Agamemnon

Why is she neither dismissing nor accepting the suitors, especially when it comes at such great cost to their household? All of this, the many comments of Telemachus and Eumaeus in these books, serve to emphasize and stress the question or the mystery regarding Penelope's behavior.

What is her intention with these suitors, and is she a loyal wife? These questions are particularly poignant and pointed for Odysseus, given the fact that in the underworld he had spoken with Agamemnon's ghost, who told him the time for trusting women is past.

How should Odysseus approach his wife? Will she be another Clytemnestra? Why is she keeping these suitors around? The great moment in these books, however, is when Odysseus finally reveals himself to his son, Telemachus.

Telemachus, in Eumaeus' hut, sends Eumaeus as a messenger to his mother to tell her of his safe return from Sparta, and then Athena gives Odysseus the signal that he should reveal himself.

Yeah.

You think y- you, you think you're Odysseus? You really just, uh, Agamemnon, you know, who's, uh-

...

Agamemnon.

Uh-

Agamemnon.

Agamemnon, non, non.

And this they did.

Then the fair Helen chose a prince, whose name was Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon, who reigned in Mycenae, and was the chief of all the kings of Greece.

After a while Helen's father died, and her husband became king of Sparta.

The two lived happily together, till there came to Sparta a young prince, Paris by name, who was son of Priam, king of Troy.

This Paris carried off the fair Helen, and with her much gold and many precious stones.

Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon sent to the princes of Greece and said, Now you must keep your oath and help us to get back the fair Helen.

so they all came to a place called aulus with many ships and men others also who had not taken the oath came with them the greatest of these chiefs were these diomed son of tydus ajax the greater and ajax the less Antusa, the archer, who was brother of Ajax the greater, Nestor, who was the oldest man in the world, the wise Ulysses, Achilles, who was the bravest and strongest of all the Greeks, and with him his dear friend Petrolicus.

For nine years the Greeks besieged the city of Troy, but they could not break through the walls, and as they had been away from their homes for all this time, they came to be in great want of food and clothes and other things, So they left part of the army to watch the city, and with part they went about and spoiled other cities.

Why is she neither dismissing nor accepting the suitors, especially when it comes at such great cost to their household? All of this, the many comments of Telemachus and Eumaeus in these books, serve to emphasize and stress the question or the mystery regarding Penelope's behavior.

What is her intention with these suitors? And is she a loyal wife? These questions are particularly poignant and pointed for Odysseus, given the fact that in the underworld he had spoken with Agamemnon's ghost who told him the time for trusting women is past.

How should Odysseus approach his wife? Will she be another Clytemnestra? Why is she keeping these suitors around? The great moment in these books, however, is when Odysseus finally reveals himself to his son Telemachus.

Telemachus, in Eumaeus' hut, sends Eumaeus as a messenger to his mother to tell her of his safe return from Sparta.

These letters afford glimpses into the workshop of librettist and composer which rank with some of the most illuminating exchanges of the sort The history of music supplies.

From them we learn that before settling on the tragedy of the house of Agamemnon, the collaborators seriously pondered as operatic material Calderon's Daughter of the Air and also Semirames.

Then early in 1908 they seem to have agreed on Electra.

Hofmannsthal's version of the Greek legend, based on Sophocles, had been acted in Berlin, again with Gertrude Eisolt in the title role, and no sooner had Strauss witnessed the production than he concluded that the tragedy in this form was virtually made to order for his music.

Yeah, the same way that they were like, yeah, man, those two things are separated by, like, thousands of years.

And he's like, nope, that's Agamemnon's helmet, and that's Achilles' shield.

It's like, hmm, okay.

Achilles is definitely a real guy, yeah.

Odysseus was, uh, reckless.

He was as stubborn as a leader, you know, until he, until he meets Agamemnon in the underworld, and that's where his narrative changes, and he comes back different.

Was it Agamemnon, or was it the other guy? I'll just say, I'll just say the underworld, the underworld is what taught him to go back home as a slave, right? Go back home different.

Uh, you're, you're a king-

Yeah

You can come up with many more, I'm sure.

In the story from the ancient Greeks, 458 B.C., Agamemnon, the main character, faces a choice in the story between sacrificing his daughter, Iphigenia, or failing in his obligation to lead the Greek expedition to Troy.

In Sophocles, Antigone, 441 BC, it's another Greek story.

She has an obligation to bury her dead brother, but she also has an obligation to obey the lawful command of the king, King Creon.