The Curse Against The House Of Oedipus
The curse against the house and against man is represented differently in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Agamemnon’s ancestors did horrible acts on others that incurred the wrath of a curse upon their house. While in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Oedipus was sort of thrown into a tragic event that had nothing to do with him. The curse against both men is represented in varying ways. Starting with Agamemnon, the curse on his house starts even before the play begins with a curse thrust upon the house of Atreus who is Agamemnon’s father. This play is a never ending cycle of revenge upon members of this house. These actions set up the play and has Agamemnon trying to come back home after the Trojan War. However, Artemis will not let the winds blow in favor of
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Agamemnon unless he sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia because he boasts his glory and offends Artemis. Agamemnon thinks about this and says on page 18 “…disband the fleet, sail home, and earn a deserter’s name? Abandon my command, betray the alliance – now? No, the wind must turn, there must be sacrifice, the girl must bleed!”
Agamemnon believes that his pride and honor must come before anything else. Why, after a ten year war, would he give up on his men and not bring them home? He believes that the sacrifice of his daughter is the right thing to do for him and his men. He proves this by also saying on the same page “…May good prevail and justify my deed!” Agamemnon truly believes that what he is doing is for the good of everyone, even if it meant killing his own daughter. He hopes that by bringing his men home to their families that have been waiting for years will outshine the terrible act that he committed.
It seems that the curse on the house has something to do with fathers killing children, because on pages 61-62, Clytemnestra states that:
“Dressed in my form, a bitter avenger from long ago on that gruesome host Atreus. For his abhorrent deed. Has poured blood in payment. That here on Justice’ alter a man for children should bleed.”
She suggests that the curse used her to take revenge on what Atreus had done to Thyestes, feeding him his own children. Clytemnestra murdered him on Justice’ alter as a form of payment for the children that Atreus killed and Iphigenia.
A prophet named Calchas said that on page 20 “The scale of justice falls impartially: the killer will be killed.” Meaning that somehow, someway that Agamemnon was doomed for trying to save his men by sacrificing his daughter. There it is again, the theme of revenge, but something else is also introduced; justice. Clytemnestra and Calchas both see this revenge that is surrounding the house as a type of justice. In a way it does seem like justice is pursued, but in its own sweet way. Instead of having the men go to trial to be punished, justice is taken up by someone who will make sure the wrongdoer dies.
During the time while Agamemnon is away at war Clytemnestra, his wife, takes a lover named Aegisthus. Aegisthus is the son of Thyestes whom Atreus had planned to murder by using Aegisthus. In the end it was Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus, who murdered Thyestes. Clytemnestra is the one who set this revenge plot into motion, by letting the readers foresee what is going to happen to Agamemnon by making sure he gets a hero’s welcome and not letting his feet touch the bare earth. She tells the servants on pages 40-41 to “….make haste, carpet his way with crimson tapestries, spread silks before your master’s feet.” She has her servants use a tapestry made of crimson thread that would represent all the blood that he has shed, most importantly the blood of Iphigenia. While Clytemnestra is trying to get Agamemnon into the house he refuses because he is only a man and not a god.
Clytemnestra is very detailed in how she tries to persuade Agamemnon to walk on this crimson tapestry and enter his cursed house by saying on page 42 “Greatness incurs hatred. Unenvied is unenviable.” She is telling him that it is better to be a great man and have people hate you, than be a nothing that no one knows about and no one cares for. This makes Agamemnon think, and he says “…may no watchful envious god glance from afar. It offends modesty…” He says this on page 42 so he does not offend another god the way he offended Artemis and have something else happen to him. Agamemnon thinks that it is the gods who can do anything to him, since he won the Trojan War and the only thing that stopped him was a god whom he irritated. However, he does not know that he offended the one person who would be his downfall, his wife.
We are then introduced to Cassandra, who is somewhat of a prophetess and she knows what is going to happen to her and Agamemnon. She can see the curse that is upon the house and begs to Apollo, asking him why he has done this to her.
Cassandra is the only one in the play that tells the readers about the curse that is upon the house of Atreus, on page 47 she says:
“…It is a house that abhors the gods; whose very stones bear guilty witness to a bloody act’ that hides within the gates remnants of bodies hacked and murdered children’s bones…that cruel, nameless dish on which their father fed!”
