Oresteia 3.3: the impossible choice of Agamemnon

Summary 11 # Man, God, and Society in Western Literature - From Gods to God and Back

On one side of Agamemnon's choice stand men, rationality , the heavens, the duniversal, progress, thought, light, and the new Olympian gods. On the other side stand the women, emotion, the earth, the local, healing, tradition, the night, and thus the ancient Furies. These represent two forms of justice: the first is "revenge-driven justice" (the blood vengeance we know from the mafia), and the second is "retributive justice" (the retribution found in the legal court). It is important to note that Aeschylus himself does not seem to use different terms but calls both justice, referring to one or the other depending on the context.

These two forces both belong to life, especially in an archaic, primordial time. However, Homer already suppresses the Furies—and the values associated with them. These suppressed powers only reappear in Athenian culture, and that is Aeschylus's starting point. This dilemma crystallizes in the devilish choice Agamemnon must make: kill his daughter (Olympian gods) or remain stranded with his army on the beach (Furies). Odysseus could easily be both a father and a king, a pirate and an adventurer. Agamemnon cannot do this and must choose.

Meanwhile, the men suffer on the beach, trapped by the wind:

"When the Greek army was plagued
by wind that prevented their voyage,
emptied the barrels
on the coast overlooking Chalcis,
where the water at Aulis surged back,

'the storm coming from the Strymon,
brought hopeless idleness,
hunger and peril to the anchored men,
ships and cables were spared not,
and repeatedly the ever-extending time broke the flower of Argos through exhaustion."

The prophet points out that there is only one solution to get the disintegrating army back on its feet. This is to heed the sacrifice that Artemis demands.

"In a loud voice, the old king spoke:
'Heavy is my fate if I do not obey,
heavy too if I shall slaughter a child,
a treasure, a jewel in my house,
and as a father besmear my hands at the altar with streams of a girl's blood.
What here is without misery?
How can I abandon the fleet, fail as an ally?
A sacrifice that tames the wind,
the slaughter of a girl,
they may desire it in a fury.
Oh, let it be right.'

The internal conflict ends with Agamemnon ultimately choosing to kill his daughter. And so this terrible sacrifice happens:

'The father prayed and instructed his helpers to hold the child,
who fervently bent forward on her garment,
like a goat above the altar,
lifted high into the air
(...).'
What happened after,
I did not see and will not say,
but Calchas' skill reached its goal."