The motivation of the eldest of the Atreides

Abstract

In Aeschylus’ play Agamemnon, the negative component that characterizes heroes emerges powerfully in the eldest of the hegemons, ἡγεμὼν ὁ πρέσβυς. Here, paradoxically, it will allow him to do what it is necessary, even though doing so brings about immense pain: accept an undertaking that responds to the divine design. Nevertheless, neither the action of Agamemnon nor Clytemnestra’s is acceptable, because one is developed in a scene in which mere mortals are, as symbolically noted, metics, and the other, that of Clytemnestra, is developed in an line of action which is completely alien to her as a woman, although it characterizes her gynecocratic lineage. The Trojan War itself and its consequences will reinforce the patrilineal character of the Atreides, Agamemnon and Menelaus, and that will transcend the plan devised for the general community and, as a result, will reinforce the oikos as the basic organic core of the polis.