Agamemnon By Euripides Essay

Throughout the play we find that Oedipus, the protagonist of this Greek tragedy, is tested by life in a number of ways. To those in Athens who watched the performance of Oedipus the King, Oedipus appeared to be the embodiment of a perfect Athenian. He is self-confident, intelligent, and strong-willed. Ironically, these are the very traits which bring about his tragic discovery. He is portrayed as a character of

During the time of Euripides, approximately the second half of the fifth century B.C., it was a period of immense cultural crisis and political convulsion (Arrowsmith 350). Euripides, like many other of his contemporaries, used the whole machinery of the theater as a way of thinking about their world (Arrowsmith 349). His interest in particular was the analysis of culture and relationship between culture and the individual. Euripides used his characters as a function to shape the ideas of the play (Arrowsmith 359).

In the beginning of “The Oresteia” it talks about how King Agamemnon gave his own daughter Iphigeneia as a sacrifice to Artemis so they could continue in proceeding with the war in Troy. Agamemnon’s decision is considered as injustice since he gave his only daughter so he could enter the war. As the Chorus started the play they highlighted that the fact they were at war with Troy was justice to them. However, the way Agamemnon led the war was injustice for the way he sacrificed his daughter for the war. After the return of Agamemnon from the Trojan War he did not only return by himself but he bought Cassandra the princess of Trojan who he had taken as a concubine for him. Although by the Greeks is considered justice but, it is still injustice since her land was destroyed she

Sophocles, a famous and renowned Greek dramatist, is the playwright to both the play Oedipus the King and Antigone. Along with Antigone and Oedipus Sophocles had also wrote Electra and Fete. Sophocles wrote many Greek tragedies which are plays in which the main character in the play suffers a tragedy due to some flaw of theirs. An example would be how Oedipus (thinking he is defying a prophecy) murders his father and weds his mother. His flaw was him trying to defy fate if he had not just stayed where he was he would’ve been fine. His works are referred to and taught all over the world in many schools along with colleges; this should give light to how will written his plays are and how

By the time Orestes’ father retuned form the war, his mother had found another lover, Aegisthus. She was very angry with her first husband for bringing back the Trojan princess Cassandra, so she killed him. When Orestes’ older sister heard of this, she took him away and raised him elsewhere. When

 The most complex and compelling character in the three plays is Clytaemnestra.  Clytaemnestra is consumed with thoughts of revenge.  She seeks vengeance on Agamemnon for the loss of their daughter, Iphigeneia whose life was forfeited in order to appease the goddess Artemis so that Agamemnon's troops would be allowed passage to the Trojan shore. Clytaemnestra

Euripides' Medea Medea is the tragic tale of a woman scorned. It was written in 431 B.C. by the Greek playwright, Euripides. Eruipides was the first Greek poet to suffer the fate of so many of the great modern writers: rejected by most of his contemporaries (he rarely won first prize and was the favorite target for the scurrilous humor of the comic poets), he was universally admired and revered by the Greeks of the centuries that followed his death('Norton Anthology';). Euripides showed his interest in psychology in his many understanding portraits of women ('World Book';). Euripides choice of women support characters such as the nurse and the chorus is imperative to the magnification of Medea's emotions.

The first role of women that is displayed through the plays of Euripides is their submissiveness. This most often occurs in the plays of Hecabe and Trojan Women. The women depicted seem week and unable to fend for themselves. More specifically, the women in these plays seem more accepting of their fates.

She brings her husband to commit hubris against the gods by goading him to walk on a purple tapestry, here she again believes her actions justified by the gods and she has no blame to hold. She considers herself higher than even the gods and this is why her son is seen as the hero. Orestes sees himself as doing wrong when he has to avenge his father’s murder, and never feels pride over taking his own mom’s life. Apollo had asked him to avenge his father and in doing so Orestes would invoke the wrath of the furies.

Euripides Medea is a play that largely embodies themes of sex and gender within Greek life, marriage and society. Lars Von Trier, Danish Screen writer, controversially took on and altered Euripides' classic Medea in the form of film. Although complex and compelling, Von Trier's film fails to capture major themes and qualities presented in the text version of the infamous Medea and relay them to an audience. Through the use of close reading and comparison, it can be proved that Lars Von Trier's film depiction of Euripides' Medea does not allow an audience to see the complexity and major themes of gender and masculinity that Euripides originally portrays to his audience, but rather depicts a story of lost love and femininity within the protagonist.

one of the three great tragedians. The other two were Aeschylus, and Sophocles. According to the Encyclopedia, “Euripides was a Greek playwright whom Aristotle called the most tragic of the Greek poets. He is certainly the most revolutionary Greek tragedian known in modern times” (“Euripides”). He is well- known for transforming traditional Greek tragedies by using strong female characters and brilliant slaves. From the ninety- two plays Euripides wrote, only nineteen were saved in complete form. Euripides was a brilliant Greek playwright who was one of the most revolutionary tragedians known to this day,

those of the other two great masters. His art, it has been said, is tamer than theirs, and

The chorus finds Aegisthus guilty of the treasonous act of killing the king and just hopes for Agamemnon’s son, Orestes to return and end this injustice.

Euripides’ Medea defies many of the unofficial rules surrounding Greek tragedies. While most Greek plays follow a very rigid format that becomes obvious to the audience, Medea possesses a much more ambiguous structure. One of the most difficult to discern aspects of Medea is whom Euripides intended to be the tragic hero. Aristotle’s analysis of plays, which he articulated in his work the poetics, can be applied to Medea to determine Jason is the tragic hero.

Amongst Euripides' most famous plays, Medea went against the audience's expectations at his time. Indeed, the main character of the play is Medea, a strong independent female who neglected moral and . She was therefore in all ways different to how women were perceived in Ancient Greece. This essay will explore how Euripides' controversial characters demonstrate that his views were ahead of his time.