Analysis of the speeches of Thyestes' shadow and Cassandra in Seneca's Agamemnon

What is it about?

Thyestes' shadow claims Agamemnon's murder as made by his son Aegysthus, born by an incest with Thysetes' daughter. The shadow offers a narrative of the tragedy as a revenge internal to his family: Agamemnon was the son of Thyestes' brother Atreus, who gave him his own sons to eat. Cassandra makes the same from her point of view: indeed she claims that Clitemestra played the main role in killing Agamemnon, performing the revenge of Trojan people against the Greeks. Both character claim authorship, both manipulate events with this aim; the actual story of Agamemnon's murder, in the words of the same Cassandra, mix the two narratives.

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Why is it important?

The paper shows how there are more than one narrative in the play, because each character tries to impone his own view and personal interests on the story.