The Marriage of Cassandra and the Oresteia: Text, Image, Performance

Abstract

In this paper I seek, first, to re-examine the bridal imagery surrounding Cassandra in Aeschylus's Agamemnon, and, second, to suggest how iconography, and its relationship to performance, can connect this scene's concerns more thoroughly with the two successive dramas of the Oresteia. Cassandra's language casts her as the bride of Apollo, in contrast to the staging of her entrance as Agamemnon's bride. Other aspects of staging, moreover, cast Cassandra as a surrogate for Iphigenia. Attention to language and performance also suggests that Cassandra's cries to Apollo Agyiates are initiated by her perception not of an aniconic stone block, but of a statue of Apollo. My main concern throughout the argument will be the effect of Cassandra's relationship with Apollo on the action of the Oresteia as a whole.

‘The Aftermath Experienced Before’: Aeschylean Untimeliness and Iris Murdoch's Defence of Art

“…Denniston and Page (1957), ad loc., note that, while love can be described as a boxer, 'wrestler' is unusual-they furthermore acknowledge the image is unusual in how graphic it is, given the generic convention for 'reticence' around violence. Mitchell-Boyask (2006), 272f., also understands the sexual violence here as rape. Fraenkel (1950), ad loc., provides a telling comment: 'Modern prudishness has been busy weakening the force of this magnificent line.'…”

“…, note that, while love can be described as a boxer, ‘wrestler’ is unusual—they furthermore acknowledge the image is unusual in how graphic it is, given the generic convention for ‘reticence’ around violence. Mitchell-Boyask (2006), 272f., also understands the sexual violence here as rape. Fraenkel (1950), ad loc ., provides a telling comment: ‘Modern prudishness has been busy weakening the force of this magnificent line.’ While he does not deny the physicality of the metaphor (as previous commentators, such as Paley [1879] and Headlam and Thomson [1938] have done), Fraenkel insists: ‘The god sets himself to overpower the maiden, who feels and acts like a true maiden… But from the beginning it is not merely brute force which is here at work; with all her resisting Cassandra is susceptible to the power of the god's χάρις.’ Other commentators who wish to downgrade the involuntary aspects of this interaction focus on Cassandra's ‘maidenly’ responses, and/or are required to make eccentric textual interventions, for example, Kovacs (1987) who rejects Hermann's transpositions of 1203f.…”

Melizein Pathe or the Tonal Dimension in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon: Voice, Song, and Choreia as Leitmotifs and Metatragic Signals for Expressing Suffering

“…Reinhardt (1949: 97-105 [parallels and differences between Agamemnon and Cassandra; connections to the forthcoming Eumenides]); Knox (1972: 109-121 [Cassanda's role as third actor]); esp. Lebeck (1971: 28-39, 47-56, 61-62, 84-85) and Mitchell-Boyask (2006); for the entire scene, see also Thiel (1993: 289-347).…”