“Despite the suppression of women throughout the plays they are still the stronger sex.”
In this essay I will discuss how even though women are treated as if they are second class citizens and are not given the right to free speech, they are still the stronger sex over men. I have based my essay on the plays Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides and Agamemnon the first play of The Oresteia by Aeschylus.
“If you want the excellence of a man, it’s easy— the excellence of a man is to be capable of taking part in the affairs of the polis, and in doing so to help his friends and harm his enemies, and watch out that he does not suffer anything of that kind himself. But if you want the excellence of a woman, it’s not difficult to say: she should manage the household well, preserving its contents and being obedient to her husband. (Meno 10e)”
The women in these plays go against the norm of women of the time, as they break the rules, by leaving their homes, speaking and standing up for what they believe in and challenge the patriarchal society.
Iphigenia at Aulis
From the very beginning of Iphigenia at Aulis we see the weakness of men in comparison to women. The Trojan War is mainly caused by Helen going to Troy with Paris and leaving her husband Menelaus.
“He lusted after Helen, she after him.
Since Menelaus was away, he snatched her up,
went back to the cowbarns of his native land.
Stung by his lot,
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Menelaus gallops around Greece, reminding everyone of
Tyndareos’ ancient oath:
“now is the time for all good men
to come to the aid of the wronged!”
The power of women is shown clearly when Artemis the goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, virginity and young girls, punishes Agamemnon for killing a stag in a sacred grove and boasting that he was a better hunter than the goddess, by preventing the winds from blowing when the Greek army were preparing to depart Aulis for Troy to retrieve Helen and thus beginning the Trojan War. Agamemnon is advised to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia in order for the winds to blow once again.
“The army’s gathered and ready, and here we sit
at Aulis, without wind. And Kalkhas the seer,
making use of the standstill, said
to sacrifice my daughter Iphigenia to Artemis,
the local goddess, and the launch would happen,
and the Trojans’ destruction—if we sacrificed her.
If we didn’t, none of this would happen.”
Agamemnon is shown for his weakness when he fabricates a lie in order to get his daughter to come to Aulis instead of telling the truth. He says that Achilles, the great Trojan warrior and prince of Phthia, wishes to marry her.
“I sent my wife instructions to send my daughter here,
in order (I said) that she might marry Achilles.
I magnified Achilles’ virtues,
and said that he refused to sail
unless he’d sent a wife from our house
to his home in Phthia.”
Agamemnon seeing the error of his ways tries to send a letter to his wife Clytemnestra saying that the wedding is off however Menelaus intercepts the letter and by the time they realise what they are doing is wrong it is too late and Clytemnestra and Iphigenia have arrived.
Achilles who is known to be a brave warrior shows his fickleness when he vows to defend Iphigenia, primarily more for the purpose of defending his own honour than to save Iphigenia’s life.
“your young girl will not be slaughtered by her father,
since she’s been called my woman. I will not offer your
husband
my person to use in weaving his conspiracies!
My name— even if it did not wield the knife—
will be the murderer of your child.”
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Clytemnestra is a complete contrast to her weak and cowardly husband and this is seen very clearly when she stands up to him after she finds out the truth about the sacrifice. The whole situation is caused by Agamemnon not standing up to his brother and refusing to sacrifice his own child for the sake of getting Helen back and restoring Menelaus’ honour.
“And if someone should ask you for what reason you will
kill her,
speak! What will you say? Do I have to speak for you?
So that Menelaus can have Helen. A fine answer,
to give children as payment for a bad woman!
We will be buying the most hateful thing in exchange for
the very dearest!”
Iphigenia is the main proof in the play that despite the suppression of women they are the stronger sex. When she first finds out the truth that she is not to be married but to be sacrificed instead, she pleads with her father to save her but later she consents to her sacrifice, declaring that she would rather die courageously and be known as the saviour of Greece, than be die against her will.
“If Artemis wishes to take my body,
will I, a mortal, stand in the way of a goddess?
No! Impossible! I give my body to Greece.
