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Betrayal and Revenge in the plays "Medea" and "The Libation


Thyestes takes revenge by cursing Atreus, and then flees with his one remaining son Aegisthus. Atreus had two sons called Agamemnon and Menelaus. Agamemnon marries Clytaemnestra, and Menelaus marries Helen. Helen somewhat betrays Menelaus by being seduced by Paris of Troy, and as a result of this Menelaus takes revenge, by him and Agamemnon organizing a massive force to win her back, but as they were just about to set sail the goddess Artemis held the weather against them and Agamemnon was therefore sat a choice that if he wanted to appease the goddess he had to sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigeneia. Agamemnon does so and his troops set sail. Agamemnon waged war on Troy for ten long years and on his return betrays his wife Clytaemnestra with his new mistress Cassandra. Clytaemnestra has also betrayed Agamemnon with her new lover, whom is none other than Aegisthus, the surviving son of Thyestes. Clytaemnestra takes revenge by killing Agamemnon for killing their innocent daughter Iphigeneia and the desire for power. This is were the play "The Libation Bearers" starts. Many years after Agamemnon's death, Orestes and Electra return, which their mother Clytaemnestra has betrayed from their rightful inheritance. Orestes has been commanded by the god Apollo to take revenge on his mother for killing Agamemnon and to reclaim the throne. Electra impels Orestes to do this, and at last he does, killing both Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus.
             I think that the murderers of Thyestes" children continue to plague the house of Atreus even two generations later, and although every killing has its own justifications it only leads to more new killings with other new reasons for taking revenge. As it also explains in "The Oresteia"; "He (Orestes) must recognize, in fact, that his revenge is just, but that justice takes the form of matricide, the greatest form of guilt." As read in the Oresteia it seems as though the crimes committed, only seen between family members, could be contagious, that the dead pursued the living for revenge and the revenge taken lead to more guilt and betrayal.


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