AESCHYLUS
AGAMEMNON
, Page |2
Contents
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................... 3
GREEK THEATRE...................................................................................................................................................... 3
FORMAL STRUCTURE OF THE ANCIENT GREEK PLAYS ....................................................................... 4
PARTS OF AN ANCIENT GREEK THEATRE................................................................................................... 5
BACKGROUND STORIES........................................................................................................................................ 6
THE ORESTEIA TRILOGY (The only surviving ancient Greek Trilogy) ............................................... 9
SETTING & CHARACTERS .................................................................................................................................. 11
Setting...................................................................................................................................................................... 11
Characters.............................................................................................................................................................. 13
FORMAL STRUCTURE OF THE AGAMEMNON ........................................................................................... 14
AGAEMEMNON ...................................................................................................................................................... 15
SHORT PLOT SCHEMA .......................................................................................................................................... 15
LONG PLOT SHEMA .............................................................................................................................................. 20
GLOSSARY .............................................................................................................................................................. 37
APPENDIX .............................................................................................................................................................. 47
IMAGERY .................................................................................................................................................................. 47
PASSAGES FROM KIERKEGAARD’S FEAR AND TREMBLING CONCERNING GENESIS 22 &
AGAMEMNON & IPHIGENIA .......................................................................................................................... 48
QUESTIONS........................................................................................................................................................... 50
, Page |3
INTRODUCTION
GREEK THEATRE
The plays
The Greek tragedies that we are reading were performed during the fifth century (= 500 – 401)
B.C.E. as part of a large multiday festival in Athens called the “City Dionysia.” The festival was
held to celebrate the god Dionysus during the Elaphebolion: the lunar month that divides winter and
spring. The plays were performed as part of a competition among three tragedians. Each
tragedian not only wrote his plays (without stage directions, which, in our text, come from the
editors) but, also, he directed and choreographed them (and composed the music). On each day
during the competition, four plays (three tragedies and one satyr play) would be performed by one of
the three tragedians competing at the festival for that year. (The satyr play was, like the
tragedies, based on myth, but was distinguished from tragedy because the members of the chorus
were “satyrs”, creature’s half-human and half-horse, the general tone of the play had comic
elements and ended happily.) The four plays, taken together, are called a “tetralogy.” The judges in
the competition were all male citizens who sat at the front of the theater. The tragedies were
based on myths with which the audience would have been very familiar. .
The elements
There were no more than three speaking actors for any given performance, not including the Chorus.
(In Aeschylus’ time, there were no more than two speaking actors.) Mute actors, such as
watchmen and attendants, occasionally supplemented the cast. If there were more than three (or,
in the case of Aeschylus’ plays, two) characters in any given play, one or more actors would assume
more than one role. The actors were all men. Male actors would play female roles. All of the actors
wore masks with apertures at the eyes and mouth. The masks were of different types and
revealed something about the characters. The mask would reveal, for example, something about
the character’s status, sex, and age. There are no masks that have been found from the fifth
century B.C.E., probably because they were made of organic materials like wood, linen, cork, or leather
and did not survive. However, these masks appear in vase paintings. The Chorus in a tragedy
consisted of 12 (in Aeschylus’ time) to 15 (in Sophocles and Euripides’ time) members. The Chorus
often (but not always) represents the perspective of the common man, i.e., public opinion. The
Chorus would chant or sing and dance on the orchestra.
Style
It is generally assumed that actors would not have turned 360 degrees on the orchestra but would
have assumed a more frontal position. They would have made smaller turns so that the audience
would hear their voices. Since the actors wore masks and the audience members could not see their
facial expressions, the actors would exaggerate their body gestures to facilitate communication.
The tragedians
Aeschylus (~525-455 B.C.E.), Euripides (~484-405 B.C.E.), and Sophocles (~496405 B.C.E.) are
the three tragedians whose plays have survived. These three playwrights alone are believed to
have produced well over two hundred tragedies. However, only about 32 tragedies have survived
(seven from Aeschylus, seven from Sophocles, and 18 from Euripides). Of these, several have not
survived intact but have missing lines (which editors have attempted to reconstruct).
, Page |4
FORMAL STRUCTURE OF THE ANCIENT GREEK PLAYS
- Prologos: opening of the play (prologue)
- Parados [par-uh-dos]: entrance of the chorus
o “The parodos is an entrance affording access either to the stage (for actors) or to
the orchestra (for the chorus) of the ancient Greek theater.
o A "parodos" is also the ode sung by the chorus as it enters the orchestra. Usually
the first choral song of the drama, the parodos typically follows the play's prologue.”
