Classical Wisdom Litterae - January 2021

All that remains is the manner of his death which, although just, still manages to sicken and disturb. C l y t emne s t r a mu r de r s he r husband in his bath. Though ‘murder’ is not quite accurate, she sacrifices him, much as he had sacrificed Iphigenia: “I gave a third and fin a l b l o w , m y thanks for prayers fulfilled, to Zeus.” More disturbing still is her mania at the point of triumph: “With cough and retch there spurted f rom him bloody foam in a fierce jet, a n d s p r e a d i n g , spattered me with drops of crimson rain”. This is not a chronicle of a horror, or even victorious crowing, but feels more l ike Clytemnestra revel ing in a disturbing and distasteful orgasm of blood: “while I exulted as the sown cornfield exults drenched with the dew of heaven when buds burst forth in Spring.” L u s t a n d b l o o d - l u s t a r e intermingled to such an extent that they sully and demean the justice of vengeance. Especially in regard to the fact that she has, quite arbitrarily, decided to execute Cassandra too: “He – as you see him; she first, like the dying swan, sang her death- song, and now lies in her lover’s clasp. Brought as a var i ant to the pleasure of my bed, she lends an added relish now to victory.” T h i s i s t h e k e y question repeatedly r a i s e d i n t h e Agamemnon: ‘What is justice’? We can comprehend that Clytemnestra is j u s t i n k i l l i n g Agamemnon, but not Cassandra. Likewise she is unjust in marrying Aegisthus, as this will disinherit her son, Orestes. Aegisthus goes on to show a further injustice when he tries to kill the Chorus, only to be stopped by Clytemnestra: “Stop, stop, Aegisthus, dearest! No more violence!” Whatever the justice of the piece, there is no doubt the figure of Agamemnon lying dead in the bath, cuckolded, outsmar ted, impious, naked and helpless is an entirely pathetic and unheroic end for the victorious commander of the Trojan War. “ This is not a chronicle of a horror, or even victorious crowing, but feels more like Clytemne stra reveling in a di st urbing and di st a st eful orgasm of blood ” XLII