Moral Obligations In Agamemnon By Aeschylus

Clytemnestra has been crying since the murder of her daughter Iphigenia, but “the tears that welled like springs are dry” (pg. 135). Before Agamemnon enters his father’s house and is ultimately murdered, he raises his right hand in honor of the gods saying: “the ones who sent me forth have brought me home” (pg. 134). This most accurately portrays Agamemnon’s dilemma; that is, he is imprisoned in the middle of two moral obligations. Each of these obligations is absolute but in utter opposition with one another. Agamemnon is an innocent man forced by the gods into making a morally problematic decision.
Agamemnon arrives late in Aeschylus’ play; until his arrival with Cassandra, most of the play deals with other characters anticipating his appearance. The reader gathers from the Watchman’s prologue a feeling of somberness: “dear gods, set me free from all this pain” (pg. 102). Once the Watchman sets the scene and theme for the reader, he vanishes before the chorus is introduced. Now that the chorus has the stage, they proceed in telling why Agamemnon and Menelaus’ mission was permitted by Zeus. Paris dishonored Zeus the god of Xenia, hospitality, by smuggling Helen back to Troy, but Paris also simultaneously infringed on Menelaus’ liberties as her husband. On their expedition to Troy, Atreus’ sons are held at Aulis: “port of anguish…head winds starving, sheets and the cables snapped and the men’s minds strayed” (pg. 109). The omen they witness, told through the chorus entailed two
Overall, Agamemnon is put in a situation by the gods; a situation where the moral duties are in conflict: this is an overlying theme throughout the