Agamemnon on women
This is an excerpt from The Odysseys Book of the Dead or Book 11. To make matters simple I will provide you with some information on what is actually taking place. Odysseus, the much-debated epic hero, journeys to Hades Kingdom of Decay and there he meets the murdered king Agamemnons spirit. Agamemnons spirit tells him of how Clytaemnestra, the former kings wife, assassinated him upon his homecoming from Troy.
I do not see the need to delve into prolonged particulars. But I think it is essential to draw your attention to the possible cause of Clytaemnestras blood thirst. Agamemnon had brought with them from Troy a dame called Cassandra, daughter of king Priam of Troy, as a prize of war. This clearly posed a threat in his wifes eyes and played well on her jealousy and did incur tremendous disapproval from the part of feminists in defense of her reactions. She first was subject to the seduction of a man named Aegisthus and later plotted with him the annihilation of her husband.
The genesis of the story now revealed, I invite you to leaf through what Agamemnon tells Odysseus upon meeting him in Hades Halls. It strikes me as an unjustified audacity, especially from a dead person. But let me not distort your opinions beforehand, explore the passage as you will.
I raised my hands, but then beat them on the ground, dying, thrust
through by a sword. The bitch turned her face aside, and could not even bring
herself, though I was on my way to Hades, to shut my eyes with her hands or to
close my mouth. There is nothing more degraded or shameful than a woman who can
contemplate and carry out deeds like the hideous crime of murdering the husband
of her youth. I had certainly expected a joyful welcome from my children and my
servants when I reached my home. But now, in the depth of her villainy, she has
branded with infamy not herself alone but the whole of her sex, even the
virtuous ones, for all times to come.
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