In Aeschylus' Agamemnon, retribution and justice can be seen through the unending circle of retributional murders. The reasoning for Clytaemnestra murdering her husband and his lover as a result of him killing their daughter Iphigenia could be seen as justice for Agamemnon killing Iphigenia, or it could be seen as and act of aid to this never ending cycle of murder.
Retribution in Agamemnon:
- When Tantalus decides to test the gods by cooking his son Pelops and serving him in a pie to them. They then realise what has happened, and restore him and give him the god Poseidon as his lover Pelops was of exceptional beauty.
- Poseidon then gives Pelops a bride, Hippodamia, but only after he kills her father, King Oinomaos.
- Pelops and Hippodamia have two sons, Atreus and Thyestes, but Pelops favours his son Chrysippos which he had by a nymph. The brothers and their mother kill their half-brother.
- Then they are banished for their crimes and take up the throne of Argos as joint kings, but then Thyestes seduces Atreus' wife.
- In revenge, Atreus kills Thyestes' sons and serves them in a pie to their father. Thyestes flees out of despair.
- Thyestes is advised by Apollo to have a child with his daughter, and only this son (Aegisthus) could find vengeance against Atreus' son Agamemnon.
- These five generations of intrafamilial crime is what the trilogy must solve.
sorry sophie, i got distracted by itunes gift vouchers
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