Role of Cassandra in the Oresteia

A detailed Summary of Role of Cassandra in the Oresteia

The Role of Cassandra in the Oresteia Trilogy

"Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be carved. " - Immanuel Kant, "Crooked Timber of Humanity"

The character Cassandra in Aeschylus' classic trilogy, The Oresteia, plays a small yet acutely important role in the advancement of the entire drama. Cassandra appears only in the first book, Agamemnon, but her prophetic visions and declarations concerning the House of Atreus ring true throughout the work, and provide not only plot advancement but also thematic fodder for the audience to consider.

Taken from the razed and pillaged city of Troy, Agamemnon the king flaunts his return with his new trophy mistress, Cassandra, the beautiful prophet. Seized from royalty and debased into a concubine, the seer Cassandra is simply one more spoil of war with which Agamemnon returns. Clothed in the sacred robes and regalia of the god Apollo, though, it is immediately apparent to the audience that she is no normal captive.

The first action that illustrates Cassandra's importance is her initial reaction to Agamemnon's wife, Clytaemnestra. When the queen directs her to step down from the chariot and assume her new role as slave, Cassandra r

Cassandra the seer plays a brief, yet important and necessary, role in The Oresteia Trilogy. As a voice of divine insight, she makes clear to the audience, through her words, the depravity and inanity of the House of Atreus. Aeschylus the playwright, through his adept usage of characters and lyric exposition of faults, has proclaimed through Cassandra and his trilogy the absurdity of "eye for an eye" justice. In drawing conclusions to a more modern similarity within the humanities, Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative can be viewed as a modernization of this eternal concept and this particular theme of Aeschylus' Oresteia. "Act as if the maxim of your action were to become through your will a general natural law." To define this work as "a classic" defines its message as eternal and close enough to "truth" that we grasp it for millennia. Perhaps the only testament to the validity of a work is its timelessness, wherein The Oresteia, as the oldest surviving Greek Trilogy, is defining in its stature.

Another aspect of Cassandra's speech, beyond simple plot, is the elucidation of some recurrent themes within the work as a Trilogy. As Cassandra reawakens the specter of Atreus and Thyestes, and discloses the sordid history of the House of Atreus, she also makes prophetic references to its future. "These roofs - look up - there is a dancing troupe that never leaves

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 930
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English