#while iphigenia able to voice what she wants from life is only happening with the context that she'll die & she won't have this

[unproduciblesmackdown]

also to go "wow this is just like in pentiment" about absolutely anything and/or "wow this is just like iphigenia crash land falls on the neon shell that was once her heart (a rave fable)" about absolutely anything further:

the Narratives within crash land falls where like, in the end iphigenia being Given the story of both "this is going to happen anyways" and "so why don't you see it as a noble sacrifice to accept." the situation happening to Create a story that she was killed, so her father must be tragic, and sympathetic. that iphigenia does take on that Narrative of taking on the Noble Willing Sacrifice, and it kills her, but she also would have been killed anyways, as everyone also knows. that we even get a bit of pentimentesque [other characters observe & assess things] like, the fresa girls as a chorus, and one at the end like yeah She Was No Saint, i saw everything, but being cut off by The News that's like yeah looks like iphigenia was killed, that seguing into her father saying yeah she was killed, god's will was done, She's A Saint now. seguing to the emcee who introduced the play, but that superceded by achilles, and that superceded with iphigenia's extasis monologue as the end of the play. that whether iphigenia's a saint or not, she dies. that [the whole play] tells us as much, like, this isn't a What If kind of retelling where she escapes her fate, this is a retelling examining itself like, she Will die because the story's preset, so what to do with this as the story that has to take her there, what to do with this as iphigenia who has to go there

that iphigenia takes on another narrative in addition to the one offered by like, violeta as guide and oracle telling her she has to die (As A Noble Sacrifice), that again (as per iphigenia in aulis being like uh hey daughter. let's go to aulis so you can uh marry achilles (it is to be sacrificed)) achilles is this bait, but it's only in the ending that there's any Story about being with achilles, and when iphigenia goes to the mercenary soldier who she knows will kill her, she's the one telling him what to tell her about where she's going and why, i want you to tell me achilles is waiting for me....and she still dies, because This Is The Story. as also applied to the reality, iphigenia as another dead and missing girl following & preceding many; any disappeared deaths when consumed as disposable & replaceable, not given part of any narrative about it. while also iphigenia only gets a chorus of fresa girls from there being crosses put on the factory wall with their names, with one girl even remarking like hey they spelled my name right for once. but at the same time they're also like, both mere Apparitions but also like standins for people who are simply alive. real [shades]esque kind of, i suppose, but like they're not Sanctified for dying either, they'll comment on iphigenia but not with any like, divine knowledge, just as this out of place rich girl. whether iphigenia's A Saint or Not A Saint, she's still dead either way. she wants to be a fresa girl, they maybe want to be her, but everyone's doomed anyways thanks to way larger forces and the Stories that have been told and will be told again

but there's also the moment right before the final section wherein, before she's having to say what she wants within the bounds of [she has to die], there's achilles asking "you still want me" and iphigenia answering with "i want everything" and her vision for, like, getting to be alive actually, i'm on the gulf where the sea is gray, and no one wants a piece of me....the whole inciting event here where iphigenia wants to evade her fate however she can, exiting the bounds of her life, the physical bounds and the family unit and walking away from the rank of status / class / wealth, trying for [have her body for herself] and what the body wants, the sensuous indulgences of (a rave fable), let's hear some more about the roman state like "we don't like the examination and challenge and upending of class and convention in a bacchanalia, so only do the official versions we permit;" the Threat of people's desires for themselves, when that's going to be counter to those in power who'd want these people to be resources at their disposal; the burden on the disempowered to suffer [the only way out is through] with the Additional pain & loss that has to be taken on in pursuit of their autonomy, while also of course suffering for the autonomy they lack, that restricted and controlled and mitigated versions of what you might want are deigned to be provided or permitted so that you have Something, but that everyone's actual undeniable personhood will always be spilling past those bounds, the potential power of transgressive pleasure when one's wellbeing and autonomous choices are counter to the power structures that have to constantly try to suppress and preclude this. achilles just as bait, doomed to die like iphigenia is also still doomed, sex was never going to save everyone and the [recognizing connection as these two parallel people / We're The Same] with your lover here is not going to save everyone but it still makes more things possible for them both; iphigenia does know what she wants, and gets some of it because she wants it, same with achilles in turn, while it can't save anyone from their fates still. but it can mean something even if it doesn't transcend, like even a fleeting night of insignificant dancing that doesn't change anything can mean something, and we all die, but that doesn't mean it's Nothing to be killed any more than it's Nothing to have your desires or choices one way or another to be wrung out of your life before you are

