Agamemnon

Agamemnon is the first play of Aeschylus's Oresteia trilogy, beginning as news of Troy's defeat reaches the royal household at Argos. The king returns with Cassandra, whose prophetic warnings disclose the violence waiting within the palace. Clytemnestra's revenge draws force from the earlier sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia, while the chorus recalls a longer inheritance of wrongdoing. Elaborate images of nets, blood and corrupted sacrifice make the house itself seem burdened by its history. The apparent completion of a victorious campaign thus opens another crisis, exposing the cost of treating vengeance as a form of justice.