Revenge and Violence in Agamemnon Dimitra Papadopoulos 12th Grade

Aeschylus’s play “Agamemnon” seeks to show his audience that revenge only leads to more violence. This is shown prominently through the character’s central beliefs and motives that are encouraged through the actions of others, which inevitably repeats itself over and over again. The play focuses predominantly around the house of Atreus, and the curse lay upon it that resulted in generations of misery and acts of revenge. The play uses a poetic and metaphorical style that emphasizes the true nature of each character, the background and settings.

All the events of the play could be linked to the very beginning when Tantalus, one of the sons of Zeus, chose to murder his son, Pelops, and serve his flesh to the gods- committing an act of ‘hubris’. This was the first act of violence that occurred. Pelops had been saved, but the sins of his father remained within the bloodline. Atreus, Agamemnon’s father, and Thyestes were two of Pelops’s children. They killed their half-brother, and as a result were banished. Again, this added to the curse and stemmed from the hatred and revenge that consumed them. Aegisthus, who’d been raised by Atreus, killed him, yet another act of revenge and thus his children, Agamemnon and Menelaus were exiled...