This is the first time that we see that the house is indeed cursed from what Agamemnon’s ancestors did and it has haunted the house for years. Though, none of the members of the chorus believe that this is true, Cassandra is sent to her death along with Agamemnon. Thus, the house of Atreus has taken the lives of two more people.
Although Agamemnon was not the one to take part in the original cursing of his house, he was a key player in the continuing curse that plagued his house and therefore caused Clytemnestra and Aegisthus to murder him and Cassandra. Cassandra even foretells that Orestes will come to take his father’s revenge against Clytemnestra and Aegisthus on page 54 she says “a third shall come to take up our cause, a son resolved to kill his mother, honouring his father’s blood.” We do not see what is done to Clytemnestra or Aegisthus in Agamemnon, but we can only think that it will be as gruesome as the deaths of Agamemnon and Cassandra. Thus the never ending cycle of revenge still plagues the house of Atreus. The story of Oedipus is very different from that of Agamemnon because it was the whole house of Atreus that had been cursed, while only Oedipus himself was cursed in Oedipus Rex. Oedipus’ curse was that he would kill his father and marry his mother. To stop this from happening, his father had him sent away to be left on a hilltop and die. He was subsequently saved by a shepherd and taken to another kingdom. Oedipus found out about his curse and ran away to save, who he thought were, his
parents. He then comes to another kingdom where he saves the people from the Sphinx by solving the riddle. He marries the Queen and begins his rule. Then another plague hits his kingdom, women are barren, crops are not growing, and people are dying. The plague will end when the murderer of Laius, the former King, is banished from the land. Oedipus promises to do more than banish the man who is responsible and has A prophet named Tiresias brought in to help them find the murderer. Tiresias tells Oedipus on page 88 that “…you are living in shameful union with the ones you love – living in ignorance of your own undoing.” Tiresias tells Oedipus over and over that the man that he is looking for is himself. He says that he is the one responsible for all that is happening in his kingdom. Oedipus does not believe what Tiresias is telling him and he thinks that Creon, his brother-in-law, is the one responsible. Tiresias responds on page 89 with “…you are your own enemy.” He is saying that it is Oedipus that is the curse and he is the one that will be his own downfall. Tiresias also tells Oedipus on page 90 that “…you have eyes and yet you cannot see your own damnation…” This comes from a man who is blind telling Oedipus that he is the one who is blind to everything around him. Oedipus cannot see what is happening to him. He is blaming others for the events that are occurring. Oedipus learns that before he came to rule that Laius was killed and that Oedipus was the one that did it. When he talks about this with Jocasta she describes her late husband and Oedipus says on page 102 “Oh god! Am I unwittingly self-cursed?” This is the first time that he acknowledges that he may just be the reason for everything happening. Unlike Agamemnon whose ancestors brought about the curse, Oedipus himself is the one who is cursed, but does not know why. Oedipus recalls the curse that befell him to Jocasta. She does not believe that he is the one who murdered Laius and tries to persuade him to stop looking more into these matters. Oedipus insists that he must find out what his curse is at all costs. The news about Polybus’s death comes to the kingdom. Oedipus states that on page 110 “…Apollo’s words may yet come true for me.” He still suspects that he is the cause of his “father’s” death and must stay away from his “mother” Merope. He believes that his curse still has the ability to play out. The Messenger reveals that Oedipus is not the son of Polybus and Merope, and that he was found on a mountain. Jocasta again urges him to stop trying to find out the truth, to solve the riddle like he did years ago. Jocasta screams on page 113 “Doomed man! May you never live to learn the truth!” It is suggested that she has realized what the truth actually is and wishes death on Oedipus rather than him finding out the truth, because she believes that the truth is more painful than death. Oedipus then discovers the truth along with finding out that Jocasta had committed suicide. He then takes the brooches from Jocasta’s dress and poked his own eyes out. The Chorus relays to us on page 120 the details of all of this and they say “Eyes that will see no longer his shame, his guilt…nor see, unseeing, those he had longed to see…” Oedipus was emotionally blind to the truth throughout the play and when he became full aware of what he did, he makes himself physically blind. Oedipus’ curse is that he has to know the truth of what is around him, which makes him prideful, he is quick to anger, and he is stubborn and suspicious. This is the curse that Oedipus had to live and die with. He is still alive at the end of the play, so we can assume that after he is cast out by Creon that he lives alone on Mount Cithaeron. The curse against the house and against man is represented differently in both plays given that Agamemnon’s family did something horrible to get a curse upon their house, while Oedipus’ ancestors did nothing. Oedipus was the only cause for his curse. Agamemnon is justly punished for the murder of his daughter. Oedipus was protecting himself when he murdered a man who ended up being his father. He tried to save himself from the curse, while Agamemnon did not care about anyone but his own glory.
