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Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1285–1289

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

C. W. Macleod†
Affiliation:
Christ Church, Oxford

Extract

After these words begins Cassandra's long, halting movement into the house and towards her death.

Type
Shorter Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1982

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References

1 For an excellent account of this see Taplin, O., The Stagecraft of Aeschylus (1977), pp. 317–22.Google Scholar

2 For examples of this kind of word-play see PCPS 205 (1979), 56 n. 30. In the Agamemnon, note 1630–2 ***γε (‘he led after him, captivated’) … ἂξη (‘you will be led away captive’).

3 For oxymoron and related phenomena in early Greek literature see Fehling, D., Die Wiederholungsfiguren und ihr Gebrauch bei den Griechen vor Gorgias (1969), pp. 286–93, 301 f., 304.Google Scholar

4 Cf. Taplin, op. cit. pp. 312 f.

5 Cf. Reinhardt, K., Aischylos als Regisseur und Theologe (1949), pp. 97105Google Scholar; Taplin, op. cit. pp. 321 f. For another aspect of this contrast see Maia 27 (1975), 202 f. I should have noted there that both Agamemnon and Cassandra visibly trample; cf. Wilamowitz on 1267.Google Scholar

6 Od. 8. 490; cf. 4. 242. For Iliadic heroes as sufferers or endurers see also Il. 3. 157; 11. 317; 14. 85–7; 23. 607; 24. 505; Od. 3. 104.

7 E.g. Il. 6. 486–9; 12. 322–8; 14. 83–7.

8 Cleomenes is here refusing to commit suicide; two or three years later he did so, again with words of action in his mouth: Plut. Cleom. 37. 12 ϕαρεκ⋯λεσε ϕ⋯ντας ⋯ξ⋯ως αὐτo*** κα⋯ τ***νϕεϕραγμ⋯νων τελεντ***ν.