Oresteia And The Odyssey Essay

Different but Similar
Both Homers’ epic, the Odyssey, and Aeschylus’ tragic trilogy, the Oresteia, tell the story of Agamemnon and what led to his doomed death. Both the poem and the play are similar in their plots except for few differences in their significance, presentation and details. This shows how flexible ancient myth is and how it can adapt to suit a particular author and audience. Agamemnons’ death in the Odyssey is a very good example of how people can be, through their own foolishness, bring destruction upon themselves. It also serves as an example of an epic hero failing to return home, which is known as nostos, thus for Odysseus, the epic hero, it delivers a foil for the successful voyage back to his home, Ithaca. In contrast, in the Oresteia, the myth demonstrates an overwhelming theme of justice. Agamemnons’ death here shows the curse hunting his household from generation to generation, starting from Agamemnon’s father

The Odyssey revolves around a household without its master, Odysseus, who has been lost for 10 years. Despite that, Agamemnons’ death by his faithless wife isn’t the main focus of the Odyssey, but it is still frequently mentioned. Aegisthus can be thought of as the suitors who are seen at the beginning of the Odyssey feasting and sipping wine all day. His affair with Clytemnestra, his murder of Agamemnon and then later on, his death by Agamemnons’ son Orestes, foreshadows the inevitable death waiting to consume the suitors’ lives for their efforts to destroy Odysseus household. The stories set up is similar in a way that there are two returning heroes, Agamemnon and Odysseus, their sons, Orestes and Telemachus, and their wives, Clytemnestra and Penelope respectively. Note that in the Odyssey, Aegisthus is named the killer of Agamemnon and not