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Agamemnon Worksheet

1. Agamemnon holds overt power as the king but faces challenges to his authority. Clytemnestra starts with covert power but switches to overt power by the end of the play when she kills Agamemnon. Their power struggle centers around Agamemnon sacrificing their daughter and Clytemnestra seeking revenge. 2. A third character with covert power is Aegisthus, Clytemnestra's lover. He aids her in gaining overt power over Agamemnon through his murder. 3. The play comments on power dynamics in early Greek society by showing a shift from male to female power yet still upholding the values of revenge and justice.

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john Flannery
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43 views

Agamemnon Worksheet

1. Agamemnon holds overt power as the king but faces challenges to his authority. Clytemnestra starts with covert power but switches to overt power by the end of the play when she kills Agamemnon. Their power struggle centers around Agamemnon sacrificing their daughter and Clytemnestra seeking revenge. 2. A third character with covert power is Aegisthus, Clytemnestra's lover. He aids her in gaining overt power over Agamemnon through his murder. 3. The play comments on power dynamics in early Greek society by showing a shift from male to female power yet still upholding the values of revenge and justice.

Uploaded by

john Flannery
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Agamemnon Worksheet

Make a copy of this worksheet and submit it back to Moodle under the assignment portal before
the start of class. You do not need to write in complete sentences if you can get your point
clearly across with bullet points. While it is fine to talk about the play with someone else in the
class, the worksheet must be your individual work (in other words, do not work on this with
someone else; we will do group work separately in class).

General Notes: For these power analyses, look at the society the play is giving us and determine
who is an overt power holder and who has covert power. Discuss in large scale terms how
power is held, struggled over, and won and lost in the play, and what that can tell us about the
society, time, and place of the play.

Answer the following:

1. What is Agamemnon’s relationship to power? Is he overt or covert power? How can you tell
(give 2-3 examples of ways in which Aeschylus shows us Agamemnon’s type of power)?

2. What is Clytemnetra’s relationship to power? Hint: This play actually does have a switch in
power for her - she moves from one type of power to another (and possibly back again) before
the end of the play. Try to identify where she starts, when she moves to another form of power,
and where she ends up.

3. What is the power struggle about between Agamemnon and Clytemnestra? What motivates
each side, how do they show their power over one another, and what power "wins" at the end?

4. Briefly talk about a third character here as well. Identify them, identify their power type, how
they show it, and where they end up at the end.

5. How does this play and its characters connect to early Golden Age Greek society and its
values and how does it push back (if it does) against traditional power structures of Athens?

This response is worth 40 points, so it should be thorough, grammatically correct, organized


clearly, and thoughtful. You should write it up in Word or Google docs and upload it to Moodle
(do not share it with me over email). It should use specifics from the play (you don't need to use
direct quotes necessarily, but your analysis should show a thorough understanding of the play
and specific moments that support your arguments). If you do choose to use quotes, use MLA
citation for in text citations.

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