Agamemnon Flashcards
Where is the temple of Apollo, what do the people call it?
The temple is in Delphi and called the center of the earth.
What is the temple of Apollo ancient greek word mean?
Bellybutton or navel(Omphalos)
Agamemnon is the king of…
Argos
The area of the temple of Apollo(in Delphi) is called?
Pytho
How does the play of Agamemnon begin?
Watchman looking for a signal fire at the roof of the tower in front of the palace of King Agamemnon.
How did they communicate that Troy had fallen?
They posted men all across the sea to Argos. If Troy was ever burning, the Achaians created a relay system where
a watchman nearest would be able to see it and they would burn a heap of combustible material which would alert another watchman who would do the same and on and on throughout to set a fire signal all the way back to Argos.
What are the problems the watchman at Argos has and how long has he been posted on the roof?
He has issues sleeping and seems to have been posted up on the roof for years.
What does the watchman at Argos do on the roof?
He is singing and weeping
What does the watchman say about Clytaemestra in these lines: “I sing, only to weep again the pity of this house no longer, as once, administered in the grand way.”(16-19)
The queen is not leading in the way the king would
What happens when the watchman sees the fire at a nearby highpoint?
He informs the Queen of Argos, Clytaemestra
What does the expression “for an ox stands huge upon my tongue.” mean?
He has something that he wants to say but can’t say it
What does the watchman mean: “The house itself, could it take voice, might speak aloud and plain. I speak to those who understand,but if they fail, I have forgotten everything.”(36-38)
The watchman will only speak to people who already know what is going, in reference to people who know what’s going on in the palace, where the queen is having an affair with Aegisthus.
Chorus: “Ten years since the great contestantsof Priam’s right, Menelaus and Agamemnon, my lord, twin throned, twin sceptered, in twofold power of kings from god, the Atreidae, put forth from this shore the thousand ships of the Argives, the strength and the armies.”(40-47)
Chorus us having a flashback to 10 years ago, when Agamemnon and Menelaos, twin leaders of the fleet that sailed to Troy left from Achaian mainland.
Chorus: “Their cry of war went shrill from the heart, as eagles stricken in agony for young perished, high from the nest eddy and circle to bend and sweep of the wings’ stroke, lost far below the fledglings,”(48-54)
When eagle come to their nest and see their eggs were stolen they cry a certain cry. The cries of Agamemnon and Menelaos were cries of revenge and maybe anger and mourning because Helen was stolen. They were doing Zeus will travelling to Troy to make Paris pay. Helen would be like the fledgling because girls would be much younger than the men they marry, like late 20’s men, would marry someone in her early teens.
Who are the Furies?
Goddesses of Revenge
Eagles is who’s bird?
Zeus
“So drives Zeus, the great god of guests, the Atreidae against Alexander: for one woman’s promiscuous sake”(60-62)
Why was Zeus referred this way?
Who disobeyed these protocols?
Zeus is in charge of the protocols guests should follow when entering a hosts house as well as the hosts.
Paris disobeyed these protocols
“You cannot burn flesh or pour unguents,not innocent cool tears,° that will soften the gods’ stiff anger.”(69-71)
What does the chorus say?
Mortal cannot change the destiny of Troy and will of the gods; you can’t offer sacrifices.
Does the chorus of old men of Argos know about the fall of Troy?
No they don’t
Respite means…
Rest
Oblations means…
Offerings
A flashback to 10 years ago Chorus says: “how the wild bird portent hurled forth the Achaeans’ twin-stemmed power single-hearted, lords of the youth of Hellas, with spear and hand of strength to the land of Teucrus. Kings of birds to the kings of the ships, one black, one blazed with silver, clear seen by the royal house on the right, the spear hand, they alighted, watched by all tore a hare, ripe, bursting with young unborn yet, stayed from her last fleet running. Sing sorrow, sorrow: but good win out in the end.”(108-121)
Who does the Chorus sing about?
What does the Chorus remember?
Who represents the eagles and the hare?
They sing about the wild bird portent which means omen. Which is the omen the achaians saw before sailing to Troy.
They remember the time when the soldiers were close to the palace of Agamemnon in Argos. They looked at the sky where they saw two eagles in the sky; one black and one blazed with silver. The eagles descended past the soldiers on the right side and tore into the body of a hare that was pregnant, fed on the flesh of the hare and the unborn young.
Agamemnon and Menelaos are the eagles and Troy is the hare.
portent means…
bird
hellas means…
greek speaking land
Who was one of the founders of Troy
Teucrus
Alighted means…
descended/came down