- Epeisodion: scene when the characters speak to each other or the chorus (pl.epeisodia)
Epeisodia [ep-ahy-soh-dee-uh] (in ancient Greek drama) an interlude or section
alternating with the stasimon, especially in tragedy, varying in number from three to
six and containing the main action of the drama.
“In the ancient Greek drama, especially in tragedy, a part of a play following upon
the first entrance (the parodos) of the chorus, or upon the entrance or reëntrance
of actors after a stasimon or song of the whole chorus from its place in the
orchestra; hence, one of the main divisions of the action in a drama; a division of a
play answering approximately to an act in the modern drama.”
- Stasimon [stas-uh-mon]: choral ode that the chorus sings while dancing
o "place where the chorus dances"
o [< Greek stásimon, neuter of stásimos stopping, stationary, equivalent to stási (s) a
standing (see stasis)
- Exodos [ek-suh-dos]: departure of the chorus at the conclusion
Choral odes/songs were divided into stanzas.
- A stanza is a recurrent grouping of 2 or more verse lines in terms of length, metrical form,
& often rhyme scheme.
o However, the division into stanzas is sometimes made according to thought as well
as form, in which case the stanza is a unit like a prose paragraph.
- Strope (turn)
- Antistrophe (turn the other way)
- Epode (standing in place) chorus sings together in unison in the centre of the stage
o “A strophe […] is a poetic term originally referring to the first part of the ode in
Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the antistrophe and epode [“the third part of an
ode, which followed the strophe and the antistrophe, and completed the
movement”]. The term has been extended to also mean a structural division of a
poem containing stanzas of varying line length. Strophic poetry is to be contrasted
with poems composed line-by-line non-stanzaically, such as Greek epic poems or
English blank verse, to which the term stichic applies.
In its original Greek setting, "strophe, antistrophe and epode were a kind of stanza framed only for
the music," as John Milton wrote in the preface to Samson Agonistes, with the strophe chanted by
a Greek chorus as it moved from right to left across the scene.”
Epode: “At a certain point in time the choirs, which had previously chanted to right of the altar or
stage, and then to left of it, combined and sang in unison, or permitted the coryphaeus [the leader
of the chorus] to sing for them all, while standing in the centre.”
AGAMEMNON
, Page |2
Contents
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................... 3
GREEK THEATRE...................................................................................................................................................... 3
FORMAL STRUCTURE OF THE ANCIENT GREEK PLAYS ....................................................................... 4
PARTS OF AN ANCIENT GREEK THEATRE................................................................................................... 5
BACKGROUND STORIES........................................................................................................................................ 6
THE ORESTEIA TRILOGY (The only surviving ancient Greek Trilogy) ............................................... 9
SETTING & CHARACTERS .................................................................................................................................. 11
Setting...................................................................................................................................................................... 11
Characters.............................................................................................................................................................. 13
FORMAL STRUCTURE OF THE AGAMEMNON ........................................................................................... 14
AGAEMEMNON ...................................................................................................................................................... 15
SHORT PLOT SCHEMA .......................................................................................................................................... 15
LONG PLOT SHEMA .............................................................................................................................................. 20
GLOSSARY .............................................................................................................................................................. 37
APPENDIX .............................................................................................................................................................. 47
IMAGERY .................................................................................................................................................................. 47
PASSAGES FROM KIERKEGAARD’S FEAR AND TREMBLING CONCERNING GENESIS 22 &
AGAMEMNON & IPHIGENIA .......................................................................................................................... 48
QUESTIONS........................................................................................................................................................... 50
, Page |3
INTRODUCTION
GREEK THEATRE
The plays
The Greek tragedies that we are reading were performed during the fifth century (= 500 – 401)
B.C.E. as part of a large multiday festival in Athens called the “City Dionysia.” The festival was
held to celebrate the god Dionysus during the Elaphebolion: the lunar month that divides winter and
spring. The plays were performed as part of a competition among three tragedians. Each
tragedian not only wrote his plays (without stage directions, which, in our text, come from the
editors) but, also, he directed and choreographed them (and composed the music). On each day
during the competition, four plays (three tragedies and one satyr play) would be performed by one of
the three tragedians competing at the festival for that year. (The satyr play was, like the
tragedies, based on myth, but was distinguished from tragedy because the members of the chorus
were “satyrs”, creature’s half-human and half-horse, the general tone of the play had comic
elements and ended happily.) The four plays, taken together, are called a “tetralogy.” The judges in
the competition were all male citizens who sat at the front of the theater. The tragedies were
based on myths with which the audience would have been very familiar. .
