What's So Bad About Clytaemestra? (Prompt 4)

Kassandra, Agamemnon, Chorus, I hear you: Clytemnestra is a terrible woman. She kills Agamemnon upon his return from so many years at war, she is unfaithful with Aegisthus, and she likes the idea of taking over Argos with him once her husband is dead. She appears to feel no remorse for her actions, and it doesn't help that she speaks like a crazy murderer: "That man is Agamemnon, my husband; he is dead; the work of this right hand that struck in strength of righteousness. And that is that" (81).

But I don't know if I see Clytemnestra as such a bad person as Kassandra, Agamemnon and the Chorus do. Nor should we make the assumption that, given the historical and social context in which "Agamemnon" was written, Aeschylus saw and described Clytemnestra to be as horrible as the characters see her. Outside of her power-greed and lust, her motives for killing her husband are legitimate: she wishes to avenge her daughter, whom Agamemnon "slaughtered like a victim...to charm away the winds of Thrace" (81). I would also argue that this is her main motive, as she mentions revenge for the death of her daughter first and more often than the prospects of going off with Aegisthus and attaining power.

Perhaps I am biased, because I just do not understand the idea that Iphegenia had to die. I not only am not living in the social and historical time of "Agamemnon," fully grasping the notion that her sacrifice was necessary for favorable winds, but I am not a spiritual person. But Clytemnestra doesn't get it either, so I don't think I'm crazy. How could Agamemnon kill his own daughter, so innocent, so precious to Clytemnestra and presumably her siblings?

I feel as though I am not supposed to feel this sympathy for Clytemnestra: nobody in "Agamemnon" nor "The Odyssey" has anything nice to say about her, and she is imbued with a certain selfishness, which manifests itself in her cheating with Aegisthus and her hopes of power in Agamemnon's place. Also, it is not out of the question to assume I am supposed to hold certain gender biases, classifying Clytemnestra as just another devious woman, such as Calypso, Circe, Hera, and Aphrodite.

But perhaps it is exactly this conflicted feeling that Aeschylus intended. Maybe one aspect that made this play so popular is the complexity of our 'villain.' What would you do if someone killed your child? On the surface, Clytemnestra is a caricature of a villain, a devious woman. Beneath the surface, however, Clytemnestra may have the same love for family that we would have, whether we would like to admit it or not.