Discuss How the relationship between kinship and politics is Essay

Discuss How the relationship between kinship and politics is illustrated in texts of Aeschylus's Eumenides and extract from Theogony by Hesiod - Essay Example Unknown to Thyestes, Atreus had secretly murdered all of his children and have served them to him in a way that the true origin of the meat was disguised. Needless to say, he had unwittingly eaten his own children. Atreus had revealed to him the true nature of what he has been eating by the end of the meal, and Thyestes, in his rage, called down a curse on Atreus house. With Aegisthus, his sole surviving child, they fled from the house. (2) Agamemnon and Menelaus are Atreus sons. Agamemnon wedded Clytaemestra, and Menelaus wedded Helen. Menelaus wife, however, was seduced by Paris of Troy, with whom she went willingly with back to his city. Agamemnon and Menelaus had arranged the chieftains of Greece into a massive force in retaliation to win her back. The fleet met at Aulis, but was incapable of setting sail due to the anger of the goddess Artemis who had been keeping the weather against them. The prophet Calchas said to Agamemnon that in order to pacify the goddess, the king would have to sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigeneia. As he did so, he and his troops were able to set sail. They waged a war against Troy for ten long years, which eventually destroyed the city and killed or enslaved all of the people in the city. On their journey back home, Agamemnons contingent was faced by a terrible sea storm wherein only Agamemnons ship was able to survive. In his return, Agamemnon brought with him a captive mistress, the prophetess Cassandra. His wife, Clytaemestra, had taken a lover while he was away who just so happened to be Aegisthus, the only surviving son of Thyestes. Not long after Agamemnons return, Clytaemestra murdered the king in his bath. Her next victim was Cassandra. The prophetess, with the conviction that she is incapable of changing her fate decided to walk wittingly towards her own death. (5) Clytaemestra exhibited the corpse of the king while proclaiming that justice had been served. Her motives were a tangled mix