Classical Studies 2200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Pylades, Aegisthus, Clytemnestra

• School: Western University
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: Classical Studies 2200
• Professor: Aara Suksi

Document Summary

The title libation bearers comes from the chorus of trojan slave women, who carried libations to the tomb of agamemnon. In the libation bearers, orestes comes of age in exile and returns home to argos (nostos), accompanied by his friend, pylades. They consulted the oracle at delphi, where apollo commanded orestes to kill his mother and aegisthus, to avenge the murder of agamemnon compare. Agamemnon"s dilemma when artemis demands the sacri ce of iphigenia. Electra, orestes sister, is at home in argos and laments constantly at her father"s tomb, remembering him and calling for revenge. The funeral lament was a song sung over the corpse afterwards, in regular commemoration of the dead, was part of what was considered owed to the soul of the deceased. To neglect the funeral lament was to risk the displeasure of the gods or the ghost of the dead. The lament was a carefully constructed song with elements speci c to the genre.