g on the man’s marriage bed, roaming his halls, watching for the master’s return…this detestable bitch licks him with lengthy praise and whines her welcome, only to work her evil like a treacherous spirit of ruin (lines 1224-1230). Hidden beneath her mask of love and care was a devil who plans an evil death to her mate so that she may rule with his cousin, Aegisthus. In lines 1258-1259, the audience learns that “Clytemnestra is a two-footed lioness consorting with the wolf, Aegisthus, in the absence of the lion, Agamemnon” (Keith 124). Clytemnestra also portrays the characteristics of a natural mother lion. In nature, female lions help other females to protect their cubs from a new male lion, for he will kill the young ones of former ruling males to assure his status as the dominant male. Before leaving for Troy, Agamemnon had sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia, to guarantee the safety of his soldiers from hardships sent by the gods. This mimics the killing of the young to assure the adult male’s own protection. The irony in this sacrifice is that in order to obey divine laws, he must commit a crime against divine law. It is a crime to kill a member of one’s own kin, but Agamemnon is faced with the need to protect his men. Iphigenia is an understandable choice of sacrifice because she supplicates the god of hospitality—Zeus—and therefore pleases him. During the war, Clytemnestra sends her son, Orestes, away in order that he would be protected from the dangers brought on by the war. When observing lions in the wild, this choice of Clytemnestra is parallel to the lionesses hiding their cubs from a possible early death.The action Clytemnestra plans and carries out changes her gender role, as murder and killing is typically a man’s occupation. Women in ancient times most often played subordinate roles, tending the house and meals, etc. According to Thomas Martin, a wom...