Make the sacrifice! Eradicate Troy! For a long time to
come
that will be my monument, my children, my marriage,
my fame!”
No longer is she a child who belongs to a family, a private individual focused on emotional connections. Now she speaks as an adult, a member of the citizen body, a Greek who shares the concerns of other Greeks. Instead of thinking of herself, she focuses on others— Achilles, other members of the army, all Greeks. Now she sees the cause of the war not as a private matter, but as theft of a Greek woman by a barbarian, a public issue, an offense to the fatherland which will be repeated by unless the perpetrators are punished as they deserve.
Agamemnon
Women being the stronger sex even though they are suppressed is once again shown very clearly in Agamemnon. From the very beginning of the play Clytemnestra is said to have a “fiery heart, the determined resolution of a man.” This is proven to be true throughout the play.
Agamemnon returns home with Cassandra, daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, whom he took from Troy as a concubine. They are greeted by his loving wife Clytemnestra who treats him like a God, showering him with compliments and red tapestries to walk on.
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“And now, my beloved lord, come to me here,
climb down from that chariot. But, my king,
don’t place upon the common ground the foot
which stamped out Troy.
You women, don’t just stand there.
I’ve told you what to do. Spread out those tapestries,
here on the ground, directly in his path. Quickly!
Let his path be covered all in red, so Justice
can lead him back into his home, a place
he never hoped to see.”
Agamemnon once again supresses Clytemnestra by saying that her praise doesn’t count for much as she is a woman.
“Daughter of Leda, guardian of my home,
your speech was, like my absence, far too long.
Praise that’s due to us should come from others.
Then it’s worthwhile. All those things you said—
don’t puff me up with such female honours,
or grovel there before me babbling tributes,
like some barbarian.”
However, Clytemnestra is far better at deception than her husband was in Iphigenia at Aulis; she has been having an affair with his cousin Aegisthus, and now with his help is plotting to kill Agamemnon so that she can finally get revenge for what he did to Iphigenia and so that she can be with Aegisthus.
“The killing of the king is dramatized in a protracted series of scenes. The entrance to the palace is blocked by Clytemnestra, who in a famous and brilliantly dramatic scene spreads blood-red tapestries in front of the door; the king, who initially refuses to trample such finery, is persuaded by Clytemnestra to enter his palace across the tapestries. Clytemnestra fails to persuade Cassandra, a Trojan princess, who is part of the king’s booty, to come in immediately, and she is left on stage with the chorus.”
Cassandra was granted the gift of prophecy by the Apollo, the god of light and sun, truth and prophecy, music and poetry. However when she did not love him in return he placed a curse on her so that no one would ever believe her predictions. This once again shows the power women can have over men even Gods.
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“Since I resisted him, no one believes me.”
“She begins to describe in an extraordinarily intricate and powerful set of images both the past history of the family and its future violence. She eventually enters the house knowingly to her death.”
Aegisthus is also shown to be weak as it is Clytemnestra who kills Agamemnon and Cassandra, even though he only wants to kill Agamemnon so that he can become king.
“You womanly creature!
You stayed at home, waiting out the war,
until the men came back. You soiled a real man’s bed,
then planned to kill our king.”
In conclusion the women in both plays prove that they are the stronger sex because of their bravery and ability to stand up for what they believe in despite of the consequences. Iphigenia is willing to give up her own life to save the lives of her family and so that the honour of her uncle can be restored, Clytemnestra is willing to stand up to her husband and the Greek army to save the life of her daughter, something Agamemnon is not willing to do and Cassandra refuses to love a God despite him cursing her with a gift that no one will ever believe, making her a figure of epic tragedy.
Bibliography
Agamemnon, Aeschylus, Trans.
Ian Johnston of Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, BC
Euripides; Blondell, Ruby (Editor).
Women on the Edge : Four Plays. London, GBR: Routledge, 1999. p 67.
Goldhill, Simon. Aeschylus : The Oresteia (2nd Edition).
West Nyack, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