anyways, the stories. the Looking and Presenting here. achilles and iphigenia first encountering each other as images put together and presented by someone else for their own purposes. the presence of what's seen through film/camera/recording versus in person; the potential power relations and even violence in framing, presenting, and the intended looking and assessing. repeated language about eyes/looks that burn, while also that connection between iphigenia and achilles, and their finding the least room in what they do have of their lives for more of their own wants and selves and something genuine and not predetermined, is also connected to eyes and looking and being seen and light and burning. while they're also connected to the protection and possibility of night and darkness, getting to exist and be Without being lit up or seen; that with the power that's still in play, it's never like, well then you should have nothing / no reason to hide; the penultimate moment in the play with achilles being one that's in person and fades into darkness, rather than coming in from the light of a projection / video onscreen as the introduction....iphigenia needing to be guided through a crossroads to even get to achilles in person; violeta giving the Advice and Story and Tradition to pray to eleggua, as iphigenia does before getting to encounter achilles for real, who also doesn't get to break out of a role or a fate in full in any way, but their tragedies are like, pointing towards [autonomy, imagine it] in both the ways they manage to find a little bit of it for themselves, in no small part for simply recognizing each other as in the same boat here, and in the ways they still don't have it and still can't get it

and anyways it's also inevitably saying like, telling a story?? this Play is a told story!! looking? assessing? interpreting? you're doing that in the course of experiencing it! and it's really so fucking true.

[kashuan]

was reading something and i was thinking of your feelings on elektra and orestes being twins...you are the ceo of all things house of atreus imo lol

I wouldn’t be like against it if I read a version that did that? but I couldn’t get behind it either. I think Orestes and Electra having a bit of an age gap is pretty fundamental for how they relate to the characters around them, and now here I am to write a wall of text as to why; some of this will probably sound familiar from past asks but I feel like I have to include it all to explain my stance (also I’m just generally incapable of being succinct) :,) So, I imagine Orestes to be around 2-3 when Iphigenia dies because that makes him old enough to be emotionally traumatized by being present for what took place in Aulis (this scene in particular always breaks my heart) but not old enough to be able to remember any of it clearly, certainly not enough to be able to have a solid opinion about his father’s actions at the time (more on that later). This makes him about 12 when Agamemnon comes home from Troy, old enough now to fully remember that day, an age– especially in that kind of society– where he would be strongly influenced by that first impression of his father who he’d be essentially ‘meeting’ for the first time: a returning victor, celebrated by the city, and who is generally written as receiving his son warmly but briefly. This, then, would be the only lasting image he would have of Agamemnon when it came to guiding his future actions. Yet he would also still be young enough to not understand the full scope of everything that went on that day, such as what Cly and Aeg were planning in the background, the way Electra probably was, at least somewhat–due to her being a little older– which in turn probably contributes to Orestes subsequent shock and his future difficulty processing what happened. A lot of Oresteia rewrites depict Orestes as being pretty divided on what the right thing to do is, and I think these things happening to him at these ages in particular are an important factor in that. By the same token, Electra’s differing reactions can also be partially accredited to that age difference.I place Electra as about 3-4 years older than Orestes. I’ve seen some takes she seems like 7-10 years older, but I don’t think that fits as well because of the following. By my placement, that would make her 5-6 when Agamemnon left Mycenae, which is old enough to remember him better than Orestes, to have made more memories with him, but young enough to still have an understandably idealized image of him (both her and Orestes suffer from this IMO, but Orestes’ involves more filling in the blanks and second hand stories, whereas Electra is just holding onto those childhood memories and shutting out the rest). That makes her 15~ when he comes back, in the middle of her teenage years. She is more aware than Orestes about what is going on yet still equally powerless to stop it. The loss of her father, esp given the circumstances, would be difficult to cope with at any age, but if she was already in her early 20s at this point I don’t think it would have hit her quite as hard as it’s shown to. I see this as in part to blame for her doubling (tripling? A hundreding?) down on her rebellion; in a way it’s almost like her aging stops at this point, as a defiant, emotionally volatile teenager, for better or worse. (Not in your question, but that’s also why I hc Chrysothemis a couple years older than her, though the canon seems to suggest it can go either way. I think Chryso being slightly more adjusted to the idea of regrettably accepting what happened is indicative of not just her personality but naturally being a little more mature).

