Iliad Agamemnon Antigone and Medea

¶ … Revenge in the Ancient Greek Plays The classic literature, such as the plays and stories created during ancient Greek times, often had more than mere aesthetic, entertainment, or shock value. Much like today's literature and films, these often sought to bring their audiences a deeper message.

While this is not to say that most of today's media has much to offer by way of a deeper message, much of their appeal lie in the exposition of human behavior, human nature, and how morality and ethics play a role to mitigate the worst within us all. This is also the appeal of the classic literature. A such, pieces of literature like the Iliad, Agamemnon, Antigone, and Medea, tend to reject revenge, while revering moderation and other factors such as age and ancestry.

Anger and revenge are themes that go hand in Homer's Iliad. The underlying implication appears to be that terrible things happen because of the negative actions and emotions associated with these themes. Achilles, as one of the main characters, embodies these themes, as he remains enraged for the majority of the poem. In fact, one of Homer's principle themes is this rage and its negative consequences. In the opening lines of the first book, Homer mentions the "countless ills" this anger has brought upon the Achaeans.

The opening paragraph also hints at the first disagreement, between Achilles and Agamemnon, which brought about this rage and its deadly consequences. Ultimately, this rage resulted in war, intensified fighting, and reciprocal revenge among all the participants. In Book XXII, Achilles himself takes revenge by killing Hector for the death of Patroclus. In Book XXIV, Achilles takes his revenge even further by publicly humiliating Hector's corpse, dragging it around behind his chariot. As such, Achilles' rage, finally intensified into action, becomes revenge, which is termed "mad" even by the gods.

From the start of the poem to almost its final line, it is therefore clear that anger, revenge, and the actions they lead to are in general destructive and undesirable. On the other hand, there is a reverence and respect for ancestry, tradition, and age. Priam, Hector's father, devastated by his son's death, risks his own life by going into Achilles' camp, against the advice of his family and acquaintances, to plead for his son's body.

It is a little ironic that Priam's age reminds Achilles of his own father and is the only thing that finally succeeds in breaking through his cycle of rage and revenge. In Agamemnon, there is nothing to cut through Clytaemestra's drive to avenge her daughter, killed by her husband and king, Agamemnon, in sacrifice. The entire play is infused with sense of dread because of the horror of the decades-long Trojan war and the actions that went with it.

Many have died, and many have died in vengeance for the death of others. Following the story in the Iliad, Agamemnon appears to carry on the legacy of horror, death, and revenge. Even when victory is announced at Troy, the underlying sense of dread and impending violence does not recede. Specifically, the Chorus focuses this dread upon the sacrifice of Iphigeneia at the hands of Agamemnon. The gods, according to the Chorus, are angered by this violence and will avenge her.

One might therefore assume that Clytaemestra's revenge towards the end of the play is justified, and even sanctioned, by the gods. And indeed, when Clytaemestra is found with the murdered bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra at her feet, she claims to be the instrument of the gods for this very purpose. However, the play also shows her as a mother profoundly upset by the death of her daughter. Her revenge was also personal.

The play is so infused with war, murder, and revenge that there is little indication of respect for age or ancestry. Indeed, Clytaemestra directly defies both the chorus and the elders, both representative of age, ancestry, and the gods. Instead, she defers only to her lover and new king, Aegisthus, who helped her with the murder plot. Nevertheless, one might argue that the implication is that revenge, especially on a personal level, begets only more blood and one's own downfall, as predicted for Clytaemestra by the Chorus.

On the whole, the plot of Antigone is far milder than that of Agamemnon, where there is little sense of the main characters understanding the error of their ways. Whereas Clytaemestra's ambition blinds her to her own mistakes, Creon, the new king of Thebes in Antigone, begins his reign by doing what he believes is necessary to establish his rule. When he is defied by Antigone, however, his drive for justice is so strong that he is blind to all advice to the contrary.

As a final outcome, he loses both his wife and son, while he never has the opportunity to repair the damage he has done to the lives of Antigone and Ismene. In this play, the focus on revenge is far less prominent than a sense of respect for the gods and ancestry. Because Creon would not honor Antigone's wish to honor the body of her brother according to her ancestral customs, he ends the play a broken man, utterly alone in the world.

He is still king, but he has nothing left that brought meaning to his kingship. Rather than revenge, the play is therefore a warning against defying the customs established by the ancestry, regardless of the motive behind it. The play Medea probably offers the most extreme of revenge themes. The play opens with Jason's betrayal of Medea, his wife and mother to his two children by taking another wife.

Regardless of all Medea did for him in an attempt to win him the throne, the whole family is exiled for murdering the king. One might regard it as an act of revenge that Jason took a new wife, although this is not the central revenge of the play. After Jason's betrayal, it is Medea that plots revenge, and it is her revenge that also removes everything she cares for from her.

After securing her own freedom in the form of protection by Aetreus, and old friend and king, Medea vows to kill not only Jason's new bride and the bride's father, but also her own children. This final extreme action is justified by her wish to wound Jason, but also to protect the children from harm at the hands of her enemies. Of course, the Chorus is completely against this plan and begs her to reconsider. Medea's violent heart, however, is set upon revenge. She succeeds.

Jason finds her and her murdered children in a chariot drawn by dragons. She mocks him and they both blame.