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AeschylusOresteia
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Tapestries
In Agamemnon, Clytaemnestra lures Agamemnon to step down from his chariot onto a pathway of fine tapestries she has laid out for him, bidding him “Come to me now, my dearest, / down from the car of war, but never set the foot / that stamped out Troy on earth again, my great one” (897-899). He steps from his chariot and walks along the tapestries to the house, where he is murdered. In this way, Clytaemnestra severs him from the country he left a decade ago. Murdered upon his homecoming, his return remains incomplete. Agamemnon is initially leery of treading on tapestries, lest it “draw the lightning” of the gods (914). These tapestries are inlaid with silver and very valuable; to treat them as rugs and tread upon them would be too ostentatious for a mortal and might seem boastful before the gods. However, Clytaemnestra appeals to her husband’s ego and convinces him to “Let the red stream flow and bear him home / to the home he never hoped to see” (902-903). This “red stream” foreshadows the king’s bloody murder. The tapestries symbolize Agamemnon’s fate and serve as a warning for mortals to keep their pride in check.
Nets
Nets in The Oresteia symbolize treachery, dishonor, and plotting. When Clytaemnestra kills Agamemnon, she first ensnares him in a net of royal robes before stabbing him. Revealing her husband’s body wrapped in the bloody robes, she calls her decade-long plan for revenge a “never-ending, all embracing net,” which she “cast wide for the royal haul” (1402-1403). This treacherous end is an affront to his honor. As a warrior king, it would have been far more appropriate and honorable for Agamemnon to have died in Troy, a point lamented by Orestes and Electra in The Libation Bearers. When Orestes kills Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus, he winds their bodies in the same robes with which Clytaemnestra snared Agamemnon, mirroring Clytaemnestra’s triumphant reveal of Agamemnon and Cassandra’s bodies.
The Pouring of Libations
In The Libation Bearers, Agamemnon has been laid to rest without the traditional funeral rites given for the dead. According to ancient Greek religion, this can lead to dire consequences for the living. Clytaemnestra buried her husband without ceremony to spite his memory for killing their daughter. However, doing so invoked the wrath of Agamemnon’s spirit, afflicting her with prophetic nightmares. In these nightmares, Clytaemnestra nurses a serpent, which she fails to recognize as a symbol for her son, Orestes. She does, however, correctly link these dreams to her guilt for improperly burying Agamemnon. In order to bring peace to her mind, she orders Electra and the chorus of slave women to perform the rites necessary to assuage her husband's spirit.
The Furies
The Furies refers to a group of maiden goddesses who exist to punish mortals for breaking oaths, violating host/guest decorum, murder, and other indiscretions. Traditionally, there are three furies: Megara, Alecto, and Tisiphone. However, the Furies that comprise the chorus in The Eumenides are more numerous and unnamed. In The Oresteia, the Furies are invoked by characters seeking vengeance, or as a general warning against transgressing.
The Furies also symbolize guilt, or attacks of conscience. For example, at the end of The Libation Bearers, Orestes is driven from Argos by the apparition of the Furies, inspiring terror in him, though no other character can see them. Cassandra, too, is able to see the furies gathering around Agamemnon’s palace as Clytaemnestra nears her revenge, symbolizing the outrage about to take place. This suggests that the furies are visible only to the guilty, or those with divine qualities, such as Cassandra, Pythia, Apollo, Athena, and the men of Athens, who are appointed by Athena to be a proxy for divine judgement.
Related Titles
By Aeschylus
