The Oresteia Review

To me, Clytemnestra fits into the role of a tragic hero because of what her husband did. She had to watch her daughter get scarified (for a war over one woman!) and then watch everyone welcome Agamemnon home as a hero, plus he brought home a (unwilling) mistress. Tragic heroes are supposed to invoke pity from the audience as they watch them fall. Clytemnestra may have murdered her husband, debatable if it was deserved or not, but she only did so because she wanted to avenge her daughter. In the first play, she calls out the chorus of men around her for not saying anything when Agamemnon killed their child, but when she kills him they suddenly have lots to say. The cycle of revenge is continued when her son Orestes, and kind of her daughter Electra but she really doesn't do much, decide to kill her for killing their dad. The cycle is finally  broken when the gods, Apollo and Athena step in and stop the Furies that Clytemnestra sent after her son for murdering her. Well honestly it was mostly Athena who resolved the issue by making the Furies into new gods, gods of the hearth, instead of being set upon for blood vengeances. The three plays can be seen as the story of society switching from a matriarchal view to a patriarchal one. The Furies try and get revenge for the mother but is shut down by a new, younger dude, that dude being Apollo, who says they don't get to decide if a wrong has been done because it's the father who is the real giver of life. The fact that the story ends with the son being able to get away with murdering his mom but she couldn't get away with killing her husband who killed their daughter (lots of killing happening in this play) does rub me the wrong way a little. However, the cycle of revenge had to end with someone and the family can hopefully move on from the curse and stop the cycle. Hell, maybe Electra actually comes back and becomes a character instead of a voice to egg her brother on.​