Did Agamemnon Deserve to Die?

To answer this question, we need to consider both Clytemnestra's and Agamemnon's sides in The Oresteia. Agamemnon was murdered by his wife as revenge for killing their daughter, Iphigeneia. However, Agamemnon felt that sacrificing his child was necessary; the goddess Artemis would not allow the Greek army to sail unless a sacrifice was made.

A sacrifice was necessary due to Artemis' anger at Agamemnon; he killed one of her sacred, precious deer, and as revenge, she will not allow winds of Thrace to blow until a sacrifice is delivered. The victim of the sacrifice is revealed to be Iphigeneia, and Agaemnon must decide whether to kill her or not.

"Pain both ways and what is worse?
Desert the fleets, fail the alliance?
No, but stop the winds with a virgin's blood,
feed their lust, their Fury?" (211-214).

His sense of duty overwhelms the love he has for Iphiagenia, and he determines that without the sacrifice, there will be no safe passage to Troy.

This decision to sacrifice his daughter provokes Clytaemnestra into wanting to kill her husband as a means for revenge. She states that his decision is unacceptable - he could have saved Iphiagenia - and she plans to strike back with vengeance.

"Architect of vengeance
with no fear of the husband
here she waits
the terror raging back and back in the future
the stealth, the law of the hearth, the mother -
memory womb of the Fury child-avenging Fury!" (150-156).

Clytaemnestra planned the murder of her husband for the ten years he was away at war. The queen believes that justice needs to be served for her daughter. The only justice that would appease Clytaemnestra is to kill her Agamemnon - "the law of the hearth." She points out the chorus after the murder that Iphigeneia did not deserve to die; Agamemnon, as the man responsible for killing their daughter, deserves to be murdered.

"I brooded on this trial, this ancient blood fued
year by year. At last my hour came.
Here I stand and here I struck
and here my work is done.
I did it all. I don't deny it, no.
He had no way to flee or fight his destiny -" (1395-1401).

"He thought no more of it than killing a beast,
and his flocks were rich, teeming in their fleece,
but he sacrificed his own child, our daughter." (1440-1442).

Thus, back to our question: Did Agamemnon deserve to die? Combined with the evidence against him as well as extensive reading of The Oresteia, Agamemnon received just punishment for his actions. Had he not killed Artemis' precious deer, had he not sacrificed his own child, Agamemnon would have deserved to live. Yet, his actions sealed his fate, and he paid the price.

Justice for the Fallen Pallas

In the United States of America, whenever a crime is committed, there is a call for justice. Criminals are placed in prison, parole, and in heinous crimes capital punishment can be administered as sentence. It gives the victim and those affected closure, a sense of relief, justice.

The same concept is applied in The Aeneid.

"Decked in the spoils you stripped from one I loved - escaped my clutches? Never - Pallas strikes this blow, Pallas sacrifices you now, makes you pay the price with your own guilty blood!" said Aeneas as he drove his sword into his enemy's heart, effectively killing him. It's been stated by many that Aeneas should not have killed Turnus; he should have given compassion to his enemy. Revenge is not a motive that should give reason to kill. I agree wholeheartedly that revenge should not be the reason any type of action is performed.

I do believe, though, that justice is a motive worthy of Aeneas's actions.

In book ten of The Aeneid, Pallas is killed by Turnus during battle. And while this may seem fine as war was occurring, it is what Turnus does that evokes the right of passage for justice. He never gave Pallas the same mercy that he later begged Aeneas for. He could have killed him in a clean and proper manner. He did neither. Turnus "stomped his left foot on the corpse and stripped away the sword-belt's massive weight engraved with its monstrous crime . . . " He shouted insults to Pallas's father. "You Arcadians, listen! Take a message home to Evander, tell him this: The Pallas I send him back will serve him right! Whatever tribute a tomb can give, whatever balm a burial, I am only too glad to give. But the welcome he gave Aeneas costs him dear."

Turnus committed a terrible act, and he was proud of his latest kill!

When Aeneas had defeated Turnus, he was prepared to give the fallen hero the mercy he so begged for - the same mercy he did not give to Pallas. And then he caught sight of the "fateful sword-belt of Pallas, swept over Turnus's shoulder, gleaming with shining studs Aeneas knew by heart. Young Pallas, whom Turnus had overpowered, taken down with a wound, and now his shoulder flaunted his enemy's battle-emblem like a trophy." It was then that this became an act of justice for Aeneas. He refuses to give mercy to Turnus as Turnus had refused to give mercy to Pallas. So, in justice did Aeneas kill Turnus.

Killing Turnus may have been - in part - revenge, though it was justified in the case of Pallas. Aeneas's words state that he did not strike the blow, but Pallas had. It was Pallas who delivered the final blow that ended Turnus's life. By killing Turnus, Pallas was given the justice he so deserved.