This dialogue introduces a new phase of the course: it is about the reshaping of heroes in Greek tragedy.
The case in point here is Agamemnon in the epic Iliad and in the tragedy Agamemnon.
I emphasize the evolution of tragedy in the historical context of the feast of City Dionysia: for a compressed summary of the essential background, read Nagy on Athenian state theater, in the Sourcebook.
1. key word: atē veering, aberration, derangement; disaster; punishment for disaster.
Notice the cause-and-effect
ambivalence: atē can be the result
of damage or its cause; atē is a key concept in tragedy; compare hamartia, sometimes translated as 'flaw'.
1a. The basic metaphor of atē: being blown off course while sailing a ship
1b. The basic metaphor of hamartia: missing the mark while shooting at a target
1c. Some background...
Aeschylus was a pioneer of tragedy.
An interesting detail about him: he fought in the battle of Marathon, in the year 490 BCE. One of his early works is the Persai, produced in 472; the khorēgos was Pericles (by hindsight, Pericles is the chief exponent of democracy in the Classical period of the 5th century).
Another work of Aeschylus was the Seven against Thebes, produced in the year 467. Most famous is his trilogy of the Oresteia (Agamemnon, Libation-Bearers, Eumenides), produced in the year 458.
Aeschylus visited the tyrant Hieron in Syracuse sometime after 472; he produced there the Aitnaiai and a re-performance of the Persai.
1d. Tyrants in Athens (Peisistratidai) pioneered theater, democracy inherited it.
1e. key concept in tragedy: turannos as king or tyrant
1f. Aeschylus is a pioneer in introducing epic themes into theater, specifically tragedy, at the feast of the City Dionysia; case in point, Agamemnon
1g. In Iliad XIX, Agamemnon the king says that he is not guilty; he says that atē made him do it (verses 87-89). In the case of Achilles, Phoenix tells him in Iliad IX 512 that atē is the punishment for someone who rejects the emotion of pity.
1h. But the Iliad never passes judgment on Agamemnon - or on Achilles.
1i. Agamemnon is afflicted with atē; how about Achilles?
1j. chain of evil as background for the Oresteia trilogy: Thyestes (father of Aegisthus) makes a corrupt sacrifice in order to win kingship; Thyestes seduces the wife of his brother Atreus (father of Agamemnon and Menelaos); Atreus has revenge by tricking Thyestes into eating his own children; Agamemnon kills his own daughter, and this killing is what starts the winds that will propel the fleet of the Achaeans to Troy; after Troy is destroyed by the Achaeans, Agamemnon forces the Trojan princess Cassandra to be his bedmate; meanwhile, "back at the ranch," Clytemnestra accepts Aegisthus as her bedmate; Clytemnestra helps Aegisthus kill Agamemnon when he comes home; Orestes kills Clytemnestra and Aegisthus when he comes home from exile.
A) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 720 ff:
Chorus: (strophe 2) Even so [houtō] a man reared in his house a lion's whelp, robbed of its mother's milk yet still desiring the breast. Gentle it was [720] in the prelude [= before the time of telos] of its life, kindly to children, and a delight to the old. Much did it get, held in arms like a nursling child, with its [725] bright eye turned toward his hand, and fawning under compulsion of its belly's need. (antistrophe 2) But brought to full growth by time it demonstrated the nature it had from its parents. Unbidden, in return [kharis] for its fostering, [730] it prepared a feast with a slaughter of destruction [atē] inflicted on the flocks; so that the house was defiled with blood, and they that lived there could not control their anguish, and great was the carnage far and wide. [735] A priest of Derangement [atē], by order of a god, it was reared in the house.
1k. The word houtō 'even so' that introduces this story signals an ainos. Compare houtō at Iliad IX 524 introducing the story of Meleager.
1l. Compare Herodotus Book 6 (not in Sourcebook), where the mother of Pericles dreams that she gives birth to a lion cub.
1m. We see here the telos of viciousness.
B) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1ff:
Watchman: I ask the gods for release from these ordeals [ponoi] of mine, throughout this long year's watch, in which, lying upon the palace roof of the descendants of Atreus, upon my bent arm, like a dog, I have learned to know well the gathering of the night's stars, those radiant potentates conspicuous in the firmament, [5] bringers of winter and summer to mankind. So now I am still watching for the signal [sumbolon] of the flame, the gleaming fire that is to bring news from Troy [10] and tidings of its capture. É [20] But tonight may there come a happy release from these ordeals [ponoi] of mine! May the fire with its glad tidings flash through the gloom! Oh welcome, you blaze in the night, a light as if of day, you harbinger of the setting up [kata-stasis] of many khoroi in Argos in thanksgiving for this glad event! [25] Iou! Iou! To Agamemnon's Queen I thus make a signal [sēmainō] to rise from her bed, and as quickly as she can to utter in a proper way [euphēmeō] in her palace halls a shout of ololu in welcome of this fire, if the city of Ilion [30] truly is taken, as this beacon unmistakably announces. And I will join the khoros in a prelude upon my own account. É [35] For the rest I stay silent; a great ox stands upon my tongue - yet the house itself, could it but speak, might tell a plain enough tale; since, for my part, by my own choice I have words for those who know, and to those who do not know, I am without memory.
2a. The word euphēmeō means 'utter in a proper way' or 'be silent' for those who are initiated when it is applied in a sacred context; it means 'be silent' when it is applied in a non-sacred context.
2b. Notice that tragedy stylizes itself here as khoros.
Richard Douglas Abrams writes to GN on April 7, 2006:
As regards the signal fires, the following from my notes on Paris may be of interest.
"A rather fascinating communication system connected the Louvre's royal occupants, with distant cities. Claude Chappe's semaphore system allowed communication between the Louvre and Lille, 130 miles distant, in 2 minutes and Calais in 3. Bordeaux and Lyon were similarly communicated with.
The system was introduced in 1792 and was used until 1854. The tour of St. Sulpice was the first relay point. A statue of Chappe was erected on the corner of Rue du Bac and Boulevard St. Germain after the Morse system replaced the Telegraphe Aerien. The Nazis removed it in 1942 along with 200 other statues, which were melted down for the manufacture of shell casings."
C) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 40ff:
Chorus: This is now the tenth year since Priam's mighty adversary, King Menelaos, and with him King Agamemnon, the mighty pair of Atreus' sons, joined in honor of throne and scepter by Zeus, [45] set forth from this land with an army of a thousand ships manned by Argives, a warrior force to champion their cause. Loud rang the battle-cry they uttered in their rage, just as eagles scream which, [50] in lonely grief for their brood, rowing with the oars of their wings, wheel high over their nests, because they have wasted the toil [ponos] of guarding their nurslings' nest. [55] But some one of the powers supreme - Apollo perhaps or Pan, or Zeus - hears the shrill wailing scream of the clamorous birds, these sojourners in his realm, and against the transgressors sends an Erinys at last though late. [60] Even so Zeus, whose power is over all, Zeus lord of xenoi, sends the sons of Atreus against Alexander, so that for the sake of a woman with many a husband he may inflict many and wearying struggles - when the knee is pressed in the dust and [65] the spear is splintered in the onset - on Danaans and on Trojans alike. The case now stands where it stands - it moves to fulfillment [telos] at its destined end. Not by offerings burned in secret, not by secret libations, [70] not by tears, shall man soften the stubborn wrath of unsanctified sacrifices.
3a. An Erinys (pl. Erinyes) is a Fury, a superhuman personification of the vengeful anger stored up in those who died. The Erinyes represent a collectivized way of imagining the angry spirits of the dead. When someone dies angry, there is unfinished business to be processed after death.
3b. Who is the nestling? In the immediate context, the metaphor points to Helen.
D) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 105ff:
Chorus: (strophe 1) I have the authority to proclaim the augury of power [kratos] given on their way to [105] princely men - since my age still breathes Persuasion upon me from the gods, the strength of song - how the twin-throned power [kratos] of the Achaeans, [110] the single-minded captains of Hellas' youth, with avenging spear and arm against the Teucrian land, was sent off by the inspiriting omen appearing to the kings of the ships - kingly birds, [115] one black, one white of tail, near the palace, on the spear-hand, in a conspicuous place, devouring a hare with offspring unborn caught in the last effort to escape.
Sing the song of woe, the song of woe, but may the good prevail!
(antistrophe 1) Then the wise seer of the host, noticing how the two warlike sons of Atreus were two in temper, recognized the devourers of the hare as the leaders of the army, and [125] thus interpreted the portent and spoke: "In time those who here issue forth shall seize Priam's town, and fate shall violently ravage before its towered walls all the public store of cattle. [130] Only may no jealous god-sent wrath glower upon the embattled host, the mighty bit forged for Troy's mouth, and strike it before it reaches its goal! [135] For, in her pity, holy Artemis is angry at the winged hounds of her father, for they sacrifice a wretched timorous thing, together with her young, before she has brought them forth. An abomination to her is the eagles' feast."
Sing the song of woe, the song of woe, but may the good prevail!
