1. Winnington-Ingram, R. P., ‘Clytemnestra and the Vote of Athena,’ JHS 68 (1948), 130–47; quotation, 146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. Thomson, George, Aeschylus and Athens, A Study in the Social Origins of Drama, London, 1941, 1946², 288Google Scholar; and The Oresteia of Aeschylus, ed. Thomson, , 1938, Amsterdam 1966², 55–56Google Scholar; the introduction, I 13–61, is largely repeated in Aeschylus and Athens.

3. Jones, John, On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy, New York, 1962Google Scholar; the oikos and the waste of expenses in the tapestry scene, 80–92; Clytemnestra’s lust, 115–17, and 149–56 (comparison with Sophocles’ Electra).

4. Vickers, Brian, Towards Greek Tragedy: Drama, Myth, Society, London, 1973Google Scholar, Ch. 7 ‘The Oresteia: Nature versus perversion,’ 347–437; quotations, 415, 423. His conclusion is based on Aristotle’s scientific and social attitudes towards women (414–15).

5. Winnington-Ingram thinks Aeschylus undercuts Apollo’s arguments (142–44). C. J. Herington sees the influence of Old Comedy in Eumenides’ happy ending and emphasis on fertility (‘Aeschylus, the last Phase,’ Arion 4 [1965], 387–403, 391, 395–96Google Scholar). Lebeck, Anne sees the trial as a parody of ‘new-fangled’ scientific ideas (The Oresteia, A Study in Language and Structure, Washington, D.C.: Center for Hellenic Studies 1971, 134–37Google Scholar). Kuhns, Richard takes it seriously and literally (The House, the City and the Judge: The Growth of Moral Awareness in the Oresteia, New York, 1962, 39–48Google Scholar). Thomson takes it seriously and calls Apollo’s argument the ‘Pythagorean doctrine of paternity’ (Aeschylus and Athens, 88). I think it must be taken seriously but symbolically and ritually, like other scenes that are amenable to parody, e.g. the recognition scene in Choephori (see Harris, Grace, ‘Furies, Witches and Mothers,’ in The Character of Kinship, ed. Goody, Jack, Cambridge 1973, 145–159, 155Google Scholar).

6. For the role of woman in the home, see n. 40 below. Michael Shaw’s pattern of the ‘intrusive female,’ and his conclusion that Pericles does not consider women for themselves in the Funeral Speech since ‘There is no need for the woman to intrude into this society, because it has not betrayed her’ (‘The Female Intruder: Women in Fifth-Century Drama,’ CP 70 [1975], 255–66Google Scholar), does not provide a satisfactory answer for Clytemnestra. His terminology shows that the act of leaving the house and going into the city is in itself an intrusion, implying inevitably women’s alienation from society. He does not discuss Clytemnestra directly.

7. Especially her hyperbolic welcome to Agamemnon; see pp. 15ff. below.

8. Goheen, Robert F., ‘Aspects of Dramatic Symbolism: Three Studies in the Oresteia,’ AJP 76 (1955), 113–37Google Scholar. See also Whallon’s, William ‘The Serpent at the Breast,’ TAPA 89 (1958), 271–75Google Scholar (on the falseness of the mother-child bond between Clytemnestra and Orestes), and Peradotto’s, John J. ‘Some Patterns of Nature Imagery in the Oresteia’ AJP 85 (1964), 378–93.Google Scholar

9. Vickers (358, 394, 424); Zeitlin, Froma, ‘The Motif of the Corrupted Sacrifice in Aeschylus’ Oresteia,’ TAPA 96 (1965), 463–508Google Scholar, especially 473–79, and ‘Postscript to Sacrificial Imagery in the Oresteia: Ag. 1235–37,’ TAPA 97 (1966), 645–53Google Scholar. Lebeck concentrates on lyrics but implies that Clytemnestra and Cassandra outweigh the other characters in the trilogy (136).

10. Zeitlin (1965), 483, 491.

11. Vickers (384); see his theory that one aspect of a character is shown at a time, and then revised (382).

12. Winnington-Ingram argues similarly that she keeps fighting — ‘it is the circumstances that have changed, not the fibre of the woman’ — and cites her call for an axe against Orestes (139).

13. Thomson’s discussion of the change in Electra in Choephori may be applied, as he suggests, to Clytemnestra as well: ‘Under the irresistible force of the ancestral curse, she has become a second Clytemnestra, and conversely we might infer that there had been a time when Clytemnestra was as innocent as she’ (Aeschylus and Athens, 269–70).

14. The polarization of her full character results in a thinning out of strong characters as the trilogy progresses — Orestes is weaker than Agamemnon, Electra than Clytemnestra — and in a takeover of polarized aspects of the human characters by the gods in Eumenides.