I think Orestes and Electra’s dynamic itself is also defined by that age gap. Ele as the older sister acts and sees herself as a protector of Orestes (in some versions, she is specifically the one that gets him out of Mycenae during Agamemnon’s murder, and she tries to take care of him when he’s first cursed by the Furies), and likely sees it as her place to guide his actions (she is the one to insist he gets revenge on both Aegisthus and Clytemnestra). Orestes as the baby of the family is sort of important too… With Agamemnon away, every important figure in his young life is an older woman, and while I could derail here on how that effects his characterization overall, my point here is just that, as a child, there isn’t anyone he’s expected to protect (as in he isn’t anyone’s older brother; even if they were twins, I think this would count). It’s only when he returns to Electra as a grown man that, being the man of the family now, that expectation presents itself, one I don’t think he was entirely equipped to handle as a result, considering how much Orestes seems like he is moved along by other’s voices throughout the Oresteia, rather than having any clear sense of his own as to what he should do.I hope this answered your q, in retrospect I hope you didn’t want to me to just give my hypothetical thoughts on how it would change the story if they were D: I’m too firm in my hcs for that anyway (obviously, lol)

[galivantingg]

Alpha and Beta

Old Friends

It was the beginning of a new school year. The weather was still warm out, so the school field was filled with groups of kids lounging around during lunch and after school ended. Sometimes even before. With the new school year came the much loved atmosphere of stress, the smell of energy drinks and coffee, and of course, exhaustion. Alex and Cal witnessed the high school student slowly descend into madness. The lights in the communal spaces of the pack house stayed on throughout the months, albeit dimmed, but still on, so students could work late into the night on certain projects that they didn't get to during the afternoon.

Alex and Cal were seniors now, turning eighteen on the first of July and January respectively. Alex was excited, because he had been waiting for his mate for as long as Cal could remember. Cal, on the other hand, was dreading this, because it meant he would be able to find his mate. He still did not want to meet his mate. He had witnessed not only his parents but also Alex's parents do horrible things because of the mate bond, and he wanted nothing to do with it. He would not allow something he had no control over make him abandon everything he stands for. He would choose his own path, he would choose his own mate, not now, but much later in his life, when he knows who he is.

Another reason he was dreading this season was not only because of the start of his senior year, but also because of the Mate Hunt.

It was an arbitrary thing, old fashioned and out dated. Sure they had modernized it a little, but Cal still didn't like the whole idea of it. The Mate Hunt used to be a gathering where all the unmated young women of each pack would travel around to neighbouring packs and participate in a sort of 'hunt' for their mate. Originally, it would only be the girls of age, and they would literally be hunted down. Now it's a little different. Everyone of age or near age participates, and they travel around to different packs to find their mates. If someone thinks they've found their mate, but has to wait for their birthday, they stay there with that person and their pack until their birthday rolls around. Then, if they aren't mates, the person catches up with their pack. Cal and Alex were technically exempt from this, since they are the Alpha and Beta of their pack they will not travel, but they will have to participate in every other sense. They needed to find their mates, since wolves who are mateless for too long after their birthday go insane, but Cal still didn't like it.

Not to mention what a headache it was to house and feed on average twenty more teenagers. Plus they were always so moody. Cal felt old. He was sitting in his office, what used to be his parents room, staring out the window facing the Lawn. It had taken him a long time, but he had finally mustered up the courage to flip this room, along with the rest of the bedrooms. Iphigenia had his old room to herself, the twins shared a room in the basement, Asclepius and Nestor shared the spare room upstairs, and Cal was in the smaller room upstairs. It wasn't a big house, the bedrooms were quite small and he heard complaints from his brothers all the time, but they managed. Not to mention that Alex was here almost every night too, sharing Cal's bed. Honestly, it kinda bugged Cal. At least Alex helped get the kids ready and cleaned the house too.

