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An Untruthful Queen

A king returns from war in “Agamemnon”. Some are joyful, others only pretend that they are. The ruler, Agamemnon, is not alone, for he carries another with him in his chariot. This other person is Cassandra, a seer, a prisoner of war. When she is first revealed, it appears like the others are friendly to her. However, while there are those who are actually nice, Agamemnon’s wife, Clytaemenstra, has motives for her front, the main one being so that she can attempt to gain Cassandra’s favor and lure her to her death.
Clytaemenstra makes it seem like she is happily accepting the other woman into her home when she says, “Won’t you come inside? I mean you, Cassandra./ Zeus in all his mercy want you to share/ some victory libations with the house” (143). She appears like she is happy to have Cassandra into her house in order for her plan to work and because her husband requests that she “Escort this stranger in, be gentle./ Conquer with compassion” (139). She must act like the situation is perfectly fine and that she still loves her husband, so no one suspects ill intentions. If she acts callus, the king might be wary and less trusting around her, and execution of her plot would be harder. When Cassandra ignores her, the queen becomes fed up and leaves the Leader to try to get her to descend from the chariot and enter the palace. Perhaps she realized he could more easily persuade the seer to enter the house. Clytaemenstra is willing to play nice only to a certain extent, however, because she is higher up in society and should not have to deal with Cassandra’s attitude. Why waste time on her when she has the pressing matter of killing her husband and she will just follow suit soon enough?
Eventually, Clytaemenstra’s true heart is revealed, first by Cassandra and then herself. Since Cassandra is a seer, she sees right through Clytaemenstra, foreseeing not only the king’s murder, but hers as well. Cassandra indicates the future when she prophecies, saying “she will kill me -/ Ai, the torture!/ She is mixing her drugs/ adding a measure more of hate for me./ She gloats as she whets the sword for him./ He brought me home and now we will pay in carnage” (154). Knowing that the queen hates her and that trying to evade fate is futile, she accepts her destiny, her death. The queen put on a welcoming front to convince Cassandra to enter the house so that she could kill her along with her husband. She truly despised the prisoner all along. She confesses to hating the woman, explaining, “And here his spear-prize … what wonders she beheld! -/ the seer of Apollo shared my husband’s bed, … /They have their rewards./ He as you know. And she, the swan of the gods/ who lived to sing her latest, dying song -/ his lover lies beside him” (163). Her motive for despising Cassandra is that she and her husband had an affair, and she disapproves of his actions. Despite being unfaithful herself, the idea that Agamemnon has someone besides her disturbs her. Clytaemenstra takes it as a blow because she perceives it as saying that she is not good enough. Since Clytaementstra is already planning on killing her husband, the time is as good as any to kill his lover as well.

Clytaemenstra sees the prisoner of war in Agamemnon’s chariot and becomes jealous, and plans on killing Cassandra alongside her husband. However, she has to act like a wife that is joyful to see her spouse and therefore hides her intentions. In addition, Agamemnon asks her to be gentle with the slave. After a failed attempt of being hospitable and coaxing Cassandra from the chariot, she leaves and waits for another to convince her to come down. Cassandra is far from fooled, seeing her approaching fate. Still, she enters the palace and, as she predicted, is killed. Clytaemenstra states that she despised the thought of Agamemnon and Cassandra being together, and that is why she killed the woman. Her demeanor successfully resulted in the death of two people she hated.

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