Quotes from Agamemon

Quotations: Aeschlyus’ Agamemnon

- Clytaemnestra’s “manliness”/ monstrousness (note also that Aegisthus is presented as having inferior status in their relationship)

103

 

104

116

125

 

 

137

138

147

 

152

 

 

 

 

 

154

 

161

 

 

162

166

Watchman

 

Watchman

Chorus

Clytaemnestra

 

 

Agamemnon

Agamemnon

Cassandra

 

Cassandra

 

 

 

 

 

Cassandra

 

Clytaemnestra

 

 

Clytaemnestra

Chorus

[on the beacon system] “So she commands, full of her high hopes. That woman – she manoeuvres like a man.”

“I cry for the hard times come to the house, no longer run like the great place of old.”

“Spoken like a man, my lady, loyal, full of self-command.”

[Clytaemnestra’s description of herself as a watchdog loyal to Agamemnon – of course, she is lying in this speech as she has been unfaithful to him] “A watchdog gentle to him alone, savage to those who cross his path.”

[to Clytaemnestra] “You treat me like a woman.”

[to Clytaemnestra] “And where’s the woman in all this lust for glory?”

“Ai, drag the great bull from the mate! – a thrash of ropes, she traps him – writhing – black horn glints, twists – she gores him through!”

[on Aegisthus] “A lion who lacks a lion’s heart”

[on Clytaemnestra] “That detestable hellhound who pricks her ears and fawns and her tongue draws out her glittering words of welcome”

“Monster of Greece”

“Viper coiling back and forth? Some sea-witch? – Scylla crouched in her rocky nest – nightmare of sailors? Raging mother of death”

“She is the lioness, she rears on her hind legs, she beds with the wolf when her lion king goes ranging”

“So he goes down, and the life is bursting out of him – great sprays of blood, and the murderous shower wounds me, dyes me black and I, I revel like the Earth when the spring rains come down”

“And you, you try me like some desperate woman. My heart is steel, well you know.”

[to the corpse of Agamemnon] “Here in the black widow’s web you lie”

- Clytaemnestra’s power

112

 

113

 

 

 

114

Chorus

 

Clytaemnestra

 

Chorus

Clytaemnestra

Clytaemnestra

“We’ve come, Clytaemnestra. We respect your power. Right it is to honour the warlord’s woman once he leaves the throne.”

[when the Chorus question her about whether Troy has really fallen] “No one takes me in with visions – senseless dreams.”

“Or giddy rumour, you haven’t indulged yourself – “

“You treat me like a child, you mock me?”

[on the beacon system] “My laws, my fire whips that camp!”

“And I ordained it…