Cal understood why Alex stayed with him most nights. Alex was scared that Cal was going to leave him, like his parents. Cal was never going to leave him, Alex knew too much about him.

He heard a soft knock on the door. "Come in," he spoke softly, his voice a little rusty from disuse. He glanced at the clock, not realizing how long he had been there for. The door creaked open and in came little Iphigenia. She was six now, but acted like she was eight. She took care of them all, not by cooking or doing laundry, but by checking in one them. She made sure they were all still mentally stable, which was really confusing cause she was six. How did she even learn how to do that? She walked up to him steadily, asking him to be lifted up by lifting up her arms. He grabbed her gently and Set her down on his knee, pointing out the window.

"That's where I'll be in," he checks the time again, "shoot, right now. Okay Nia you're coming with me to meet Alpha Jacobson and the teenagers here for the mate hunt. Sound good?" She nodded, sticking her thumb in her mouth. In her hand was the stuffed animal bunny Cal had kept close to himself as a kid. He thought about it for a second, thinking of his first best friend, Daisy Duke, and how she had given him that rabbit when they were so little, before he had left. She had a matching one. His bunny was wearing purple tartan, with a yellow boy around its neck, from Daisy's bunny. Her's is wearing yellow tartan. Well, it was. He didn't know if she still had it after all these years. He had left when they were five, and now he's seventeen. He barely remembered her, he doubts she remembers him either.

Nia put her hand on his cheek, snapping Cal out of his thoughts. He stood quickly, walking out the room and down the hall towards the front door. As he did, he heard the cars pull up just in front of the Lawn in the parking lot. "Shoot shoot shoot," he censored himself, knowing that Iphigenia would repeat anything he said. He hastened across the grass towards the front stoop on the pack house where Alex was standing.

"You're late," Alex gritted out underneath his breath, knowing full well that Alpha Jacobson could most likely hear them. Cal was out of breath.

"Sorry," he panted, "got lost in the paperwork and then Nia came in to remind me it was time."

Alex's voice changed as he reached over and gently took Nia out of Cal's arms. "Cal should have been keeping a closer eye on the time, hey Sunny?" She nodded and smiled. Betrayed by his own sister, Cal would never get over this. He grinned at them, and they all jumped when they heard a cough from in front of them. Alpha Jacobson and his teenagers were standing in front of the cars, staring at them. Cal's ears burned.

Alex's face went stoney. "Welcome Alpha Jacobson and the teenagers of the Velvel Pack. I am Alpha Alex Edwards and this is my Beta, Calchas Edmonds." Cal scowled at his full name, Alex would be hearing about that later. Instead of calling him out now, like he very much wanted to, he instead put on a smile.

"Please," he interrupted Alex. Oh boy he was gonna hear about that later. "Call me Cal." He looked over at Alex, urging him to keep going. Surprisingly Alex didn't look pissed.

"Thank you for coming," Alex continued, looking out at the teenagers. "We understand that you are primarily here to find your mates, but you are also staying long enough that you would be missing school. We have taken the liberty of enrolling you all for the three week period that you are all here, and all of our resources for everything from school to personal lives are at your disposal. Please come see either me or Beta Cal if you have any questions."

"Thank you Alpha Edwards for your warm welcome," Alpha Jacobson smiled. Alex smiled back, and that was the first time Cal had seen him show much expression since they had realized the other pack was here. Alex handed Iphigenia off to Cal, and Alpha Jacobson lead his pack forward to be toured through the pack house. Cal was going to be bringing up the rear, so no one got lost or left behind.

Cal watched as the teens filed past him, some stretching their arms up and others yawning from the long drive. The Velvel Pack was about a seven hour drive from them, and Cal's pack was the closest to them. They had many more hours to travel on their trip, but the drives would be shorter from now on. There were two girls at the end of the line, chatting animatedly. Something about one of them seemed so familiar, but Cal couldn't quite put his finger on why. She breezed past him, glancing at him and Iphigenia, then froze and looked back.

"That bunny," she stammered. "I have one exactly like it!" The two connected eyes and suddenly everything fell into place. Those eyes, the familiarity. Everything makes sense now.

