irony, manipulative persuasion, and double-meanings, Clytemnestra is able to deceive nearly every character in this play. Clytemnestra’s use of ambiguities and ironies of language throughout the play really articulates the dangers, difficulties, and violations that attend the founding of an effectively functioning civic discourse.
Her speeches play out deep ironic deception, intending the opposite of what is said, while simultaneously revealing a deeper and more complex layer in her manipulation of Agamemnon. Strange as it may seem that Clytemnestra’s words ring true, but that is because there is truth in them. When she wishes her husband find her faithful to the house as she was the day he left, she is not lying. When she describes herself as a “watchdog” of the house she truly means that. But none of this directs towards Agamemnon. During the entire speech, Clytemnestra speaks duplicitously in order to further her plot and deceive the king—her husband—yet she ironically tells the truth. There is no apparent reason to doubt her longing for his return, although once fed on love it now feeds on hatred. Now the reasoning for her longing is so she will finally get the opportunity to kill him, and is through this hint of truth that makes it all the more deceptive and
manipulative. Clytemnestra primarily defends her fidelity and deceiving Agamemnon, and it is through this defending that she demonstrates her formidable power to manipulate language through rhetorical persuasion.
In her first speech, addressed to the chorus, she reflects on the king’s homecoming: “But now how best to speed my preparation to receive my honored lord come home again what else is light more sweet for woman to behold than this, to spread the gates before her husband home from war and saved by god’s hand?” (600–604). Seemingly like a sentimental statement considering a wife anticipating the return of her husband during a ten-year separation, it is very evident on the true sinister intent Clytemnestra has in mind; she truly longs for the sweetness of revenge. Also as an example, Clytemnestra was able to convince Agamemnon to walk amongst the carpet against his desires showing her ability to
persuade. In a play full of speeches with double meaning, lines 855-913 Clytemnestra really outdoes them all. Nearly every word during this speech can be understood in multiple words. For example, “In the lapse of time, modesty fades…” Which in fact is actually true, for she was having an affair with her husband’s cousin moreover now plotting to kill her husband with her own two hands. Then she states, “It is evil and a thing of terror when a wife sits in the house forlorn with no man by. . .” when in actuality she had a man all along—Aegisthus. Throughout the entire speech Clytemnestra uses double meanings, on the surface lamenting on the love of her long lost husband when in reality her only desire is to end her husband’s life. Clytemnestra’s speech is among the most well known in Greek literature history. Her ability to deceive those that surround her. On the surface, Clytemnestra appears to be a strong, pure and devoted woman awaiting her husband, Agamemnon, to return after the victory of the 10-year war against Troy. Although at one point this may have been true, it is evident through mentions from the chorus and Clytemnestra herself that this no longer stands true. In fact, Clytemnestra’s feelings towards her triumphant husband may just be the exact opposite. By using irony, manipulation, and double meanings Clytemnestra was able to deceive her husband—in which she ended the life of with strong haste—along with the other bystanders throughout the play.