Western Literature week 12

Aeschylus 

Aeschylus was an ancient Greek tragedian. He is often described as the father of tragedy. Critics' and scholars' knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in theater allowing conflict among them; characters previously had interacted only with the chorus.

Oresteia

The Murder Of Agamemnon

The Oresteia is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus

concerning the murder of Agamemnon by Clytaemnestra, the murder of Clytaemnestra by Orestes, the trial of Orestes, the end of the curse on the House of Atreus and pacification of the Erinyes. This trilogy also shows how the Greek gods interacted with the characters and influenced their decisions pertaining to events and disputes. The only extant example of an ancient Greek theater trilogy, the Oresteia won first prize at the Dionysia festival in 458 BC. Many consider the Oresteia to be Aeschylus' finest work. The principal themes of the trilogy include the contrast between revenge and justice, as well as the transition from personal vendetta to organized litigation.

Cassandra 

Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, lords of Troy, in Greek mythology. She was also known as Alexandra.

According to one myth, god Apollo gave her the gift of foretelling the future and then tried to sleep with her. However, she rejected him and to punish her, he cursed her so that no one would ever believe her prophecies. A different version has it that Cassandra initially consented to sleeping with the god in exchange for the ability to foresee the future, only to break her promise after she received the gift.

After being cursed, she was met with disbelief by her family and by the Trojans. She foretold that Paris, her brother, would bring about a war that would destroy their city, if he went to Sparta. Her brother did not believe her, and upon his return from Sparta with Menelaus' wife, Helen, Cassandra attacked her for the pain that was about to be caused. She also foretold that Troy would fall by a clever machination of the Greeks, the Trojan Horse, in which they would hide; her fellow citizens did not listen to her words, thus causing the end of the city.

Clytemnestra

Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon and queen of Mycenae (or sometimes Argos) in ancient Greek legend. In the Oresteia by Aeschylus, she murdered Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan princess Cassandra, whom he had taken as war prize following the sack of Troy; however, in Homer's Odyssey, her role in Agamemnon's death is unclear and her character is significantly more subdued.

In medias res

A narrative work beginning in medias res opens in the midst of action. Often, exposition is bypassed and filled in gradually, either through dialogue, flashbacks or description of past events. For example, Hamlet begins after the death of Hamlet's father. Characters make reference to King Hamlet's death without the plot's first establishment of said fact. Since the play focuses on Hamlet and the revenge itself more so than the motivation, Shakespeare utilizes in medias res to bypass superfluous exposition.

Orestes

In Greek mythology, Orestes was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various myths connected with his madness and purification, which retain obscure threads of much older ones.