The Curse Against The House Of Oedipus

The curse against the house and against man is represented differently in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Agamemnon’s ancestors did horrible acts on others that incurred the wrath of a curse upon their house. While in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Oedipus was sort of thrown into a tragic event that had nothing to do with him. The curse against both men is represented in varying ways. Starting with Agamemnon, the curse on his house starts even before the play begins with a curse thrust upon the house of Atreus who is Agamemnon’s father. This play is a never ending cycle of revenge upon members of this house. These actions set up the play and has Agamemnon trying to come back home after the Trojan War. However, Artemis will not let the winds blow in favor of
Although Agamemnon was not the one to take part in the original cursing of his house, he was a key player in the continuing curse that plagued his house and therefore caused Clytemnestra and Aegisthus to murder him and Cassandra. Cassandra even foretells that Orestes will come to take his father’s revenge against Clytemnestra and Aegisthus on page 54 she says “a third shall come to take up our cause, a son resolved to kill his mother, honouring his father’s blood.” We do not see what is done to Clytemnestra or Aegisthus in Agamemnon, but we can only think that it will be as gruesome as the deaths of Agamemnon and Cassandra. Thus the never ending cycle of revenge still plagues the house of Atreus. The story of Oedipus is very different from that of Agamemnon because it was the whole house of Atreus that had been cursed, while only Oedipus himself was cursed in Oedipus Rex. Oedipus’ curse was that he would kill his father and marry his mother. To stop this from happening, his father had him sent away to be left on a hilltop and die. He was subsequently saved by a shepherd and taken to another kingdom. Oedipus found out about his curse and ran away to save, who he thought were, his