Hillsboro Publishing, LLC

An Excerpt from Bob Smith

 

Our first reading assignment for RC 1000 was Agamemnon, the first play in the Oresteia trilogy by Aeschylus. This is the one where Queen Clytemnestra stabs King Agamemnon in the bathtub for a whole list of reasons, one being her ambition to ascend to the throne and one involving a boyfriend. On Tuesday the 16th, classics professor Rawlings Schofield delivered a lecture called “Honey, Can You Pass Me the Shampoo Hey Wait Is That a Knife: Baring the Soul and More in Greek Tragedy.” Two days later in our discussion group, Dean Melton kicked off the proceedings with a good open-ended question: “What’s the deal with Agamemnon?”

     “I sense that Agamemnon was cursed with a fatal dose of existential hubris,” said one student.

     “I’d agree with that,” said another, “but I also see him as the epitome of Greek polytheism gone wacky.”

     “I can see that point,” said another, “but to me Agamemnon clearly represents the utter coldness of the nouveau riche.”

     “You’re missing the obvious,” said a girl who must have been a psych major. “Agamemnon was the earliest known practitioner of Freudian theory.”

     “Guy should have locked the bathroom door,” said the guy sitting next to her.