Sweet Sacrifice

"Hypocrites kick with their hind feet while licking with their tounges."

Russian proverb

Ok, just as a warning, this post in particular will be slightly shorter than my previous posts, although I'm not entirely sure why. ANYWAY, I will now continue on about how injust Clytemestra really was and how she deserved to be defeated by Orestes.

It would seem to be that the main reason why Clytemestra murdered her husband, Agamemnon, was because he used their daughter as a sacrifice to Artemis so he could go to war against Troy. It has been argued by the men of the Honors Group that this was not the sole reason for her uprising, as she may have also been primarily pursuing a power grab. Considering both these things, I accuse Clytemestra not only of being a power hungry tyrant, but a hypocrite as well. As far as being a tyrant, Clytemestra sent Orestes away for seemingly for no reason, but by reading the text of the Libation Bearers, Clytemestra realizes that the Furies may seek vengeance on her for mudering her husband and needs someone to ensure they won't come. That person is Orestes. When she hears of his death she says "Just now, the hope of the halls, the surgeon to cure our Furie's lovely revel-he seemed so close, he's written off the rolls." (683-685) This passage proves that Clytemestra wanted Orestes not as her long-exiled son but solely as a means of warding off the Furie's great wrath. No, "hello, son, I've missed you," but instead "oh no, who will save me from the Furies now?" Pathetic.

Do you now see a parallel between husband and wife? No, please, allow me. Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter to stop calamity for rather selfish reasons and he suffered for it. Arguably, Clytemestra used her son in the same way, when, faced with her own demise, was planning to use her son to save herself from a disaster that she could have avoided, just like her husband. If this is true, than not only did Agamemnon deserve his fate but so did Clytemestra because their sins, in my eyes, are the same. Oh the irony!

So, yeah, Clytemestra is a hypocritic tyrant, something that I'm not sure would have made a difference in the court case but the accusation is on the floor. Please feel free to comment.

BTW, I commented on Alexandra's post, A Day as Athena.