The elements
There were no more than three speaking actors for any given performance, not including the Chorus.
(In Aeschylus’ time, there were no more than two speaking actors.) Mute actors, such as
watchmen and attendants, occasionally supplemented the cast. If there were more than three (or,
in the case of Aeschylus’ plays, two) characters in any given play, one or more actors would assume
more than one role. The actors were all men. Male actors would play female roles. All of the actors
wore masks with apertures at the eyes and mouth. The masks were of different types and
revealed something about the characters. The mask would reveal, for example, something about
the character’s status, sex, and age. There are no masks that have been found from the fifth
century B.C.E., probably because they were made of organic materials like wood, linen, cork, or leather
and did not survive. However, these masks appear in vase paintings. The Chorus in a tragedy
consisted of 12 (in Aeschylus’ time) to 15 (in Sophocles and Euripides’ time) members. The Chorus
often (but not always) represents the perspective of the common man, i.e., public opinion. The
Chorus would chant or sing and dance on the orchestra.
Style
It is generally assumed that actors would not have turned 360 degrees on the orchestra but would
have assumed a more frontal position. They would have made smaller turns so that the audience
would hear their voices. Since the actors wore masks and the audience members could not see their
facial expressions, the actors would exaggerate their body gestures to facilitate communication.
The tragedians
Aeschylus (~525-455 B.C.E.), Euripides (~484-405 B.C.E.), and Sophocles (~496405 B.C.E.) are
the three tragedians whose plays have survived. These three playwrights alone are believed to
have produced well over two hundred tragedies. However, only about 32 tragedies have survived
(seven from Aeschylus, seven from Sophocles, and 18 from Euripides). Of these, several have not
survived intact but have missing lines (which editors have attempted to reconstruct).
, Page |4
FORMAL STRUCTURE OF THE ANCIENT GREEK PLAYS
- Prologos: opening of the play (prologue)
- Parados [par-uh-dos]: entrance of the chorus
o “The parodos is an entrance affording access either to the stage (for actors) or to
the orchestra (for the chorus) of the ancient Greek theater.
o A "parodos" is also the ode sung by the chorus as it enters the orchestra. Usually
the first choral song of the drama, the parodos typically follows the play's prologue.”
- Epeisodion: scene when the characters speak to each other or the chorus (pl.epeisodia)
Epeisodia [ep-ahy-soh-dee-uh] (in ancient Greek drama) an interlude or section
alternating with the stasimon, especially in tragedy, varying in number from three to
six and containing the main action of the drama.
“In the ancient Greek drama, especially in tragedy, a part of a play following upon
the first entrance (the parodos) of the chorus, or upon the entrance or reëntrance
of actors after a stasimon or song of the whole chorus from its place in the
orchestra; hence, one of the main divisions of the action in a drama; a division of a
play answering approximately to an act in the modern drama.”
- Stasimon [stas-uh-mon]: choral ode that the chorus sings while dancing
o "place where the chorus dances"
o [< Greek stásimon, neuter of stásimos stopping, stationary, equivalent to stási (s) a
standing (see stasis)
- Exodos [ek-suh-dos]: departure of the chorus at the conclusion
Choral odes/songs were divided into stanzas.
- A stanza is a recurrent grouping of 2 or more verse lines in terms of length, metrical form,
& often rhyme scheme.
o However, the division into stanzas is sometimes made according to thought as well
as form, in which case the stanza is a unit like a prose paragraph.
- Strope (turn)
- Antistrophe (turn the other way)
- Epode (standing in place) chorus sings together in unison in the centre of the stage
o “A strophe […] is a poetic term originally referring to the first part of the ode in
Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the antistrophe and epode [“the third part of an
ode, which followed the strophe and the antistrophe, and completed the
movement”]. The term has been extended to also mean a structural division of a
poem containing stanzas of varying line length. Strophic poetry is to be contrasted
with poems composed line-by-line non-stanzaically, such as Greek epic poems or
English blank verse, to which the term stichic applies.
In its original Greek setting, "strophe, antistrophe and epode were a kind of stanza framed only for
the music," as John Milton wrote in the preface to Samson Agonistes, with the strophe chanted by
a Greek chorus as it moved from right to left across the scene.”
Epode: “At a certain point in time the choirs, which had previously chanted to right of the altar or
stage, and then to left of it, combined and sang in unison, or permitted the coryphaeus [the leader
of the chorus] to sing for them all, while standing in the centre.”
