Clytemnestra and Athena (Prompt 8)

Both Clytemnestra and Athena are exceptional women in that they deviate from common roles of female goddesses and mortals. As the goddess of war, Athena is imbued with characteristics more often associated with male characters. But Athena, unlike Clytemnestra, is accepted and even revered because she embodies only positive characteristics associated with women and men.

Clytemnestra is, of course, imbued with the deviousness associated with many other female characters in Ancient Greek literature (Calypso, Circe, Hera, Aphrodite). But her acquisition of certain "male" traits and abandonment of certain "female" traits is the last straw for Clytemnestra.

A willingness to avenge the wrongly dead (as we see in her son Orestes) takes over Clytemnestra and even leads her to hold and use a sword, unlike any other woman. The unfaithfulness we see when Agamemnon arrives in his chariot with another woman has also been adopted by Clytemnestra, with Aegisthus.

One trait associated with femininity Clytemnestra abandons is submissiveness. She refuses to appease Agamemnon after killing Iphigenia, even though that was considered necessary. Clytemnestra also relinquishes all motherly qualities, highlighting her distance from Orestes, which adds justification to his matricide. Apollo claims, "The mother is no parent of that which is called / her child, but only nurse of the new-planted seed / that grows" (158). By shedding herself of the roles of mother and wife, as well as by assuming the role of an avenger, Clytemnestra rebels and later receives an adequate punishment for non-conformity. Clytemnestra and Athena are similar in their atypical combination of female and male characteristics. But while the most acceptable traits of both genders manifest themselves in Athena, the least acceptable characteristics present themselves in Clytemnestra.