CLASS 40 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Telemachus, Aegisthus, Clytemnestra
Classics 40 Mythology
4/23/18
●The story of agamemnon, clytemnestra, and orestes
○The ghost of achilles tries to prevent agamemnon from sailing home foretelling
what is going to happen to agamemnon
○Agamemnon sails home anyways
○Is murdered by clytemnestra his wife, and her lover aegisthus
○agamemnon's son, orestes, takes revenge on clytemnestra and aegisthus
●Telemachos is left home alone on ithaca
○Young and inexperienced
●Analysis
○Asking what it means in context
■Of the work as a whole
■Of related works
■Of society
■How was it transmitted
●Within the native culture
●To later generations
■Comparison to other cultures (less focus)
○Comparison to OURSELVES (more focus)
○Narrative (how is something told)
■Can be told with backstory
■With flashforwards
○Plot (different than narrative)
○Types of action
○Style
■Homeric epics are long with lots of character
■Vs. hesiod who is basically story of gods
○Relationships of characters
○Images
○References outside the text
○Looking for the overt use of mythological patterns
○Applying theories to the work:
○Theories that one could get from the work itself:
■How the word myth was used
■Whether stories are differentiated from each other within the text as
“real/historical” or fable/moral”
Document Summary
The story of agamemnon, clytemnestra, and orestes. The ghost of achilles tries to prevent agamemnon from sailing home foretelling what is going to happen to agamemnon. Is murdered by clytemnestra his wife, and her lover aegisthus. Agamemnon"s son, orestes, takes revenge on clytemnestra and aegisthus. Telemachos is left home alone on ithaca. Homeric epics are long with lots of character. Vs. hesiod who is basically story of gods. Looking for the overt use of mythological patterns. Theories that one could get from the work itself: Whether stories are differentiated from each other within the text as.
