Aeschylus, Agamemnon

Anthony Podlecki (University of British Columbia)

Ed. by Vaios Liapis, Open University of Cyprus
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.1: Greek Writing and Culture: Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial, -800--100.
Vol. editors: Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University), Laura Swift (The Open University)

Dates

First circulation or publication -458

Places

Ancient Greece (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play
Tragedy

Resources

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Agamemnon was the opening play in the tragic trilogy Oresteia, produced by the oldest of the three great Athenian dramatists, Aeschylus, in 458 B.C.E., when it won first prize at the major Athenian dramatic festival, the City Dionysia held in early March. It told how the supreme commander of the Greek expedition against Troy returned to find himself first supplanted and then murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. The story can be traced back to the earliest strata of Greek myth. The Odyssey mentions in more than one place the supreme commander’s fatal reception by his wife and her lover. Here the primary agent is Aegisthus, who, through the agency of a treacherous watchman, lures his …

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2262 words

Citation: Podlecki, Anthony. "Agamemnon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 April 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6812, accessed 28 September 2023.]

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