Family and tragedy are two concepts that characterized almost every work of Geek drama. Most of such works focus on family relationships, adultery, incest, and the like issues. Aeschylus’ Oresteia and Sophocles’ Oedipus the King are the Greek tragedies that are the most successful in expressing the subjects of family and tragedy. The stories which they present strike the reader with unexpected turns of events and intricate plots. Oresteia consists of three main parts, Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides which are interrelated. These parts present the tragedy in the family of Agamemnon who once sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia; the story and the subsequent parts of it depict the revenge which Agamemnon faced for his actions. Oedipus the King deals more with the issue of fate and its inevitability; however, it closely touches upon the problems of family relations as well for Oedipus killed his father (though unaware that it was him) and married his mother (without knowing that she was his biological mother). Like all the Greek dramas, the two stories under consideration have tragic endings. Each of three parts of Oresteia reveals the subjects of family and tragedy with Agamemnon presenting the story of a Clytaemestra killing her husband, The Libation Bearers telling about Orestes and Electra killing their mother, Clytaemestra, in revenge for her murdering their father, and The Eumenides depicting how the ghost of Clytaemestra revenges her son for killing her; similarly, the interrelation between family and tragedy in Oedipus the King is exhibited through Oedipus killing his father and marrying his mother.
What should be mentioned above all is that in Oresteia the tragedy starts developing with Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter, which further serves as a ground for his wife, Clytaemestra, killing him in revenge. The first part of the drama, Agamemnon, presents the revenge of a mother who grieves the death of her child. It is not a secret that women have more affection for their children than men, which is why a woman can hardly be able to murder her own child; instead, she will readily give away her life to save him/her. Agamemnon, however, chose to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, to appease Artemis in whose temple Agamemnon killed an animal without permission. In this way, Agamemnon sacrificed the life of his daughter for gaining favorable winds during the Trojan expedition in which he participated (Morford and Lenardon 322); in revenge, his wife Clytaemestra murdered him as soon as she found out how her daughter died. This is only a part of Agamemnon’s family drama. Another part is presented through his wife committing adultery while he was absent from home. In this way, Agamemnon presents imperfections in the family under consideration with the tragedy of this family rooting in the wife’s unfaithfulness to her husband and the father’s sacrificing his daughter in exchange for the god’s favor.
In addition, Agamemnon’s children continue ruining the family basing on their father’s sins in The Libation Bearers. Electra and Orestes, Clytaemestra’s children, seem to be guided only by the hatred for their mother who killed their father. As Orestes says, “not without justice did I kill my mother, / stained as she was with murdering my father” (Aeschylus, Shapiro, and Burian 145: 1163). The most interesting fact about this is that neither Electra who instigates her brother to kill Clytaemestra, nor Orestes, who is furious with his desire to revenge for the death of his father, cares about the fate of their sister, Iphigenia whose death bred the tragedy in the family. This means that Orestes considers women less important for the family than men, which is typical for the Greek drama where the men are presented as warriors and the heads of the families. Despite this, however, it is still Agamemnon who should be blamed for the tragedy which further developed in his family, for it was namely his action (killing the animal in Artemis’ temple) that led to the death of Iphigenia, the murder of Agamemnon by Clytaemestra, and the murder of Clytaemestra by Orestes.
Finally, The Eumenides presents the closure of the drama which developed within Agamemnon’s family over the years. This part of Oresteia reveals that Agamemnon’s family has never striven for mutual understanding; all members have lived their lives in revenge. Thus, Clytaemestra sought revenge for the death of her daughter, whereas Agamemnon, being a ghost, incited his son to kill Clytaemestra for being unfaithful to him (McDonald 35); eventually, Clytaemestra, even as a ghost, wishes to revenge her son for killing her. This shows that Agamemnon’s family was never united because even when the members of his family died, they continued taking vengeance on each other. It is remarkable, however, that neither of them admitted his/her fault, as well as neither, was remorseful of his/her sins even after death. This family lacked forgiveness, mutual understanding, and desire to improve relations between its members. Each of them was driven by their own goals, the goals which eventually ruined the family. Thus, the tragedy of Agamemnon’s family consisted in the selfishness of each of its members and their unwillingness to forgive each other or at least meet somebody halfway.
While the tragedy in Agamemnon’s family develops from its members’ attitude towards each other, the tragedy of the Oedipus family is rooted in a prophecy. Oedipus’ father was prophesied that he would be killed by his own son who would afterward marry his own mother; this being the reason, he ordered to murder the infant as soon as the latter was born. This proves once again that the man’s place in a family was more important than that of a woman, at least in Greek drama. Oedipus’ mother, naturally, attempted to save her child, which consequently led to the fulfillment of the prophecy. This means that the prophecy was the root of the tragedy of this family; however, was it not for the cowardice of Oedipus’ father and his fear to die from the hand of his own son, the prophecy could have failed to realize. Therefore, fear and cowardice served as a ground for the tragedy which developed in Oedipus’ family.
In sum, numerous families experience tragedies due to different reasons. In a case with the works under consideration, these reasons were selfishness, revengefulness, and cowardice. In Oresteia, the members of Agamemnon’s family pursued their own goals, while, to maintain the welfare of the family, they had to pursue the common ones. In the case of Oedipus’ family, the cowardice of his father who feared the fulfillment of the prophecy was the reason for the tragedy which started unfolding after Oedipus was born.
Works Cited
Aeschylus, Shapiro, Alan, and Burian, Peter. The Oresteia. Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 2004.
McDonald, Marianne. The Living Art of Greek Tragedy. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2003.
Morford, Mark P.O. and Lenardon, Robert J. Classical Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 1999.