Throughout Circe we get to see the Goddess herself more so as a human and less like a divine being. We see her fall in love, fall out of love, make decisions that she can’t foresee, and chose to become mortal at the end of the story, but why exactly? Wouldn’t the immortal nature of a god be better than those of humans? To Circe not so much because she has learned firsthand the cost of trying to love mortals while being a god. Look at Glaucus whom she had fallen in love with and did not want to see die, she had turned him into a sea-god and what did he do? He fell in love with another Goddess and left Circe. Later Odysseus lands on her Island and because of him collecting a special herb in his story The Odyssey Circe begins to see some value in having him around and for the next year he stays on the island with her, and she ends up falling in love with him as well and she actually ends up pregnant with his son. After Odysseus leaves and Telegonus grows up she sends him off to find his father after she risks her life for a magical item to protect him on his travels, so she’s had to deal with Odysseus leaving and now Telegonus is leaving her, she’s had to deal with so many people leaving her. After Telegonus returns he tells her that he accidentally killed his father and this devastates her. It’s hard enough to know that the man you live is dead, but imagine that he died accidentally by the son you shared with him, this just shows that Circe goes through more trauma as a Goddess than most humans deal with even in ancient Greece.
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Throughout House of Names there are many deaths that occur because of the family of Agamemnon. Ironically enough it’s because he killed his daughter that any of this occurs, which begs the question, why is this family so quickly prone to violence? It is talked about in the book that Electra feels as though her mother could have done more to prevent Iphigenia’s death and that she has an intense hated for her mother for it. After Killing Agamemnon, Clytemnestra sends their son Orestes away to a camp that he escaped from and with two other people live with an old woman who cared for them until some of Agethisus’ soldiers appear and are required to kill them, was it because they escaped the camp and this was the only way they wouldn’t be forced to go back? After killing those guards Orestes returns and Electra convinces Orestes to murder their mother which he does swiftly after. It seems like Orestes was never given a choice in these matters, that he’s basically forced and manipulated to kill these people and is now treated like a monster. It’s a shame to see because it seems like he held no ill will towards his mother but was enveloped by the hate that Electra felt and was unable to see logic and reason and was only a pawn to her as she didn’t even defend her bother afterwards, he felt completely isolated since not even the Elders want anything to do with him since he committed Matricide. What confuses me though is that Clytemnestra killed Agamemnon and Aegisthus gained power, but no one treated Clytemnestra poorly, why is that? Is it because hers was out of revenge and Orestes’ was not? Or is it because the gods had favored Clytemnestra over Orestes? Either way he has a long and lonesome road ahead of him.
One of the most pivotal pieces in this telling of Cassandra is often how the choices of the women don’t seem to matter or when they do, they’re often met with disastrous consequences. In the case for Cassandra one of the most disastrous choices she made in her life was denying Apollo, as since he was a god he had the power to ruin her in ways worse than violating her physical body and for the most part that’s exactly what he did to her, he gave her the gift or curse depending on how you want to look at it to see into the future, except no one would believe her prophecies. Not only does that force her into the life of being a seer it takes her ability of choice away, how can you make any choices when the future is laid out already? She’s not the only one unable to make choices when it comes to being a woman, it was discussed that the girls had to line up in the town and when a man would toss a coin into their lap they had to follow them and in most cases satisfy them, that just turns women into objects and tools rather than into people, all because they can’t make the choice of who they want to have their first with. Probably the only choice that Cassandra felt like was best for her came at the end when she decided to stay, she willingly stayed even though it was going to come at the cost of her own life. Ending up as a slave to Agamemnon only to be killed by his wife Clytemnestra, but maybe she had decided she no longer wanted to be used as a pawn or tool in the world of man used her last decision to set herself free, either way it becomes painfully apparent how important the concept of choice is and how impactful choice can be to the ancient Greeks. Throughout the Oresteia trilogy the idea of revenge is one of the central cruxes of the stories using it as both a means to an end and a tool to progress the story into the new play. What I want to discuss is the idea that, what if instead of the Furies attacking each member of the family, they used the family as tools to enact their vengeance. In the first play Agamemnon we discover that King Agamemnon had previously killed his own daughter Iphigenia and that his death which was foretold by the Prophet Cassandra had been committed by his own wife Clytemnestra. Now the Furies are Goddesses of vengeance who attack those who have committed wrongs like homicide. So why did they not attack Agamemnon for killing his daughter? Is it because she was used as a sacrifice, or maybe they did seek vengeance for her death, but they used Clytemnestra as their tool to enact their vengeance? Which they then used to their son Orestes as a new tool to commit vengeance on his mother for the death of his father and the prophet in The Libation Bearer. In the Libation Bearer Orestes sneak into the castle his mother claiming that Orestes was dead and due to the interference of Athena he was able to successfully get revenge on his mother and now with no one left to get revenge on him for murdering his mother in Eumenides. Throughout all of these stories it’s just been murder after murder within this family leaving Orestes alive thanks to Athena intervening again but without her his fate was almost certainly sealed. Is it the ancient Greek culture that allowed you to get revenge for the death of your family or was there more secret more divine reasons for the revenge and deaths of the Agamemnon family?
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