This study aims to analyse the interplay between personal freedom and the limitations imposed by divine necessity in Aeschylus’ Oresteia, by focusing on the so called “Agamemnon’s dilemma” (Ag. Agamemnon’s responsibility is object of disagreement among the scholars: does Agamemnon have to choose between two possibilities or does he rather recognize that there is only one possible choice imposed by ἀνάγκη? Human motives are interlocked with the divine justice. The Classics Department of the University of Canterbury undertook this task when I translated and directed the Oresteia for the Christchurch stage in New Zealand. Thus, this action determines Clytemnestra’s revenge and, lastly, his murder planned by her. Eventually, he consents to his daughter’s sacrifice, imposed by “the yoke of ἀνάγκη” (Ag. For his father he should kill his mother it is terrible, but a prophetic god Apollo authoritatively tells him: 'It's your duty.' Orestes grew up and came to take revenge. In Aulis, the goddess Artemis prevents the fleet from sailing and Agamemnon is faced with a terrible decision: he has to sacrifice either his daughter Iphigeneia or the purpose of his expedition. The three plays of the Oresteia portray the bloody events that follow the victorious return of King Agamemnon from the Trojan War, at the start of which he had. Orestes grew in distant Phocis thinking only of one thing - revenge for Agamemnon. Aeschylus’ Agamemnon shows how the leader of the Greek expedition against Troy, the instrument of Zeus’ punishment of the Trojans, comes to a miserable end.

Aeschylean characters have always to face a situation that leads them to an aporia between divine necessity and human responsibility.

The oresteia of aeschylus agamemnon