Libation Bearers Gender

As you may remember from Agamemnon (if you've read it, that is), Clytemnestra gets roundly blamed for not conforming to traditional gender roles. Part of this stems from the fact that she is not faithful to her husband while he is off fighting at Troy. (Now, you might just say that it's bad for anybody to cheat on their spouse, but the thing is that Agamemnon also sleeps around, but nobody seems to have a problem with that.) In contrast, Electra wishes to be virtuous, which for her means adhering to stricter norms of female conduct.

These lines by Orestes also bring back echoes of Agamemnon, the first play in the Oresteia. There, Aegisthus was often derided for being unmanly because he stayed home while others fought at Troy, and, eventually, because he used deception (and relied on Clytemnestra) in his plot against Agamemnon instead of fighting face-to-face as a man was expected to. In Agamemnon, the idea got floated that Clytemnestra was somewhat manly because of her mental power and ability to take charge. Orestes doesn't use that idea here. He instead expresses his horror at the idea that Argos should be ruled by two women – Aegisthus and his mother Clytemnestra. This is not the only time in the play when Orestes expresses what could be regarded as misogynistic sentiments. Can you think of others?

It seems oddly appropriate that a line is missing in the manuscript at this point. That's because there doesn't really seem to be much for Electra to do. Whereas Orestes takes charge and plays an active role, he orders his sister simply to keep quiet and wait things out. In fact, once she heads inside shortly after these lines, she disappears for the rest of the play. In the contrast between the roles of Orestes and Electra, who are otherwise so similar in their feelings (and even in their physiques – they have the same shoe size, remember), we see traditional Greek gender roles in action.

Even though the Chorus is made up of slave women, they nonetheless express traditional stereotypes about men and women. Women, in their view, are highly emotional and susceptible to irrational passions; these make them "partner[s] in men's ruin." The irony, of course, is that the Chorus themselves are highly intelligent and rational women, who use their cunning to become partners in Orestes's success. Does this mean that Aeschylus might have disagreed with the simplistic sentiment expressed in these lines?

Here we see, once again, that the Chorus of slave-women has rather traditional views about the role of women in the household. They think that women should be subservient to men because their emotions are uncontrollable. Does the play as a whole support this assessment?

What's the "Lemnian crime"? So glad you asked. According to mythology, the women of Lemnos (an island in the Aegean Sea) once murdered their husbands because they had taken mistresses while off on a military campaign. The Chorus is saying that people compare what Clytemnestra did to Agamemnon as parallel to the actions of the Lemnian women. (The people who say this probably assume that Clytemnestra killed Agamemnon because he brought Cassandra home as his mistress; actually, Agamemnon's sacrifice of Iphigenia arguably played a big role in motivating her.) Of course, the women of Lemnos were acting out of anger at a double-standard based on gender, according to which it was perfectly fine for men to take mistresses while on campaign.

These lines come from when Orestes is knocking at the door of the palace, disguised as a traveler from Parnassus. Basically, Orestes is saying that he'd prefer to speak to a man because he can be more frank that way. He seems to think that conventions of conversation between men and women make it more difficult to speak openly. Because he is in disguise, we can't necessarily take these words as reflecting his true feelings. Of course, they still could be his true feelings. Do you think Orestes means this? If so, why would he say it at this point?

Now we see Clytemnestra taking the same line that Orestes just took, or at least a similar one. She says that if any serious thinking has to be done, that should be left to the men, since it's no business of women. Of course, we all know that Clytemnestra is one of the craftiest thinkers around, surely one of the best in "anything requiring more deliberation." Why do you think she is putting on this façade of emphasizing traditional gender roles?

The Gorgon is a traditional image of a demonic woman who must be slain by a male hero. (The most famous Gorgon was slain by Perseus, who gets a shout-out here from the Chorus.) By likening Clytemnestra to a Gorgon, the Chorus demonizes a female enemy as essentially subhuman, or bestial. Is any parallel abuse directed at Aegisthus, or does Clytemnestra, as a woman, receive especially bad treatment?

Here, once again, we get the sexual double-standard. Orestes calls his mom a skank for (in his view) sending him away so she could carry on with Aegisthus. Clytemnestra defends herself by saying that Agamemnon had affairs too, and anyway life's tough for women who have to sit at home while their husbands are off fighting battles. In his response, however, Orestes shows that he thinks men have special rights: because men's fighting provides their wives with a livelihood, women should just put up with their affairs. Who do you think we are meant to feel more sympathy for in this exchange?