Coming Home Trivia Quiz

Answer: Argos

Agamemnon was king of Argos (according to Homer), a city which is still located on the Peloponnesian Peninsula in Greece today. The area has been continuously inhabited since the late Neolithic Age; it is known to have been a Mycenaean stronghold during the late Bronze Age from approximately 1600-1100 BC. Since modern historians date the Trojan War to the 1200s BC, this would have meant that Agamemnon was a powerful king of a power polis. Some sources say that the area called Argos was also called Mycenae; if that is the case, Agamemnon ruled the city with the world famous lion gate!

At the beginning of the play, a watchman is watching for a sign that the Greeks have won the war:

"Fire of the night, that brings my spirit day,
Shedding on Argos light, and dance, and song,
Greetings to fortune, hail!"

Answer: Ten years

Homer made it very clear that the Trojan War lasted for ten years ("Iliad"), and Aeschylus does as well.

After the beacon light is spotted, there is a Chorus of elderly citizens, men who were too old to fight, who recount the story leading up to the Trojan War.

"Ten live long years have rolled away,
Since the twin lords of sceptred sway,
By Zeus endowed with pride of place,
The doughty chiefs of Atreus' race,
Went forth of yore,
To plead with Priam, face to face,
Before the judgment-seat of War!"

If you have never heard of Agamemnon, you may, at least, know about his more famous brother, Menelaus, King of Sparta. He was the husband of the beautiful Helen, the other "twin lord". Remember - there were many Greeks who wanted to marry Helen, and her father made all her suitors take an oath that they would help her husband if ever necessary. The Greeks (really Mycenaeans in this period) were duty-bound to go and fight - for however long it took to end the war.

Answer: He sacrificed their daughter.

The Chorus of elderly men also tells this story in "Agamemnon".

"She craves, alas! to see a second life
Shed forth, a curst unhallowed sacrifice-
'Twixt wedded souls, artificer of strife,
And hate that knows not fear, and fell device."

A thousand ships had left Argos to join in the fight to retrieve Helen from Paris, the Prince of Troy. After they had sailed toward Troy, the winds became unfavorable and Agamemnon and his men were trapped in Aulius. After learning that Artemis, having been offended by Agamemnon's arrogance, had caused the winds to still, his only recourse was to order the sacrifice of his own daughter, Iphigenia, after which the winds began to blow again.

Even the Chorus in the play is unsure if the sacrifice was justified considering that the long war was fought to recover just one woman.

Answer: False

When the spoils of war were divided after the fall of Troy, Agamemnon was given Cassandra, King Priam's daughter, and he had the audacity to bring her to Argos with him! Are some guys obtuse or what?! The point must be made, however, that the die had already been cast. Clytemnestra had already decided to kill her husband. Seeing Cassandra just added fuel to an already hot fire. After the two arrived at the palace in separate chariots, Clytemnestra made a big deal, talking about how lonely she had been without her husband, and revealed that she had missed him so much during his long absence that she had even contemplated suicide.

Agamemnon is unimpressed, and simply asks Clytemnestra to be hospitable to Cassandra. Perhaps he has heard rumors that his wife has not been faithful?

"Enough hereof: and, for the stranger maid,
Lead her within, but gently: God on high
Looks graciously on him whom triumph's hour
Has made not pitiless."

Answer: She has made a purple carpet to welcome his return.

Actually they have quite a discussion as to whether or not it is a good idea for Agamemnon to walk on the purple carpet that Clytemnestra had prepared.

"An arrogance; such pomp beseems the gods,
Not me. A moral man to set his foot
On these rich dyes? I hold such pride in fear..."

Agamemnon feared that it was a display that was just too ostentatious - "a display of hubris". Such a display of pride might make the gods angry again. Clytemnestra, however, would not be dissuaded. She goaded him into walking on the carpet, saying that she was sure that King Priam wouldn't have any such reservation. Agamemnon acquiesced and entered the palace.

Answer: Agamemnon's cousin

He was actually the lover that Clytemnestra had taken after Agamemnon left for Troy and she returned home from Aulius. He was also Agamemnon's first cousin. Interestingly, Homer's story about Agamemnon's death took place at Aegisthus' home, and he was the one who killed the hero. Not so with Aeschylus, who gave Aegisthus just a very small role in his play.

Aeschylus does tell that after Clytemnestra kills her husband, Aegisthus claims that he is the one who planned the entire debacle.

"But Justice brought me home once more, grown now
To manhood's years; and stranger tho' I was,
My right hand reached unto the chieftain's life,
Plotting and planning all that malice bade.
And death itself were honour now to me,
Beholding him in Justice' ambush ta'en."

Answer: Agamemnon's father killed his brothers.

This was where family history played a role in the play. If you remember, Agamemnon was of the House of Atreus that had been cursed by the gods. His father, who was Atreus, punished his brother for having an affair with his wife by murdering his sons, cooking them, and serving them for dinner. Aegisthus, the incestuous offspring of his father and sister, wasn't even born at the time. An oracle, however, told his father that if he took his daughter to bed, the child would seek revenge.

In fact, Aegisthus does quickly tell the story of his hatred in his first speech in the play.

"And bade my father to his board, and set
Before him flesh that was his children once."

Answer: True

Remember, Cassandra was the beautiful daughter of Priam, the King of Troy. When she became a priestess of Apollo, he fell in love with her and gave her the gift of prophecy. When she did not return his affection, he could not take the gift back, so he made sure that no one would ever believe what she said.

Throughout the siege of Troy, time and time again Cassandra gives a correct prediction, but no one ever believes her. Now that she is in Argos, Cassandra knows exactly what happened in the past, and what is about to happen.

"Woe for me, woe! Again the agony-
Dread pain that sees the future all too well
With ghastly preludes whirls and racks my soul."

Answer: Bathtub

The death of Agamemnon is really not shown in the play. Clytemnestra, however, is so proud of herself that she has to tell everyone what happened - that Agamemnon was in his bath when she killed him with an ax. And - that she trapped him there with heavy robes so that he could not resist.

"Lo! at my feet lies Agamemnon slain,
My husband once-and him this hand of mine,
A right contriver, fashioned for his death.
Behold the deed!"

Members of the Chorus are not so sure that Clytemnestra shouldn't be driven out of Argos, but she reminds them that Agamemnon killed Iphigenia. She does not have an iota of remorse and plans to rule Argos now with Aegisthus.

"I swept from these halls
the murder, the sin, and the fury."

Some might say that Clytemnestra suffered from the same hubris as her husband.

Answer: Justice

Cassandra alludes to the theme in one of her speeches.

"For by their will shall one requite my doom.
He, to avenge his father's blood outpoured,
Shall smite and slay with matricidal hand.
Ay, he shall come--tho' far away he roam,
A banished wanderer in a stranger's land--
To crown his kindred's edifice of ill,
Called home to vengeance by his father's fall:
Thus have the high gods sworn, and shall fulfil."

In the early Greek code of justice, a murder cried for revenge. It was expected that family members of the deceased would kill the murderer. But it was a terrible cycle of revenge, going back and forth until families were nearly annihilated. So Clytemnestra killed her husband to avenge the murder of Iphigenia. Who will take revenge on Clytemnestra? And - if someone in the family failed to do so, they would be haunted and punished by the terrible Furies.