Throughout the trilogy, The Oresteia by Aeschylus, the rare portrayal of women in power is apparent through character development of each play. The main character being a female already gives a hint at the theme of women in power. In ancient Greek times, it was extremely rare for a women to have such an entitling role in any sort of monarchy in Greece. Aeschylus starts off with Agamemnon, the first play of his trilogy and introduce the main character, Clytaemnestra, who is depicted with two different viewpoints: one coming from the watchmen, who thinks she will fail as a “king” in place of her husband and the other, the chorus, who believe she is a strong, fearless, manlike ruler who will bring nothing but victory to their land. Some saw Clytaemnestra to be a weak ruler because of her gender, but those of the community she rose from low expectations and showed that women can be just as wise and power as men.
One quote that really caught my interest was when the leader was speaking to Clytaemnestra and told her, “Spoken like a man, my lady, loyal, full of self-command.” The leader was letting Clytaemnestra know that she was trustworthy and confident.
Throughout this passage, the power of Clytaemnestra was shown. On page 107 in the margin, it stated that when the Chorus were trying to speak with Clytaemnesta and find out information about the war, she ignored them and went on with the ritual she was performing. On the very first page of the passage it was noted that she was commanding and “full of her high hopes” and that she “maneuvers like a man”. All these inclusions in the text portray Clytaemnestra as a powerful woman and throughout the passage she proves to live up to these images she portrays. When the leaders says the quote mentioned above, it was a representation of a clear theme that carried on throughout the novel that showed the power of the Queen and how her power was parallel to that of a man.
This quote seemed to be referring to...