Agamemnon

Agamemnon enters on a chariot. At his side is Cassandra, a princess of Troy and a seeress, whom he took captive after the sack of Troy. Taking care not to transgress justice and human limits by being excessive in its praise, the chorus sings a brief ode hailing Agamemnon’s victory over Troy. Agamemnon delivers a speech in which he greets Argos and the gods, giving thanks for his victory and his safe homecoming. He boasts that Troy was justly punished, but he cuts himself off, lest he incur the evil eye or the anger of the gods. Agamemnon concludes by declaring that the city must be put in order.

Clytemnestra responds to Agamemnon’s speech with a speech of her own. Apologizing for foregoing feminine modesty by speaking publicly, she expresses joy at being reunited with her husband after many years of living in a “house forlorn with no man by” (862). She describes in detail the fear and longing she suffered as she waited 10 years for Agamemnon’s return. Next, she praises Agamemnon extravagantly as she welcomes him home, urging him to enter the palace by walking on luxurious crimson tapestries she spread on the ground before him.