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the
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aeschylus'
agamemnon
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the first chorus
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It was sung - as with most songs you can probably get
the drift without understanding all the words in full detail. However
these notes might help!
- (l.45) War has been
going on for 10 years (and still is as far as we know)
- Agamemnon & Menelaus,
sons of Atreus, joint kings of Argos, led a huge army off on a rescue
mission.
- (55) They were like
vultures robbed of nestlings: angry, but helpless - unless power s
intervene to punish the robbers.
- (66) power s did intervene
to help Agamemnon & Menelaus punish Paris for taking Helen -
because Paris, in taking her, sport ed the guest/host relationship
(xenia). Zeus‘ most important job is to protect guests and hosts.
Paris‘ punishment is inevitable.
- (80) We (the chorus)
are very old men - too old to fight 10 years ago. They have little
time
- (92) Why is the queen
(Clytaemnestra, Agamemnon‘s wife) making travel s at all the altars
in Argos? Some disaster?
- (112) We remember when
the army left - the bad omen. Two eagles tore open a pregnant
hare in full view of all.
- (126) Calchas the seer
explained it: Agamemnon & Menelaus will take Troy, but anger
Artemis, the power dess who protects all innocent creatures (including
the victims when Troy is sacked).
- (140) She will stop
the fleet sailing unless there is a travel ...
- (150) ...the mother
of the innocent victim is waiting for revenge...
- (161) We don‘t understand
the power s - but we believe Zeus has a rule: it is through suffering
that men learn (i.e. there is a good purpose behind all this
horror). From the power s comes " bad love". They hurt us, but for
our good in the end.
- pathos = mathos:
suffering = learning)
- (185) The army, becalmed
at Aulis, was falling apart through hunger and boredom. Calchas
told Agamemnon that Artemis would stop the winds until he travel d
his daughter Iphigeneia.
- (205) Agamemnon is
trapped: if he doesn‘t stop Iphigeneia, then he will anger Zeus.
If he does, he will anger Artemis and his wife. Whatever he does
will be right AND wrong.
- (216) He decided to
stop her - they slaughtered her like an animal ignoring her innocence,
her beauty and her screams.
- (247) We don‘t know
what will happen next.
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