"Daisy?" Cal murmured. She frowned.

"How do you know my name?"

"It's me," Cal said softly. The second girl kept looking between the two of them then walked a little bit away, giving them some space.

Finally, she smelled him. Her eyes widened. "Cal?!" He nodded. Her face broke out into the same smile he knew so well from his childhood. "Oh my god Cal! It's been so long, where have you been?"

He shrugged, inexplicably happy all of a sudden. "My parents brought us here. Where have you been?" Her eyes clouded over, and he had a chilling sense of foreboding. Something had happened at their old pack, something bad. "Ah, never mind," he waved it off and watched as relief pooled in her face. "It doesn't matter now. What matters is that we found each other again, and this time I will not let let go." They stood there smiling at each other, not noticing that Alex was staring at them from inside the house while talking about the history of the pack house. His eyes were clouded, but he hid his pain well. All he could see was his best friend hitting it off very well with a very pretty girl. But the other girl noticed.

"Come on," Cal said suddenly feeling like he was doing something wrong. "Let's catch up with the others." They turned and caught up with the other girl Daisy had been walking with, and she introduced herself as Elizabeth Chen.

They were walking behind the group silently, when Elizabeth spoke up. "So," she said awkwardly. Cal looked over at her. She wouldn't meet his eyes. "What's the situation with you and the Alpha?" She still wouldn't look at him.

"Alex is my second oldest friend, we've been inseparable since a little after I got to this pack. Why?" He was a little confused. Where was this coming from?

Elizabeth looked up at him in surprise. "Oh! It's just I saw the way you two handled the little one you're holding, and I was wondering if you two were together and had adopted her."

Cal burst out laughing. He didn't know why he found it so funny, maybe he was covering for some other emotion, but he laughed nonetheless. "Alex and I? Nah, this is my little sister. We raised her together, along with all my other brothers."

"Other brothers?" Daisy questioned. Last time she had seen the Edmonds family, Tia had been very pregnant.

"Yeah, Tia had twins, then proceeded to have two more sons, then little Iphigenia." Cal tickled his little sister on the stomach and she giggled, shoving his hands away lightly. She was by far the easiest of all of them, even Remus. She was just so happy, so warm. Cal didn't notice the shadow that had crossed Daisy's face at his use of his mother's first name.

"What are your brother's names? Do they know about me? How old are they? What are the like? How are your parents?" Daisy shot off, hitting Cal with question after question. He smiled and laughed lightly, not able to hide the pain behind his eyes white fast enough.

"Tia passed, and Henry is god know's where. But I'll introduce you to my brothers, they have heard about you. My first best friend. They refuse to believe I had a best friend before Alex though, so we might have to tell some embarrassing stories to prove it." Cal and Daisy grinned at each other, and Elizabeth was suddenly hit with a feeling of not belonging. She and Daisy had been best friends since Daisy had joined her pack, but she was different with Cal. Lighter. Elizabeth was jealous for a second, before shaking that thought. She had no reason to be jealous. She had a different relationship with Daisy, and that was fine.

Elizabeth slipped away unnoticed, heading to the front of the tour, silently joining Alpha Alex. He didn't notice her at first, but when she coughed lightly he jumped and turned his head to look at her. "Well hello there, you are terrifying," Alex said. He took in her face, she was pretty, short hair and bright brown eyes, lovely skin. She smiled, revealing straight white teeth. How could one girl be this pretty?

"Hi," she said, sticking out her hand for him to shake. "I'm Elizabeth."

After a pause he took her hand and shook it firmly. "Hi Elizabeth, I'm Alex. Nice to meet you."

Alex glanced back and saw Cal still hitting it off with that girl, then he noticed Elizabeth studying him.

"They come from the same pack," Elizabeth explained. Alex nodded. It still hurt seeing him so close with someone else. He started to panic, but felt something grab his hand. He looked down to see another hand, which led to Elizabeth. She smiled tentatively. "Maybe we can help each other?" He smiled too, and squeezed her hand once.

And just like that, a new friendship was born.

