DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.47071#0090
86
POET AND ARTIST IN GREECE
to watch for Agamemnon’s return, and the slaying of
Agamemnon at a banquet to which he was invited, and
which seems to have ended in a general m£lee, since
^Egisthus’ men as well as Agamemnon’s were all killed.
In the description of the murder given by the shade of
Agamemnon himself, its perpetration at a banquet is
again described, and it is, above all, the treachery and
cruelty of Clytaemnestra that are emphasised ; Agamem-
non says he also heard the piteous death-cry of Cassandra.
This is the epic version of the story ; in it there is no
trace of some of the incidents which have become familiar
to us through the Attic drama and other subsequent works.
Among these are the sacrifice of Iphigenia, which later was
regarded as the chief motive or at least a contributory
motive for the vengeance of Clytaemnestra, the prominent
part taken by Electra, the dream of Clytaemnestra
which led to her propitiatory sacrifice, and the pursuit of
Orestes by the Furies. There is no reference to the axe
with which Clytaemnestra had slain Agamemnon, and
with which later she attempted to rescue JEgisthus, nor
to the deed being done in the bath-chamber, as Aga-
memnon was struggling into a sewn-up garment. These
and other details, not in the epic story, had evidently
become part of the accepted version before it was put
into its later form by the great Attic dramatists ; they
are partly preserved for us by representations on Attic
vases and on other works of art which go back at least in
type to a time before the middle of the fifth century B.c. ;
partly by quotations from or memories of the works of
Stesichorus, whose influence on the form of the story may
be judged from the Attic drama. In his version Clytsem-
nestra slew Agamemnon with an axe. The young Orestes
was rescued by his old nurse and handed over to the
faithful Talthybius, who fled with him to Phocis. Ten
POET AND ARTIST IN GREECE
to watch for Agamemnon’s return, and the slaying of
Agamemnon at a banquet to which he was invited, and
which seems to have ended in a general m£lee, since
^Egisthus’ men as well as Agamemnon’s were all killed.
In the description of the murder given by the shade of
Agamemnon himself, its perpetration at a banquet is
again described, and it is, above all, the treachery and
cruelty of Clytaemnestra that are emphasised ; Agamem-
non says he also heard the piteous death-cry of Cassandra.
This is the epic version of the story ; in it there is no
trace of some of the incidents which have become familiar
to us through the Attic drama and other subsequent works.
Among these are the sacrifice of Iphigenia, which later was
regarded as the chief motive or at least a contributory
motive for the vengeance of Clytaemnestra, the prominent
part taken by Electra, the dream of Clytaemnestra
which led to her propitiatory sacrifice, and the pursuit of
Orestes by the Furies. There is no reference to the axe
with which Clytaemnestra had slain Agamemnon, and
with which later she attempted to rescue JEgisthus, nor
to the deed being done in the bath-chamber, as Aga-
memnon was struggling into a sewn-up garment. These
and other details, not in the epic story, had evidently
become part of the accepted version before it was put
into its later form by the great Attic dramatists ; they
are partly preserved for us by representations on Attic
vases and on other works of art which go back at least in
type to a time before the middle of the fifth century B.c. ;
partly by quotations from or memories of the works of
Stesichorus, whose influence on the form of the story may
be judged from the Attic drama. In his version Clytsem-
nestra slew Agamemnon with an axe. The young Orestes
was rescued by his old nurse and handed over to the
faithful Talthybius, who fled with him to Phocis. Ten