Allusion and Audience in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon

In the parodosof Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, the chorus begins by narrating how the Greek expedition to Troy first departed under the leadership of the Atreidae. They compare Agamemnon and Menelaus to vultures grieving for their lost offspring (Ag.48-59). This simile is widely seen as an allusion to a simile likening the reunited Odysseus and Telemachus to bereaved birds of prey whose unfledged young have been captured (Homer Odyssey16.216-18). However, the Odysseyis treated as a source of content, not of emotional complexity or narrative sophistication. This paper argues that the Odysseyadds crucial emotional and narrative richness to the parodosthat some members of an ancient audience could appreciate during a performance.

The Odysseyconnection is widely but not universally mentioned in analyses of the Agamemnon(citations include: Fraenkel 1950 ad loc., Rutherford 1986: 157n65; Ferrari 1997; not cited: Bollack and Judet de la Combe 1981 ad loc., Garner 1990). Even fewer interpretations consider both the Odysseysimile and an Iliad simile likening Patroclus and Sarpedon to “screaming vultures” (αἰγύπιοι… μεγάλα κλάζοντε, 16.428-29 ~ μέγαν ἐκ θυμοῦ κλάζοντες Ἄρη, τρόπον αἰγυπίων, Ag. 48-49). Readings that mention both Homeric similes (e.g. Fraenkel 1950: 2.29-30, Heath 1999) are mainly concerned to explore the web of correspondences between the simile, the eagle omen interpreted by Calchas (Ag. 109-120), and the story and themes of the Agamemnon(the omen is also a key focus of Lebeck 1971). In contrast, neither the full range of emotions in the Odysseypassage nor the coloring that these feelings add to the departure of Agamemnon and Menelaus for Troy have received their due. If we give adequate weight to the narrative sophistication of the Odysseyvulture simile, this allusion enriches the sense of foreboding and “anachrony” (Grethlein 2013: 79) in the parodosby reminding the audience that some members of the Greek expedition are parting forever from their families, while others will eventually be reunited with the wives and children they are now leaving behind to fight for the kidnapped wife of Menelaus. Moreover, the Homeric poems, which predate the Agamemnon, postdate it in mythological time.

This paper has two main goals. First, it explores the Homeric antecedents of Aeschylus’ simile with full attention to the intertwining of two contrasting Homeric similes and the emotional complexity of the Odysseysimile (contrast Sideras 1971: 247, “Dieses Bild [of the bereaved vultures] ist aber bei Aeschylus weit ausgeführt und lebhafter geworden [than in the Odyssey]”). Second, it contextualizes these allusions alongside recent work showing that such complex and precise allusion is part of Greek poetry culture of the archaic and Classical periods (Nelson 2021, Spelman 2019), including performances of Athenian tragedy (Revermann 2006). These studies rebut views of earlier discussions of Aeschylus’ poetic craft, often skeptical that an audience could recognize or appreciate such allusions (e.g. Hobbs 1992 on Garner 1990; Fraenkel 1950: 38; but Scodel 2002: 10 offers a more nuanced view of the “transparency” of oral performance).