41 pages • 1 hour read
AeschylusAgamemnon
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 458A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Lines 264-781Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Lines 264-488 Summary: First Episode and First Stasimon
The first episode begins with Clytemnestra entering from the palace. She announces to the stunned chorus that Agamemnon and the Greeks took Troy. When the chorus asks for evidence, she explains that the news reached her through beacon fires, tracing their progress from Troy to several sites across the Aegean Sea before they finally reached Argos. Clytemnestra imagines the Greeks’ inflicting death and destruction on the people of Troy as they despoil the city. She hopes that, even now, the Greeks remember not to succumb to excess in their destruction, lest the gods punish them. The chorus praises Clytemnestra’s words, saying that she spoke “like a prudent man” (351). They say that they must give thanks to the gods.
Clytemnestra exits, and the chorus sings the first stasimon, or choral ode. It addresses Zeus, who demonstrated his justice by punishing those whom the laws established. Wealth, the chorus points out, often leads to corruption and sin. Paris, having transgressed against his host, Menelaus, was justly punished by the gods. Helen, who abandoned her husband and brought grief to Greece, was recaptured. This is unfortunate only in that many young Greek soldiers needed to die in the process; the chorus mourns their deaths. The chorus observes that word of Troy’s fall is spreading through the city, but it cautions against believing too readily in such messages.
Lines 489-781 Summary: Second Episode and Second Stasimon
A herald enters, and the chorus hopes that he can confirm the meaning of the beacons. He delivers a long “Messenger Speech” in which he confirms the fall of Troy, after first greeting his homeland and the gods following 10 years of grueling war. He announces that Agamemnon is coming back home, having punished Paris and the Trojans for stealing Helen.
The chorus rejoices and speaks with the herald. He speaks of his longing for home and of the ordeals the Greeks suffered at Troy. Now, the gods have given the Greeks victory over Troy and, with it, undying glory.
Clytemnestra enters. She rejoices at the herald’s news and criticizes the chorus for doubting her trust in the beacons. She declares that she will now begin preparing for Agamemnon’s arrival and will send the herald to him with a message of greeting. The chorus questions the herald about Menelaus and the other Greeks who sailed to Troy, and the herald relates with a heavy heart that much of the Greek fleet was destroyed or scattered by a storm while leaving Troy. This storm, the herald explains, was sent by the gods, who were angered by the Greeks’ behavior during the sack of Troy. He hopes that some of the lost ships, such as those of Menelaus, will turn up again and that everything will “come well in the end” (674).
After the herald exits, the chorus sings the second stasimon, which condemns Helen, blaming her for the deaths of so many Greeks and for the fall of Troy. The song likens Paris to a lion cub who brought destruction on his city. Those who transgress the laws of gods and human beings—those who commit evil deeds—are eventually punished. Zeus ensures that justice is done in the end.
Lines 264-781 Analysis
The first and second episodes of the play build up the themes introduced in the Prologue, intensifying the tension and foreboding. Clytemnestra announces the arrival of Agamemnon based on the beacon fires sighted by the watchman. Though the chorus initially doubts her, the herald soon confirms this news. An ambiance of apprehension balanced by cautious hope is sustained throughout these episodes. After Clytemnestra announces Agamemnon’s triumph and imminent return, the chorus prays that she is right, even as it hesitates “to take rapture before the fact has shown for true” (484). Similarly, as the herald comes into sight, the chorus hopes for good news but alludes to concerns that it fears naming and does not fully understand:
I see a herald coming from the beach, his brows
Shaded with sprigs of olive; and upon his feet
The dust, dry sister of the mud, makes plain to me
That he will find a voice, not merely kindle flame
From mountain timber, and make signals from the smoke,
But tell us outright, whether to be happy, or—
But I shrink back from naming the alternative.
That which appeared was good; may yet more good be given (493-500).
Even though the Herald announces the good news of Agamemnon’s triumph and safe return, he is in many ways no less apprehensive than the chorus, devoting grim attention to the sufferings of the Greeks at Troy and the destruction of much of the Greek fleet when it departed. Also, like the chorus, the herald hopes that “it all come well in the end” (674). Only Clytemnestra seems to exult without reserve in the news of Agamemnon’s return—disguising her plans for Agamemnon, as will soon become apparent.
The theme of The Relationship of Justice to Retribution and Suffering also becomes increasingly prominent in this part of the play. This theme informs the first and second stasimons sung by the chorus and is prominent also in the herald’s speech. For their transgression, for instance, the Trojans were rightly punished with destruction, as the chorus and the herald proclaim. But the Greeks also overstepped morally in their behavior after conquering Troy, and they, too, were punished: As the herald reveals, the gods sent a storm to scatter the Greek fleet after they left Troy because the Greeks dishonored the gods and violated their sanctuaries when they sacked the city. This destruction of Greeks and Trojans alike contributes to the play’s foreboding tone in its reminder that the gods require the same standards of behavior from the Greeks as from their enemies, and neither side can escape the demands of justice.
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