Lillian Ying Humanities 8 Karen. S.

The leadership of Clytemnestra

How could a woman become a leader of a country? In all ages since the human being, men as known are more powerful than women. Even though there was a woman called Wu Zetian who reigned China for 15 years, she used vicious method and killed many people who were against her before she became the empire. At the time in Greek which portrayed by Aeschylus in the play Agamemnon, the gender discrimination still exists. As a woman, Clytemnestra won't be leader of Argos because even though Aeschylus exposed Clytemnestra as a central character of the play and reigned the Argos at the beginning of the book, through the chorus, I know that people don't take her ideas or speech seriously. Furthermore, She sacrificed the head of Argos, Agamemnon only for personal motivations and self revenge. On the contrast, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter to saving hundreds of lives in his city but Clytemnestra was so impulsive and killed a great king and people were angry about that. She uses violence to exact justice and didn't think about the state first, which people don't like but hate.

The first reason why Clytemnestra won't be a leader of the Argos I mentioned is because of her gender. Because she is a woman, the chorus and her husband don't take her words and speeches seriously. After Clytemnestra shared the news which the Greeks have taken Troy, the chorus were asking suspiciously: " What? I don't understand. I can't believe what you are saying." and " Are you convinced? Do you have proof?". (page 13, line 268, and line 272)These two sentences clearly show that even though Clytemnestra is their Queen, the chorus didn't show respect to her and didn't believe what she said until she explained to them. Furthermore, after Clytemnestra welcomed

Agamemnon and asked him to walk on the red tapestries, Agamemnon replayed:" ...your speech was like my absence, too long, you should not praise me this way, such words should come from others. Do not pamper me like a woman..."(On page 35, line 915-919).The sentences which talked from Agamemnon state that although Agamemnon was talking to his wife, he still didn't want to see a woman to had a such long speech(which shows on page 33-34)and Agamemnon didn't want to be pampered like a woman. However, ironically, the time when Clytemnestra was praised was when the watchman described her is a woman with a man's heart. The word"woman"is a word which shows weakness, but the word"man"is the word which shows strong power. From this point, we can know that if a woman want to have the power to rule a country, it is nearly impossible, and even if this woman, Clytemnestra succeeds, the people in her country won't be willing to ruled by a woman, and the time when Clytemnestra abdicates is sooner or later.

The second reason I sated is that Clytemnestra is caused for putting family revenge before the people in her country. She killed the head of this country only for personal motivations and self revenge, she didn't think about what will people think and how they will react after she killed Agamemnon and Cassandra. From the text, we know that the chorus didn't agree with this and they were angry. The chorus were saying"Woman! Have you eaten some kind of noxious herb? Has an evil potion from the sea driven you insane? How could you have done this? The citizen will curse you! You cut him down and cast him away, now you will be cast from the city, an exile, a figure of hate, reviled by the people,despised." (Page 56, line 1406-1410)and" And you say that you are innocent of his murder?Do you have a witness? How can you?"(page 60,line 1505)From the sentences we know, the people told Clytemnestra without denying that they don't want to Clytemnestra stay here anymore, they want to put her in to the net and cast her like she did to Agamemnon. Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter to stop the storm and saved his allies, which saved hundreds of lives in the Argos and helped them avoid from the suffering. However, Clytemnestra did the murder only for personal reasons and even though the chorus have already thought that she is not innocent, she still feels that she is innocent. People don't need the leader like

this, they don't need the leader who putted the family conflict before the citizens and didn't admit the mistake she has made.

The two supports which I have shown clearly state that Clytemnestra won't be leader of Argos. Although Aeschylus described Clytemnestra as a central character of the play, he also revealed that as a Queen of the Argos, she is suspected as a leader because of her gender and because she is seen as putting the family before country.