15. I agree with Vickers that Greek tragedy concerns ‘real’ people and particular events (425).

16. See especially the Cassandra scene; similarly Winnington-Ingram (131 n. 15).

17. Thomson, ‘Her language is colored by ten years of brooding over her murdered child’ (com. I 22).

18. Fraenkel is right to contrast ‘the hazy and confused representation of the farthest north in Prometheus.’ And Io helplessly wanders in half-known regions (Fraenkel, Eduard, ed., Agamemnon, Oxford 1950, II 156, on 287Google Scholar), while Clytemnestra responds actively to vicitimization.

19. Translations of Agamemnon are by Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Englewood Cliffs 1970. I have occasionally inserted explanations in brackets. The Greek text is Gilbert Murray’s 1955 Oxford Classical Text edition.

20. skēptō, ‘hurl’ (308, 310), is used for the beacon fires here and elsewhere for thunderbolts, which come from Zeus. I disagree with Joseph Fontenrose’s statement that Clytemnestra hardly, addresses the Olympian gods, that Hephaestus and Zeus are meaningless here and that she is instead devoted to chthonic deities (‘Gods and Men in the Oresteia,’ TAPA 102 [1971], 71–109, 93–95Google Scholar).

21. toioide toi moi (312) is Schuetz’ conjecture for the codices’ toioid’ hetoimoi; Denniston-Page comment that ‘moi is not wanted and not easily interpreted’ Agamemnon, Oxford 1957, ad loc. In the same line Murray’s nomoí, ‘grazing grounds,’ complements the natural imagery in this speech, but the accent is uncertain; Lloyd-Jones translates ‘laws’ for nómoi; Denniston-Page keep nómoi but suggest that Beattie’s ‘arrangements’ for nomoí might be easier.

22. aphthonos here means ‘unsparing,’ but not without hostility; later the connotations of malice and divine envy are brought out (904), and Clytemnestra operates in the tapestry scene as an agent of divine phthonos (939, 947).

23. Commentators’ confusion about Aeschylus’ choice of certain adjectives for certain locations, or the distinction between descriptive and geographical names, stems from failure to understand the mixture of fact and imagery. For example, the Gorgon lake (limnēn Gorgōpin, 302) may be significant not simply because the audience could pinpoint it on a map but because the Gorgon-like Furies, the idea of monstrosity in general, and Athena with her Gorgon shield are all important in the trilogy.

24. But Vickers, ‘the ironies ring through,’ so that ‘may he find me faithful’ means ‘may he not’ (361). Note the repetition of laskein, ‘barking,’ 596, 614, 865, ttie first two toy Gytemnestra of herself.

25. See Lloyd-Jones’ note (ad loc) and Lebeck (85 n. 22).

26. To Vickers, for instance, this speech seems even more false because of the previous one, which was its ‘dress rehearsal’ (365).

27. The hatred could have developed over time, together with Clytemnestra’s awareness of her potential power. But Thomson: ‘there has never been love between these two’ (I 26).

28. Therefore the summary line about the joy of escaping restraint (902) is appropriate, although editors find 900 and 902 problematic. This is often labeled a ‘priamel’ (see for instance Lloyd-Jones, ad loc), though she does not say that Agamemnon is better than any of these. Lloyd-Jones’ comment is typical: ‘The effect is one of almost nauseating flattery.’

29. Although he is a clear choice for the dog; see below.

30. Vickers notes that one of the functions of this passage is to remind us of the shipwreck of the rest of the Greek fleet (365).

31. Fraenkel notes the similarity of Ag. 899, land to sailors.

32. Orestes is a constant example for Telemachus of the avenging son. Penelope is also a clever woman who uses her resources to good effect: cf. weaving the shroud and spreading the tapestries. In the light of the Odysseus analogy, it is possible that Clytemnestra’s self-description as the dog of the house, noble to the master but hostile to enemies (608), is not merely proverbial but an echo of Odysseus’ description to Nausicaa of the well-matched husband and wife (Od. 6.182–85).

33. Vickers thinks that the process of reinstating Agamemnon as the protector of the household begins here and that Clytemnestra’s irony rebounds against her (365–66).

34. The fires are also unconquered by sleep (291). Clytemnestra’s unsleeping ghost awakens the Furies, lulled by Apollo, in Eumenides.

35. For evidence that the dye was the colour of dried blood, and for symbolic connections between the dye and Agamemnon’s blood, see Goheen (115–26).

