Agamemnon

Thursday, June 29, 2023

There is one literary character that I loathe above all others.

I LOVE classic Greek Mythology. I have read and listened to any book and audiobook that I can get ahold of about the subject. I’ve listened to so many retellings of the tales in both novel form and academic form. I eat up new ones. I cannot get enough. I am drawn to the stories that closely follow the classic myths. I don’t like books set in the present - I’ll pass on Percy Jackson, no thank you. I don’t care much for the ones that try to make the tales more realistic by eliminating the Gods. Give me a “Song of Achilles” and “Ariadne” any day. This week, I finished “Psyche and Eros” by Luna McNamara and I am currently listening to “Clytemnestra” by Kerry Greenwood.

That leads me to the one particular part of Greek Mythology that I am drawn to, and I come back to over and over, Troy. Please, please don’t tell me that you don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m pretty sure that “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” are still required reading in high school… at least, I hope so. At minimum, I’m sure everyone has heard of the “Trojan Horse”. I have studied the story of the Trojan War so much that I’m pretty sure that I could teach a college class on the subject. I’ve read Homer, classic plays by the likes of Euripides, Shakespeare, and Aeschylus. I’ve ready modern takes by Stephen Fry, Madeleine Miller, and Glen Iliffe. I’ve read books dedicated to particular characters ranging from Helen to Odysseus and everyone in between.

Every book, story, play, movie, tv show that has ever been about the Trojan War, they all have one thing in common… Agamemnon is the douchiest douche in all of douchedom. He is the epitome of a narcissist… even more so than Narcissus himself. I cannot stand him. He makes me angry. Like, evoking a deep visceral rage in my gut.

Agamemnon is the ultimate villain. He killed his wife’s first husband and bashed their baby son’s head in. He manipulated Helen’s father, King Tyndareus, into making his little brother, Menelaus, Helen’s husband. He orchestrated the war on Troy. He sacrificed his oldest daughter to Artemis because he killed a sacred stag and needed wind to sail to Troy. He raped and pillaged. He was just an overall jackass. BUT, he did eventually get what was coming to him… by his wife, Clytemnestra. She took an axe to him as he bathed after returning home from Troy, with his kidnapped concubine, Cassandra. Good for her.

I do so appreciate when the bad guy gets what’s coming to him.