Aeschylus
Monarch Notes
01-01-1963
Agamemnon (458 B.C.)

Background:

This is the first play of the Oresteia. It contains little dramatic
action. The first half of the play, up to the entrance of Agamemnon, is
devoted almost entirely to exposition, preparation, and foreshadowing. The
dramatic climax is reached in the verbal dual between Agamemnon and
Clytemnestra, the turning point is Agamemnon's surrender to his wife in the
matter of walking on the tapestries, and the emotional climax comes with the
prophetic ravings of Cassandra and the death cries of Agamemnon, which follow
almost at once. The tragic foreboding in and the tragic atmosphere of
Agamemnon are greater than in any other Greek ...