Agamemnon unless he sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia because he boasts his glory and offends Artemis. Agamemnon thinks about this and says on page 18 “…disband the fleet, sail home, and earn a deserter’s name? Abandon my command, betray the alliance – now? No, the wind must turn, there must be sacrifice, the girl must bleed!”
Agamemnon believes that his pride and honor must come before anything else. Why, after a ten year war, would he give up on his men and not bring them home? He believes that the sacrifice of his daughter is the right thing to do for him and his men. He proves this by also saying on the same page “…May good prevail and justify my deed!” Agamemnon truly believes that what he is doing is for the good of everyone, even if it meant killing his own daughter. He hopes that by bringing his men home to their families that have been waiting for years will outshine the terrible act that he committed.
It seems that the curse on the house has something to do with fathers killing children, because on pages 61-62, Clytemnestra states that:
“Dressed in my form, a bitter avenger from long ago on that gruesome host Atreus. For his abhorrent deed. Has poured blood in payment. That here on Justice’ alter a man for children should bleed.”
She suggests that the curse used her to take revenge on what Atreus had done to Thyestes, feeding him his own children. Clytemnestra murdered him on Justice’ alter as a form of payment for the children that Atreus killed and Iphigenia.
A prophet named Calchas said that on page 20 “The scale of justice falls impartially: the killer will be killed.” Meaning that somehow, someway that Agamemnon was doomed for trying to save his men by sacrificing his daughter. There it is again, the theme of revenge, but something else is also introduced; justice. Clytemnestra and Calchas both see this revenge that is surrounding the house as a type of justice. In a way it does seem like justice is pursued, but in its own sweet way. Instead of having the men go to trial to be punished, justice is taken up by someone who will make sure the wrongdoer dies.
During the time while Agamemnon is away at war Clytemnestra, his wife, takes a lover named Aegisthus. Aegisthus is the son of Thyestes whom Atreus had planned to murder by using Aegisthus. In the end it was Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus, who murdered Thyestes. Clytemnestra is the one who set this revenge plot into motion, by letting the readers foresee what is going to happen to Agamemnon by making sure he gets a hero’s welcome and not letting his feet touch the bare earth. She tells the servants on pages 40-41 to “….make haste, carpet his way with crimson tapestries, spread silks before your master’s feet.” She has her servants use a tapestry made of crimson thread that would represent all the blood that he has shed, most importantly the blood of Iphigenia. While Clytemnestra is trying to get Agamemnon into the house he refuses because he is only a man and not a god.
Clytemnestra is very detailed in how she tries to persuade Agamemnon to walk on this crimson tapestry and enter his cursed house by saying on page 42 “Greatness incurs hatred. Unenvied is unenviable.” She is telling him that it is better to be a great man and have people hate you, than be a nothing that no one knows about and no one cares for. This makes Agamemnon think, and he says “…may no watchful envious god glance from afar. It offends modesty…” He says this on page 42 so he does not offend another god the way he offended Artemis and have something else happen to him. Agamemnon thinks that it is the gods who can do anything to him, since he won the Trojan War and the only thing that stopped him was a god whom he irritated. However, he does not know that he offended the one person who would be his downfall, his wife.
We are then introduced to Cassandra, who is somewhat of a prophetess and she knows what is going to happen to her and Agamemnon. She can see the curse that is upon the house and begs to Apollo, asking him why he has done this to her.
Cassandra is the only one in the play that tells the readers about the curse that is upon the house of Atreus, on page 47 she says:
“…It is a house that abhors the gods; whose very stones bear guilty witness to a bloody act’ that hides within the gates remnants of bodies hacked and murdered children’s bones…that cruel, nameless dish on which their father fed!”
This is the first time that we see that the house is indeed cursed from what Agamemnon’s ancestors did and it has haunted the house for years. Though, none of the members of the chorus believe that this is true, Cassandra is sent to her death along with Agamemnon. Thus, the house of Atreus has taken the lives of two more people.
