ABSTRACT
Clytemnestra addresses a Chorus of elders, displaying the dead bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra tangled in a web of gory cloth at her feet. This is her public defence, justifying what is essentially the murder of a king. The trilogy of tragedies that comprises Aeschylus Oresteia dramatises the story of the return of King Agamemnon from the Trojan War and his death at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Like so many of Aeschylus plays, the dialogue is written primarily as a series of lengthy monologues between a principal actor and the Chorus. The speeches are highly rhetorical and require an effectively sustained vocal stamina. Clytemnestra simply describes what she did and how she did it in all its gory details. The crimson cloth is a vivid prop. It is all bluntly told without remorse, fear or sense of guilt.
