It’s quite clear
that I don’t quite like Agamemnon, but I find scenes involving him quite
interesting. In particular, I quite
enjoy his apologia in Book 19 where he claims Atë has caused everything. In order to give some extra detail to this
claim, Agamemnon provides a rather nice backstory for this otherwise unheard of
goddess. In this story, he speaks of
when Atë hoodwinked Zeus. His choice of
story, while providing for good entertainment, is filled with quite a bit of
hubris upon further inspection.
Agamemnon could have chosen any story about Atë, well, ruining
everything, but he specifically chose the story involving the king of gods, who
he frequently disrespects throughout the Iliad. The way I view this, although brazen, is that
this is Agamemnon elevating himself to Zeus’s position. By saying he, just like Zeus, was fooled by
this goddess, he is effectively defending that this happened because it can
happen to the king of gods. This also
tries to deflect any hatred someone would have for a person fooled by Atë, as
it would be bad faith to blame a god—especially Zeus—for something that was
caused by a raging goddess. Nonetheless,
I believe this epitomizes his lack of eusebeia,
as he lacks the piety to not compare himself to Zeus, king of gods. His comparison, too, shows a rather tragic
element of hamartia, with him being
too focused on one aspect of his society and, therefore, transgressing because
of it.
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