Women's Revenge In The Oresteia And Medea

Comparing Women's Revenge in The Oresteia and Medea

Clytaemnestra and Medea are two women who are seeking justice for a

wrong committed by their husbands. Clytaemnestra?s husband, Agamemnon,

did not wrong here directly but rather indirectly. Agamemnon

sacrificed their daughter Iphigeneia, in order to calm the Thracian

winds. For Clytaemnestra this brought much hatred towards Agamemnon.

Here Agamemnon had betrayed Clytaemnestra and their daughters trust,

and for that she sought revenge. Medea's husband, Jason, had

dishonored her with his unfaithfulness. Medea sought to kill

everything that was important in Jason's life in order to seek

justice. Clytaemnestra and Medea are similar but yet different in the

ways that they define justice, setup up their victims, carry out the

just sentence and in the end justify their actions.

Clytaemnestra feels the only justice for the death of her daughter,

Iphigeneia, is the death of Agamemnon. ?Act for an act, wound for

wound!? is the only justification that Clytaemnestra cans see

(Agamemnon 1555). Medea also sees death as the only justification for

her husbands? unfaithfulness. ?To stay here, and in this I will make

dead bodies / Of three of my enemies, -father, the girl and my

husband?(Medea 370-71). Medea says here that she wishes to kill Kreon,

the father of the princess Jason will wed, the princess and Jason.

Although she never kills Jason, she does successfully kill Kreon and

the princess. Medea later says that she must also kill her children to

cause Jason pain. In their defining justice Clytaemnestra and Medea

both feel death is the only justice. However, with Medea she does not

intend to kill Jason.

In order for Clytaemnestra to seek justice for her daughters? death,

she had to make Agamemnon feel as though nothing was wrong.

Clytaemnestra gives a big speech when Agamemnon arrives telling

everybody how ?great the love she bore her husband, and the agonizing

grief she had suffered in his absence?(Hamilton 253). She laid red

tapestries for him to walk on, and made him feel as though he was

worthy enough to walk on them. Like Clytaemnestra, Medea uses her

words to make Kreon and Jason feel as though she is being sincere.

Medea convinces Kreon to let her have another day before she is

banished, by telling him that she needs to find a place to live and

that she needs to ?look for support? for her children (Medea 337-339).

Medea tells Jason that she is wrong for what she has said and that he

is right for marrying a princess, because it will be better for their

children (Medea 845-954). Clytaemnestra and Medea set their victims up

by making them feel as though nothing is wrong.

Clytaemnestra decides the way to kill Agamemnon is while he is

bathing, there he is defenseless. Clytaemnestra carries out the

sentence that she sees just by slashing Agamemnon with a sword three

times. Then she kills Cassandra, Agamemnon?s concubine he received for

defeating Troy, whom she sees as a nuisance if left alive. Medea, on

the other hand does not use brute force at first to kill like

Clytaemnestra, instead she uses what she knows best, poison. Medea

sends the children with Jason bearing gifts for the princess. These

gifts consist of a dress and golden crown laced with poison, which

will kill anyone who comes in contact with it. The princess and Kreon

both die as a result of the poison laden gifts. When Medea finds out

that the gifts killed the princess and Kreon she now uses brute force

like Clytaemnestra, by turning the sword on her children.

Clytaemnestra is not as cruel as is Medea. Clytaemnestra could have

killed her son for whom she saw as a threat, but chose not to because

she loved her children so much (Hamilton 257).