[clodiuspulcher]

Can I ask what draws you to Agamemnon? He's often kind of a difficult figure to grapple with. Sincere question btw, not meant to sound mean I swear :)

NO NO this isn’t mean at all it’s uh. yeah I know it’s an unpopular Take / Opinion and I really do … care deeply about Agamemnon as a character, so thanks for giving me a chance to explain! it’s complicated, he’s complicated… This is gonna get long

I: APPEARANCE Let’s first put the shallow aspects on the table: he’s big, he’s powerful, he’s My Type (physically), I’m gay. This never comes through in film adaptations (although you know what? 1962 Electra Agamemnon comes close, although he’s overshadowed by the hot Aegisthus) but look at how he’s described in the Iliad: He’s compared to 3 gods, canonically Agamemnon is the most handsome man Priam’s EVER seen in his like one million years of life (a list of men which includes Aeneas , Hector, etc). (this post). When Priam says he’s “Every inch a king”, baby, you know what that means-Anyway , @kashuan‘s art is VERY good for conveying how I imagine Agamemnon based on these descriptions. and he’s drawn like exactly my type there. It’s a lot to reckon with.He’s big. He has big arms and big thighs and could kill me if he wanted and he’s powerful and his aristeia is badass and i’m gay. thanks. II: PERSONALITY Now this part is. more about Agamemnon’s character. first, Agamemnon in the Iliad is in fact deeply flawed- he’s imperious and arrogant and shortsighted and short-tempered, he’s stubborn and selfish and ALL OF THE THINGS PEOPLE HAVE SAID HE IS but there’s also a complexity to his character that tends to get flattened - I think because Agamemnon’s at his worst in book 1, people adhere to this AWFUL first impression and don’t bother to look beneath the surface / take the rest of his behavior / his character into account / use this as the baseline of their understanding, but there IS MUCH MORE to him than that behavior even in the Iliad itself, as detailed in THIS POST. He’s a powerful warrior in his own right, and his failings reflect both the internal flaws of his character and the weight of his responsibilities; we see his concern for his men, for the army, the people, in books 4 and 10 (when he can’t sleep because of his anxiety about his men, about Hector). He DOES however, learn and become better, he grows, he’s dynamic: he and Achilles finally make up (book 19! book 23! They’re good now!) and the Odyssey also ends with their ghosts talking as friends.

(Side note I wonder how this works out when Agamemnon’s son kills Achilles’s son but… that’s for another day).

There’s complexity in Agamemnon’s characterization in the tragedies as well, each tragedian has a different portrait of Agamemnon but he’s never one-dimensional.Euripides’ Hecuba has Agamemnon as concerned about his image and his reputation, anxious (and almost insecure) about his authority, but also concerned with justice and the rule of law, even towards one’s enemies. Sophocles’ Ajax portrays an imperious, proud, stubborn Agamemnon who refuses to realize he’s in the wrong but is able to be convinced by the council of Odysseus and eventually, again, comes to an understanding. Seneca’s Trojan Women shows Agamemnon as a Stoic voice of Reason, urging Pyrrhus not to be too violent/hubristic in their victory, and I love both the presentation of Agamemnon as a tired old man wanting to go home and the sort of man who gets into arguments with teenagers about war crimes. As usual, Seneca excels at this subtlety of characterization, this is like the epitome of the Dichotomy of Agamemnon, sympathetic and infuriating, a good leader and a stubborn, proud man, stoic and short-tempered, as present in the Iliad, is here too, and I love it , and him. Seneca’s Agamemnon almost reverses this (HE REALLY SAYS “What can a victor fear”) but I still love that play, and there’s something to be said for the characterization of Agamemnon as someone who learned ABSOLUTELY nothing from victory.

