Ἀγαμέμνων
Agamemnon
Aeschylus · Oresteia, first play · City Dionysia, 458 BC · first prize
Agamemnon comes home from Troy after ten years, bringing Cassandra. Clytemnestra, who has not forgiven him for sacrificing their daughter, kills him in his bath.
Persons, in order of appearance
- Φυ.Watchman
- Χο.Chorus
- Κλ.Clytaemestra
- Κη.Herald
- Αγ.Agamemnon
- Κα.Cassandra
- Elders 1–12
- Αι.Aegisthus
Translations
- H. W. Smythprose · 1926 · aligned by line · with Smyth's Greek
- E. D. A. Morsheadverse · 1881–1908 · aligned by speech · with Murray's Greek
- Smyth, rev. Crane, Bird & Nagy (Kosmos Society)prose · aligned by speech · with Murray's Greek
- Ian Johnston (VIU)verse · aligned by speech · with Murray's Greek
- Gilbert Murrayverse · aligned by speech · with Murray's Greek
Greek texts
Cite as Aesch. Ag. 1–1673
Full synopsis (tells the ending)
A watchman on the palace roof at Argos sees the beacon that means Troy has fallen. Clytemnestra has ruled ten years in her husband's absence and has not forgotten that Agamemnon sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia to get the fleet to Troy. Agamemnon comes home with the captive prophetess Cassandra. His wife spreads crimson cloth for him to walk on into the house, and kills him there, in his bath, with Cassandra after him. She and her lover Aegisthus face down the elders and take the city.
Drawing: Line drawing after the Attic red-figure calyx-krater Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 63.1246, side A; traced from the museum's photographs, taken off the vase's curve.