Theme of Justice in Agamemnon

Theme of Justice in Agamemnon

 

Aeschylus's Agamemnon, the first play of the trilogy, calls our attention to a central concept of justice; Justice as revenge. From the killing of Agamemnon and Cassandra and also from the prophesy of Cassandra (that Clytemnestra will be killed due to her action) we find a clear concept of Justice. That Agamemnon is killed for his and his father's action and that Cassandra is killed for her betrayal to god, Apollo and Clytemnestra and Agisthus will be killed for killing Agamemnon and Cassandra are the acts of Justice. And justice is done in the form of revenge.

 

"The scale of justice falls in equity:

The killer will be killed."

 

The Chorus reveals the ultimate truth that no killer will be escaped and justice will be given for equity holding the rules of Greek days long tradition of justice. In the Pre-Olympian religion "the function of the furies was to punish three major sins: blasphemy against the gods; treachery to a host or guest, and the shedding of kindred blood." (Agamemnon: Penguin Books: 1959: p-17). In the case of the play Agamemnon, the punishment is given to those who transgressed all of the laws mentioned above. The sin of shedding the kindred blood is running since Atreus, father of Agamemnon killed his brother's sons and served them as food to his brother. brother and later Agamemnon killed his daughter; Cassandra committed  blasphemy by rejecting the love offer of Apollo; and at last Paris committed treachery against guest by abducting Helen.

 

However, the shorter version of the theme of Agamemnon is, justice will be done, those who transgress will suffer, woe to be to those who carry out that justice by taking vengeance-  they will, almost inevitably, transgress in their turn and so they will have to suffer.

 

The play Agamemnon opens when Agamemnon comes back to his home after ten years after the fall of Troy. Here we see that king Agamemnon is killed just after the moment he enters his room. And we see that his killer is his wife Clytemnestra. But this is not merely a killing. It is the vengeance taken by Clytemnestra for killing her daughter, Iphigenia. Once the ships of Agamemnon were struck in the middle of the sea because of storm and Agamemnon finding no other way to escape from that storm wanted to sacrifice his daughter's life and ultimately wanted to do the "blasphemous unnatural cruelty" to please Atremis, who sent that storm.

 

So Agamemnon, rather than retreat

Endured to offer up his daughter's life

To help a war fought for a faithless wife

 

In Agamemnon's words, " May good prevail ,  and (god) justify my deed" but his desire was in vain  and slaughtering his daughter he commits the sin and "his prayer was turned to blasphemy"

 

So, " what Calchas prophesies will be fulfilled.

The scale of Justice falls in equity;

The killer will be killed."

 

In the long run, after ten years of the killing of Iphigenia, the judgment for the deed of Agamemnon was done. Although it took long time for the trial of Agamemnon, the decree or Nemesis or his fate ea snoot altered. It would be possible for the human being to forget the past doings but it was perhaps unlike the act of human being was the act of gods who forget nothing so the Nemesis was not altered a single bit. And Agamemnon walks into his death's cage.

 

Once the house of Atreus was full of splendors, but the grandeur is no more because of the sin that is running through generations. In Chorus' words, "Blood that builds a tower of hate". Again says, "Anger still reconciled/ Poisoning a house's life/With darkness, treachery and strife/ Wreaking vengeance for a murdered child"

 

On divine levels Agamemnon is the agent of justice to punish Paris because of his violation of the host relationship. So Agamemnon was sent by Zeus to punish him. As the chorus says

 

``So against Paris's guilty boast

Zeus witness between guest and host

Sends Atreus' sons for stern

Of his and Helen's wantonness.

 

By killing Paris, Agamemnon established justice for his treachery against host.          

 

The prophetess Cassandra accepts responsibility for the curse that Apollo put on her after she rejected his love offer.  She and Apollo had an agreement that if he gave her the gift of prophesy then she would be his lover; however, she did not hold her side of the bargain and Apollo punished her. This was just because she was arrogant and dared defy a god.

 

From the prophesy of Cassandra that she reveals to the Chorus , we come to know that the murder of Agamemnon is not the end of shedding blood of this horse and as a rule of "an eye for an eye", justice will be dine one day when Agamemnon's son Orestes will return and kill Clytemnestra.

 

As for Clytemnestra , she thinks that she has brought Justice to Argos at long last, ending a curse  of bloodshed that has continued for several generations. She declares to the Chorus, "I swept from these falls/ the murder" thinking that the murder if Agamemnon and Cassandra will erase the bloodshed that occurred in previous generations. Like Cassandra her idea of justice is "an eye for an eye" as more murder can cleanse the sin of earlier murders.

 

The angry wife Clytemnestra adds that Zeus himself was using her as a divine tool to imply justice upon Agamemnon because of his father's actions. Clytemnestra declares that Agamemnon was punished for his father's sins and that she in fact had a very small part in the murder, for it was Zeus' doing. But what she fails to understand is that by killing her husband, she becomes a part of the cycle of killing.

 

Aegisthus supports Clytemnestra's version of justice, that the death of Agamemnon will somehow fix the mistakes that Atreus made in cooking Thyestes' children in the stove and then feed them to him.

 

The Chorus of Elders does not believe that Zeus has used Clytaemnestra as a divine tool to exact justice against Agamemnon for killing Iphigenia or to punish him for Atreus' sins. Instead, they believe firmly that she is very wrong, and they pray for the day that Agamemnon's son Orestes will return to Argos and avenge his father's death, thus continuing the cycle of bloodshed even further. Now the son will kill the mother which will be justice according to these old men. Because sin only begets another sin. When one has committed sin there is no return.

 

"They say -If pity likes a human eye

Pity by justice law must share

The sinners guilt and with the sinner die."