Overall, it’s true that we get, mainly, a portrait of a hard, ruthless, powerful, embittered man- remember how he destroys that one guy Menelaus wanted to save in the Iliad - but he has a sort of “aggressive charisma” as Kashuan once put it and I REALLY see it, and honestly that in itself has some sort of an appeal to me. But with this portrait of his personality, his softer aspects, the moments of gentleness we see, are more striking, they really stand out and indicate the extent of his feelings. In the iliad, for example, we clearly see he loves Menelaus and while he’s almost laughably over-protective (MORE ON THIS LATER), his care for his brother is evident, touching, especially juxtaposed with his shortsighted selfishness. Just look at what happens in Book 4, when Menelaus is barely wounded and Agamemnon is practically writing his eulogy. Right afterwards, also, “Noble Agamemnon showed no reluctance, no cowardice or hesitation, only eagerness for the fight where men win glory”- he rushes in to fight (but not before first taking out his anxiety on his men by demanding more from them. Cannot do anything appealing / good without mitigating it with irritating behavior. love this fool). It takes him like 9 books to finally apologize to Achilles but he defends Menelaus from Nestor’s reproach in book 10, is anxious about Menelaus being in danger if he’s picked to go on a night raid with Diomedes (HERE) and is endearingly not-subtle about it, frets over him in book 4, when he’s wounded, etc.

The love for his family is something that continually stands out and is perhaps his main “redeeming” trait. In the Odyssey, as mentioned, he ask Odysseus desperately about Orestes with heart-rending choice of words especially when one considers Orestes’s Actual Fate: “Come tell me, in truth, have you heard if my son is still alive, maybe in Orchomenus or sandy Pylos, or in Menelaus’ broad Sparta: that my noble Orestes is not yet dead?”. Agamemnon’s no longer a king- he’s a worried father, he regrets the most not being able to see Orestes before he’s killed; it is this pain, of not being able to be a father to his children, which seems to cut the most deeply, which he speaks of multiple times to Odysseus. Then they just cry for a while, with each other. (I like these tender aspects hidden in a big mean man.. but I also like his big meanness).

the Tragedies take this to another level, of course, to drive home the PATHOS required for his death to have an impact but his love of his family is very much on display there. Iphigenia in Aulis in particular provides us with some agonizing demonstrations of this love: Iphigenia reminisces about an exceptionally tender moment in their relationship, when she was young (you used to ask me, “I wonder, my darling, will I get to see you married one day, married and settled happily in your husband’s home, your life ever blossoming, making me proud of you?” And I’d touch your chin, my father, hang from your beard, father, like I’m doing now and say, “and what about you, father, will I get to see you, father, an old man, visiting me at my house, ready for me to repay you for your hard work in raising me?”) an image hard to reconcile with the merciless violence and stubborn arrogance Agamemnon displays in the Iliad (BUT AGAIN, THAT’S THE APPEAL). Clytemnestra assumes he’s crying because he’s sad to see Iphigenia leave them, Agamemnon’s messenger tells him the arrival of his family will cheer him up: even his subordinates know how important they are to him.

I’d need a whole nother post to talk about his relationship with Clytemnestra but please peruse these crumbs I picked off the ground (HERE). they Had something, tbh the tragedy ONLY WORKS if they did and I will DIE on this hill. In Aeschylus, Clytemnestra calls Orestes the “mutual pledge of their love”, he calls her a “great-hearted woman”, she shirks in Aulis at his curt, demanding tone towards her, noting it as something out of character, she takes charge anyway, knows he can’t or won’t actually force her not to be involved in the Iphigenia marriage preparations-All of this creates an image of a man whose imperious, ruthless, stubborn character is balanced with a surprising capacity for tenderness, a genuine fondness and love for the members of his family, which makes the fact that his hand, albeit forced, aids in its destruction, that much more devastating.III: PSYCHOLOGY/HISTORY

Where things get especially interesting for me, character-wise, is when one thinks about his lineage, his past, and his childhood with respect to his current character. This section is about the House of Atreus in general.

Agamemnon clearly bears the scars of his environment: he was born into the House of Atreus and IMO that informs everything he says and does, all his thoughts and feelings, the way he perceives both the world and his place in it. Seneca’s Thyestes is a horrific portrait of what Agamemnon (and Menelaus’s) childhoods must have been like, ATREUS is their father, they were old enough during this event to almost be accomplices which means they’re clearly old enough to remember it. Speaking of that, Atreus isn’t worried that participating in his god-crime schemes will turn his sons evil because, in his mind, they were born evil (Ne mali fiant times? nascuntur. God GOD). Agamemnon and Menelaus grow up in a nightmare house, adjacent to atrocity, under the almost comically cruel hand of Atreus who sincerely believed his sons inherited said cruelty as if its on the same chromosome as the “house-curse” gene. It’s genuinely a miracle Agamemnon and Menelaus grew up to be functional fucking human beings, in my opinion. It also gives a lot more weight to his relationship with Menelaus and the hard imperious cast of his character; their bond was forged in fire, Agamemnon likely protected Menelaus from the worst of Nightmare House being the older brother, and being as protective as he is. There’s this one Iliad adaptation, I can’t think of it off the top of my head though, where when Agamemnon’s freaking out about Menelaus being Barely Wounded he says “don’t die… for you are all I have” and that’s absolutely  how I think about their relationship in this context- Menelaus WAS all he had for so long, they clung to each other, they preserved their humanity in the face of horror BECAUSE OF each other.

