Character and Personality Traits of Agamemnon in Aeschylus
This essay examines the character and personality traits of Agamemnon as portrayed in Aeschylus' tragedy. It traces how Aeschylus expanded earlier mythological sources to develop Agamemnon as a morally complex figure, particularly through the devastating dilemma of sacrificing his daughter Iphigenia to appease Artemis. The paper explores Agamemnon's identity as a military commander, his awareness and agency in the sacrifice, and the ethical dimensions of his decision as analyzed through Nussbaum's framework and comparisons to the biblical Abraham. It also discusses broader thematic concerns in the trilogy, including cycles of blood vengeance, the conflict between old and new divine orders, and the burden of inheritance.
- Introduction: Aeschylus and the Agamemnon Tradition: Aeschylus expands myth into complex moral tragedy
- The Sacrifice of Iphigenia and Divine Conflict: Divine conflict forces Agamemnon's agonizing sacrifice decision
- Agamemnon's Moral Dilemma and Ethical Responsibility: Ethical frameworks applied to Agamemnon's tragic choice
- Agamemnon's Agency and the Question of Blame: Agamemnon acts knowingly despite divine compulsion
- Atmosphere, Themes, and the Broader Trilogy: Blood vengeance cycles and clashing divine orders
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper situates Aeschylus within a broader literary tradition, noting that earlier poets such as Pindar, Homer, and Hesiod handled the same myth — giving context for Aeschylus' distinctive contributions.
- It uses Nussbaum's philosophical framework from The Fragility of Goodness to elevate the analysis beyond plot summary, connecting classical drama to moral philosophy.
- The comparison between Agamemnon and the biblical Abraham is an effective cross-cultural analogy that sharpens the ethical dimensions of the sacrifice dilemma.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the use of a moral philosophy framework (Nussbaum's dilemma theory) to interpret a literary text, showing how secondary theoretical sources can deepen literary analysis. This technique — bringing an external philosophical lens to a primary text — is a core undergraduate humanities skill.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens by contextualizing Aeschylus within the mythological tradition, then narrates the Iphigenia episode before shifting to ethical analysis. It considers Agamemnon's agency and culpability through multiple lenses, and closes with thematic observations about the trilogy as a whole, including the cycle of blood crimes and the clash between divine orders.
Introduction: Aeschylus and the Agamemnon Tradition
Agamemnon's virtue of tolerance and liberalism ultimately proves to be his weakness as a king.
Aeschylus' play Agamemnon is not the first performance of this story. The tale of Agamemnon's return from Troy and his consequent death was treated by Pindar, Hesiod, Homer, and Stesichorus, among other poets, and was quite familiar to the Athenian audience watching Aeschylus. Aeschylus, however, selects and merges these traditions, expanding a simple tale of betrayal and murder by providing the essential characters with credible motives — not only at the human level, but also at the divine. This approach allows him to construct a play founded on tragic conflicts far more complicated than those in the mythological sources he draws upon.
Apart from minor details, Aeschylus makes modifications to the background accounts of the characters before the major action of the play, conveyed through details given in the parados. The chorus' very first statement presents an essential adjustment: Menelaus and "Agamemnon, my lord, twin throned, twin sceptered, in twofold power" (Fong, n.d.).
The Sacrifice of Iphigenia and Divine Conflict
Agamemnon, son of Atreus and joint king of Argos, is the leader of the expedition and is accompanied by his daughter Iphigenia. The goddess Artemis, however, is angered for reasons that remain unspecified, and has stranded the thousand-ship fleet at Aulis. This threatens not only the accomplishment of Zeus's orders, but also the lives of the vast naval army, which faces the prospect of death by starvation and thirst. The prophet Calchas, sailing with Agamemnon's fleet, determines that the only solution is to sacrifice Agamemnon's daughter to appease the goddess. The alternative is the slow death of everyone on the voyage through starvation.
After prolonged deliberation, Agamemnon has his daughter sacrificed. We should be cautious about demanding full motivational explanations from the gods, for Agamemnon shows no desire to blame them for anything, even though he barely comprehends their will. He does not even invoke Zeus's order to punish Troy, but instead focuses on the horror of the proposed sacrifice (Cowley, n.d.).
Agamemnon's Moral Dilemma and Ethical Responsibility
Ethical dilemma discussions establish several significant assumptions about the situation and its participants that we can address by examining Agamemnon directly. Our first response is that Agamemnon is essentially unfortunate to find himself caught between the competing desires of two gods. We might think he should regard himself as the reluctant instrument of their dispute, and that the outcome is ethically equivalent to Artemis having struck down Iphigenia directly, without any human participation. Yet the chorus, while accepting her death as a "yoke of necessity," continues to hold Agamemnon responsible for the sacrifice (Cowley, n.d.).
One thing is clear: Agamemnon is not to blame for finding himself in these circumstances, and thus his situation cannot be reduced to what MacIntyre would call a non-dilemmatic state. Moreover, Iphigenia's sacrifice is genuinely preferable given Agamemnon's sense of identity as primarily a military commander. It is difficult to imagine him having rationally chosen any other course of action (Cowley, n.d.).
Bibliography
AncientGreece. 2009. 08 October 2015.
Cowley, Christopher. "Moral Dilemmas in Greek Tragedies: A Discussion of Aeschylus's." n.d.
Fong, Julian. Aeschylus' Agamemnon: Myth to Tragedy. 6 January. Julian Fong. 08 October 2015.
Hill, Daniel. "'The future you will know when it happens:' A Study of the Parodos of Aeschylus' Agamemnon." 2012.
Nussbaum, M. The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy. CUP, 1986.
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