36. khehnōni (969) can also mean ‘in storm,’ appropriate to the context of shipwrecks. Commentators cite Arabic poems to illustrate: ‘Sunshine he in wintry season: when the Dog-star burned, a shadow’ (Thomson, com., II 77–78; Fraenkel, Egyptian poem). Philip Wheelwright comments aptly, if over-generally, ‘The cycle of winter storms and summer harvest becomes a threshold symbol for the cycle of bane and blessing, deprivation and fulfilment in the human lot’ (The Burning Fountain. A Study in the Language of Symbolism, Bloomington 1968, Ch. 10, ‘Thematic Imagery in the Oresteia,’ 206–39, 233). But Winnington-Ingram calls this ‘fulsome rhetoric’ (132); Denniston-Page, ‘inelegant enough’ (ad loc); Vickers, again, ‘the king’s true protective nature’ (371). Lebeck summarizes, ‘As leaves are the telos [fulfilment] of the root, as wine is the telos of the grape, Agamemnon’s death is the telos for which Clytemnestra prays’ (73), tying in Verrall’s interpretation of andros teleiou (972) as the perfect victim. Headlam goes too far in claiming that the soul (965) is Iphigeneia’s and that omphax, ‘unripe grape’ (970), represents her virginity (The Agamemnon of Aeschylus, Cambridge 1910, ad loc). Thomson endorses these claims and also interprets the root as ‘sin’. He rearranges the passage to keep the two references of shade together and show the root surviving the winter, transposing 966–67 to after 971.

37. Denniston-Page misrepresent it as ‘So the lord and master provides warmth in winter and coolness in summer’ (ad loc).

38. Goheen, ‘Clytemnestra’s fertility is now in lethal bloodshed’ (133).

39. I take the sacrifice of Iphigeneia as Agamemnon’s responsibility. Logically, then, she also does not expect to be perceived as a monster, as she will be, nor does she expect the root to survive in Orestes. Later, he will pray to Zeus not to let the stump rot (Ch. 260–61). In Sophocles’ version of Clytemnestra’s dream, a sprouting scepter represents the revival of the house (Electra 417–23).

40. On women’s role in family life in Athens see Lacey, W. K., The Family in Classical Greece (Ithaca 1968Google Scholar); Slater, Philip E., The Glory of Hera: Greek Mythology arid the Greek Family (Boston 1968Google Scholar); and Pomeroy, Sarah B., Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves, Women in Classical Antiquity (New York 1975), 57–92Google Scholar. On the house and hearth, organization of space, Hestia as feminine stillness and Hermes as masculine motion, see Vernant, Jean-Pierre, Mythe et pensée chez les grecs: Etudes de psychologie historique (Paris 1965), 97–112Google Scholar. On the ‘drama of the house’ see again Jones, 82–117.

41. Earlier: Therefore domoisi (964) should mean oracles ‘for’ the house, rather than the prevalent ‘to’ the house.

42. See Zeitlin’s discussions of Clytemnestra’s perversion of ritual (1965, 1966), and Lebeck (188 n. 48). Vickers, ‘an inversion amounting to megalomania, a misanthropy on a cosmic scale. Here at last, though, is the truth’ (381–82).

43. On these lines Iliad 23.597–99 is often cited: Menelaus’ angry heart is softened by being given a prize as crops are softened by rain. But two Iliadic uses of the analogy between human sexuality and natural fertility are more apposite. In 13.347–51, new vegetation springs to life and dew falls as nature’s response to Hera’s seduction of Zeus (see also Danaids frg 44). In a twisting of this norm, Zeus weeps tears of blood over his son Sarpedon’s imminent death (16.459).

44. She, the stronger, is now seeking protection from Aegisthus, the ‘female’ male. Winnington-Ingram (137) and Thomson (com. I 30) both note that she needs his male protection, at least formally. At the same time she controls his anger against the Chorus and begins to realize that the rain of blood will not easily produce a fruitful crop, since there is already a harvest of troubles to be gathered (1654).

45. Vickers considers this one of her series of weak ‘excuses’ (385); I see it as a strong statement which continues her self-association with the gods and justice.

46. I take ‘male boldness,’ hupertolmon andros phronēma (594–95), to refer to women, although it is generally interpreted as applying to humankind; contrast the lack of boldness which is a feminine ideal (630).

47. The anomalous Clytemnestra must be stopped by normal women in Choephori, a demonstration of misogyny at work (Zeitlin, ‘Magico-Religious Primitivism in Aeschylus,’ Women’s Classical Caucus, Chicago 1974). The Chorus dissociates itself from Clytemnestra, as choruses often do, by saying that it doesn’t honor an overheated hearth in its house (629), referring back to Clytemnestra’s claim that Aegisthus is lighting her hearth fire (Ag. 1434–36). This may suggest that they think her passion for him was her chief motive, but the mythological examples offer a variety of passions at work for a variety of motives.

48. This is implicit, not expressed. Iphigeneia is ignored in Choephori, even in the Chorus’ summary of crimes at the end of the play (1065–76), as if Agamemnon’s responsibility for her death, is thereby removed. Zeitlin comments on this (1965, 490).

49. tolmēs hekati kakdikou phronēmatos, the same language as in the monstrosity ode (594–95).

50. She kills her own innocent children as a lesson to her husband Jason.

51. Winnington-Ingram notes that Euripides was very conscious of injustice to women, ‘and his Medea speaks for her sex’ (147).