But functional like.. .for a given value of “function”. Agamemnon is clearly deeply affected by these events, the weight of the Curse of the House of Atreus clearly impacts him. Take Iphigenia in Aulis, where he says “each one is born with his bitterness waiting for him”, the fact that a Son of Atreus would say that, I think, speaks to the innate, unspeakable fear of the certain destruction of his world, of the tragedy that awaits him, at his own hands, of the House-Curse waiting perched on his shoulder to strike just when he thought he’d created something impenetrable. The tragedy of Iphigenia in Aulis is Agamemnon’s realization that he has locked himself into this, that he has no other choice (see: this post about the Odysseus impact, there is in fact a point when it’s inevitable, although he still made the first move which makes it even WORSE he created this, etc) and all he can do at this point is watch as the life he so carefully built for himself and his family collapses around him, just like he must have always dreaded it would. (Also in the Iliad It’s Agamemnon who says “We must toil, in accord with the weight of sorrow Zeus loaded us with at birth” and that reminds me of this aspect of him too: Good Things Never Last, Bad Things Never Die, etc.)

It’s made clear that the story of Atreus and Thyestes is widespread, familiar; Teucer in Sophocles’ Ajax and Neoptolemus in Seneca’s Trojan Women both call out Agamemnon for trying to reference his lineage as a source of authority because it is a HORRIFIC lineage. “I know about the famous family of Atreus and Thyestes”, Neoptolemus says. And THEREIN LIES A CONFLICT: Agamemnon’s sense of self comes from his authority, his kingship, his position of power and his social status as a member of the nobility, of the class of royalty BUT. It’s all undercut by the fact that this power, authority, indeed his very identity is based in cruelty, violence, and crime; Agamemnon is descended from the most ignoble nobility, which he knows all too well.

It’s Interesting that Agamemnon’s relationship with his identity, status, family, power is brought up in Ajax, of all plays, primarily concerned with the destruction of Ajax’s identity- reminding Agamemnon of the crimes of his house genuinely cuts him down. I see Agamemnon as a man who genuinely fears his past, who dreads the legacy of his father and in his desperation creates a crisis for himself (as happens in tragedy).

We (I) laugh at Agamemnon “forgetting” about the god-crime shit before he pulls rank by referencing his Authority and Status but there’s something in Agamemnon continually being owned by forgetting about the House….  Agamemnon wants to distance himself from the “legacy” he inherited from Atreus, but he can’t without disavowing his power, his authority, his identity. Whether he likes it or not (he does Not), this is fundamental to who he is. I feel like that knowledge too lurks in his mind, rises to the forefront occasionally at his lowest points-

Clytemnestra in Aeschylus’s Agamemnon pretty clearly sees him / his actions as the next link in the god-crime family chain, a continuation of the house -curse, heir to his father’s throne and his crimes, hence her belief that killing him is the only way to end it/ stop the cycle of violence (spoiler she is wrong but there’s another post coming eventually about how they are Very Similar Characters short version the Etruscans Understand).

IN short, I think there’s a lot of complexity in Agamemnon people overlook, or don’t get to see since they don’t read the peripheral plays. Agamemnon seems to me a man in conflict with himself, a Man of Contradictions, who defines himself by his authority and status while fearing the source of it, whose devotion to his family contrasts with the horror of his childhood, and with his own agonizing role in its destruction, a man who willfully ignores or cannot bring himself to fully interact with the legacy of Atreus, who tries to distance himself from the crimes of his house and the cruelty of his father while being reminded of both every time he’s called by the epithet Atreides.