(epode) [140] "Although, O Lovely One, you are so gracious to the tender whelps of fierce lions, and take delight in the suckling young of every wild creature that roams the field, promise that the issue be brought to pass in accordance with these signs [sumbola], portents [145] auspicious yet filled with ill. And I implore Paean, the healer, that she may not raise adverse gales with long delay to stay the Danaan fleet from putting forth, urging another sacrifice, one that knows no law, unsuited for feast, worker of family strife, dissolving wife's reverence for husband. For there abides mēnis - [155] terrible, not to be suppressed, a treacherous guardian of the home, a wrath that never forgets and that exacts vengeance for a child." Such utterances of doom, derived from auguries on the march, together with many blessings, did Kalkhas proclaim to the royal house; and in accord with this,
Sing the song of woe, the song of woe, but may the good prevail!
(strophe 2) [160] Zeus, whoever he may be - if by this name it pleases him to be invoked, by this name I call to him - as I weigh all things in the balance, I have nothing to compare [165] save "Zeus," if in truth I must cast aside this vain burden from my heart. ÉBut whoever, heartily taking thought beforehand, sings a victory song for Zeus, [175] he shall gain wisdom altogether. Zeus, who sets mortals on the path to understanding, Zeus, who has established this as a fixed law: "Learning comes by suffering [pathos]." But even as the ordeal [ponos], bringing memory of pain, drips over the mind in sleep, [180] so equilibrium [being sōphrōn] comes to men, whether they want it or not. Violent, it seems to me, is the kharis of daimones enthroned upon their awesome seats.
4a When Agamemnon and Menelaos are pictured as birds who are robbed of the nestling in their nest, they are exponents of dikē; when Agamemnon and Menelaos are pictured as birds devouring a pregnant hare, then they are exponents of the opposite of dikē.
And Artemis is angry.
Angry at whom or at what?
So far, she is angry at a timeless metaphor. Notice that she is sympathetic to the young of predatory lions, not only to the young of animals that are preyed upon.
4b. Kalkhas the seer interprets the sign: Troy will be taken.
4c. Compare the sign of the snake eating 9 nestlings in Iliad II: again, we see here the themes of fertility/destruction.
4d. atē is double-edged: destruction of Troy is both dikē and hubris.
4e. The mēnis is a cosmic sanction.
4f. A sumbolon 'signal' is a "piece of the puzzle."
E) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 960ff:
Clytemnestra: There is the sea - and who shall drain it dry? - producing stain of abundant purple, costly as silver [960] and ever fresh, with which to dye our clothes; and of these our house, through the gods, has ample store; it knows no poverty. Vestments enough I would have devoted to be trampled underfoot had it been so ordered in the seat of oracles [965] when I was devising a ransom for your life [psukhē]. For if the root still lives, leaves come again to the house and spread their over-reaching shade against the scorching dog star Sirius; so, now that you have come to hearth and home, it signals [sēmainō] that warmth has come in wintertime; [970] and again, when Zeus makes wine from the bitter grape, then immediately there is coolness in the house when its rightful lord occupies his halls.
5a. The purple fabric is not a "red carpet." It is not meant to be stepped on. Just the opposite. To step on the purple fabric is to show one's disregard of the bounties of nature. It is an arrogant act of wasting all the work of weaving and dyeing the fabric.
F) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1179ff.:
Cassandra: And now, no more shall my prophecy peer forth from behind a veil like a new-wedded bride; [1180] but it will rush upon me clear as a fresh wind blowing against the sun's uprising so as to dash against its rays, like a wave, a woe far mightier than mine. No more by riddles [ainigma pl.] will I put knowledge in your phrenes.
6a. Cassandra's prophetic voice is equating the stoppage of winds with the stoppage of vision - of prophetic vision. As she prepares to die, the wind starts blowing again. The wind starts returning just as the clarity of vision starts returning.
G) Agamemnon 1309ff.:
This house stinks of blood-dripping slaughter. ... [1310] It is like a breath from a charnel house.
... Yet once more I would like to speak, but not a dirge. I pray to the sun, in the presence of his latest light, that my enemies may at the same time pay to my avengers a bloody penalty for 1325 slaughtering a slave, an easy prey. Alas for human fortune! When prosperous, a mere shadow can overturn it; if misfortune strikes, the dash of a wet sponge blots out the drawing. 1330 And this last I deem far more pitiable.
7a. If Cassandra is referring to her own misfortune, then the blotting out of Cassandra, as if she were a two-dimensional sketch rather than a three-dimensional person, is an act that will call for further vengeance.