the central theme both of Greek Tragedy and of
Greek Religion. The fall of Pride, the avenging of wrong by wrong, is no
new subject selected by Aeschylus. It forms both the commonest burden of
the moralising lyrics in Greek tragedy and even of the tragic myths
themselves; and recent writers have shown how the same idea touches the
very heart of the traditional Greek religion. "The life of the
Year-Daemon, who lies at the root of so many Greek gods and heroes, is
normally a story of Pride and Punishment. Each year arrives, waxes great,
commits the sin of Hubris and must therefore die. It is the way of all
Life. As an early philosopher expresses it, "All things pay retribution
for their injustice one to another according to the ordinance of Time."[1]

[Footnote 1: See my _Four Stages of Greek Religion_, p. 47. Cornford,
_From Religion to Philosophy_, Chapter I. See also the fine pages on the
Agamemnon in the same writer's _Thucydides Mythistoricus_, pp. 144, ff.
(E. Arnold 1907). G. M.]

To me this consideration actually increases the interest and beauty of the
_Oresteia_, because it increases its greatness. The majestic art, the
creative genius, the instinctive eloquence of these plays--that eloquence
which is the mere despair of a translator--are all devoted to the
expression of something which Aeschylus felt to be of tremendous import.
It was not his discovery; but it was a truth of which he had an intense
realization. It had become something which he must with all his strength
bring to expression before he died, not in a spirit of self-assertion or
of argument, like a discoverer, but as one devoted to something higher and
greater than himself, in the spirit of an interpreter or prophet.

AGAMEMNON

CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY

AGAMEMNON, _son of Atreus and King of Argos and Mycenae;
Commander-in-Chief of the Greek armies in the War against Troy._

CLYTEMNESTRA, _daughter of Tyndareus, sister of Helen; wife to Agamemnon._

AIGISTHOS, _son of Thyestes, cousin and blood-enemy to Agamemnon
lover to Clytemnestra._

CASSANDRA, _daughter of Priam, King of Troy, a prophetess;
now slave to Agamemnon._

A WATCHMAN.

A HERALD.

CHORUS of Argive Elders, faithful to AGAMEMNON.

CHARACTERS MENTIONED IN THE PLAY

MENELAUeS, _brother to Agamemnon, husband of Helen, and King of Sparta.
The two sons of Atreus are called the Atreidae._

HELEN, _most beautiful of women; daughter of Tyndareus, wife to
_MENELAUeS_;