Although Agamemnon was not the one to take part in the original cursing of his house, he was a key player in the continuing curse that plagued his house and therefore caused Clytemnestra and Aegisthus to murder him and Cassandra. Cassandra even foretells that Orestes will come to take his father’s revenge against Clytemnestra and Aegisthus on page 54 she says “a third shall come to take up our cause, a son resolved to kill his mother, honouring his father’s blood.” We do not see what is done to Clytemnestra or Aegisthus in Agamemnon, but we can only think that it will be as gruesome as the deaths of Agamemnon and Cassandra. Thus the never ending cycle of revenge still plagues the house of Atreus. The story of Oedipus is very different from that of Agamemnon because it was the whole house of Atreus that had been cursed, while only Oedipus himself was cursed in Oedipus Rex. Oedipus’ curse was that he would kill his father and marry his mother. To stop this from happening, his father had him sent away to be left on a hilltop and die. He was subsequently saved by a shepherd and taken to another kingdom. Oedipus found out about his curse and ran away to save, who he thought were, his
parents. He then comes to another kingdom where he saves the people from the Sphinx by solving the riddle. He marries the Queen and begins his rule. Then another plague hits his kingdom, women are barren, crops are not growing, and people are dying. The plague will end when the murderer of Laius, the former King, is banished from the land. Oedipus promises to do more than banish the man who is responsible and has A prophet named Tiresias brought in to help them find the murderer. Tiresias tells Oedipus on page 88 that “…you are living in shameful union with the ones you love – living in ignorance of your own undoing.” Tiresias tells Oedipus over and over that the man that he is looking for is himself. He says that he is the one responsible for all that is happening in his kingdom. Oedipus does not believe what Tiresias is telling him and he thinks that Creon, his brother-in-law, is the one responsible. Tiresias responds on page 89 with “…you are your own enemy.” He is saying that it is Oedipus that is the curse and he is the one that will be his own downfall. Tiresias also tells Oedipus on page 90 that “…you have eyes and yet you cannot see your own damnation…” This comes from a man who is blind telling Oedipus that he is the one who is blind to everything around him. Oedipus cannot see what is happening to him. He is blaming others for the events that are occurring. Oedipus learns that before he came to rule that Laius was killed and that Oedipus was the one that did it. When he talks about this with Jocasta she describes her late husband and Oedipus says on page 102 “Oh god! Am I unwittingly self-cursed?” This is the first time that he acknowledges that he may just be the reason for everything happening. Unlike Agamemnon whose ancestors brought about the curse, Oedipus himself is the one who is cursed, but does not know why. Oedipus recalls the curse that befell him to Jocasta. She does not believe that he is the one who murdered Laius and tries to persuade him to stop looking more into these matters. Oedipus insists that he must find out what his curse is at all costs. The news about Polybus’s death comes to the kingdom. Oedipus states that on page 110 “…Apollo’s words may yet come true for me.” He still suspects that he is the cause of his “father’s” death and must stay away from his “mother” Merope. He believes that his curse still has the ability to play out. The Messenger reveals that Oedipus is not the son of Polybus and Merope, and that he was found on a mountain. Jocasta again urges him to stop trying to find out the truth, to solve the riddle like he did years ago. Jocasta screams on page 113 “Doomed man! May you never live to learn the truth!” It is suggested that she has realized what the truth actually is and wishes death on Oedipus rather than him finding out the truth, because she believes that the truth is more painful than death. Oedipus then discovers the truth along with finding out that Jocasta had committed suicide. He then takes the brooches from Jocasta’s dress and poked his own eyes out. The Chorus relays to us on page 120 the details of all of this and they say “Eyes that will see no longer his shame, his guilt…nor see, unseeing, those he had longed to see…” Oedipus was emotionally blind to the truth throughout the play and when he became full aware of what he did, he makes himself physically blind. Oedipus’ curse is that he has to know the truth of what is around him, which makes him prideful, he is quick to anger, and he is stubborn and suspicious. This is the curse that Oedipus had to live and die with. He is still alive at the end of the play, so we can assume that after he is cast out by Creon that he lives alone on Mount Cithaeron. The curse against the house and against man is represented differently in both plays given that Agamemnon’s family did something horrible to get a curse upon their house, while Oedipus’ ancestors did nothing. Oedipus was the only cause for his curse. Agamemnon is justly punished for the murder of his daughter. Oedipus was protecting himself when he murdered a man who ended up being his father. He tried to save himself from the curse, while Agamemnon did not care about anyone but his own glory.