The Beast within Agammemnon

In Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, symbolism is prominent throughout the play, and it is used to represent the feelings of the characters. The Greeks concentrated heavily on symbolism in their everyday life. Worshippers of many gods, the Greeks obviously felt the need to allow one thing to represent another. Their gods were symbols of things on earth that they did not understand; using these gods enabled them to make sense of certain things and/or feelings. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Aeschylus, an obvious product of his idealistic time, would incorporate this belief of symbols into his writing. Agamemnon is overloaded with symbolism; on of the most prominent is the animal imagery.

Humans who cease to control themselves legitimately tend to be personified as animals. This statement is justly proven throughout Agamemnon through the use of several different animal symbolisms. One in particular is the lion. The lion can be seen as a powerful animal, as well as be noted for its slyness and deceitful tendencies. This “king of beasts” is known to be a bloodthirsty creature that is ruthless and threatening. Lions are also said to be protective, social beasts, and this seemingly contradicts the man, Agammemnon.

This concepts makes me wonder if my thoughts of costumes could be change, not in the way of greek, but other cultures. The lion is sort of a universal beast. So it makes me wonder of, "What if he was covered by a lion wardrobe to show his dominance compared to the whole group?" The thought sends chill down my spine.

Then Again I see someone else has thought of how awesome, yet weird it shows to have a lion on your head.





Reference: Picutre- http://www.fectio.org.uk/shows/2004archeon3.jpg