To some readers it will seem a sort of irrelevance, or at least a blurring of the dramatic edge of this tragedy, to observe that the theme on which it is founded was itself the central theme both of Greek Tragedy and of Greek Religion. The fall of Pride, the avenging of wrong by wrong, is no new subject selected by Aeschylus. It forms both the commonest burden of the moralising lyrics in Greek tragedy and even of the tragic myths themselves; and recent writers have shown how the same idea touches the very heart of the traditional Greek religion. “The life of the Year-Daemon, who lies at the root of so many Greek gods and heroes, is normally a story of Pride and Punishment. Each year arrives, waxes great, commits the sin of Hubris and must therefore die. It is the way of all Life. As an early philosopher expresses it, “All things pay retribution for their injustice one to another according to the ordinance of Time.”[1] To me this consideration actually increases the interest and beauty of the _Oresteia_, because it increases its greatness. The majestic art, the creative genius, the instinctive eloquence of these plays—that eloquence which is the mere despair of a translator—are all devoted to the expression of something which Aeschylus felt to be of tremendous import. It was not his discovery; but it was a truth of which he had an intense realization. It had become something which he must with all his strength bring to expression before he died, not in a spirit of self-assertion or of argument, like a discoverer, but as one devoted to something higher and greater than himself, in the spirit of an interpreter or prophet. [1] See my _Four Stages of Greek Religion_, p. 47. Cornford, _From Religion to Philosophy_, Chapter I. See also the fine pages on the Agamemnon in the same writer’s _Thucydides Mythistoricus_, pp. 144, ff. (E. Arnold 1907). G. M. AGAMEMNON CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY AGAMEMNON, _son of Atreus and King of Argos and Mycenae; Commander-in-Chief of the Greek armies in the War against Troy._ CLYTEMNESTRA, _daughter of Tyndareus, sister of Helen; wife to Agamemnon._ AIGISTHOS, _son of Thyestes, cousin and blood-enemy to Agamemnon, lover to Clytemnestra._ CASSANDRA, _daughter of Priam, King of Troy, a prophetess; now slave to Agamemnon._ A WATCHMAN. A HERALD. CHORUS of Argive Elders, faithful to AGAMEMNON. CHARACTERS MENTIONED IN THE PLAY MENELÂÜS, _brother to Agamemnon, husband of Helen, and King of Sparta. The two sons of Atreus are called the Atreidae._ HELEN, _most beautiful of women; daughter of Tyndareus, wife to _MENELÂÜS_; beloved and carried off by Paris._ PARIS, _son of Priam, King of Troy, lover of Helen. Also called_ ALEXANDER. PRIAM, _the aged King of Troy._ _The Greeks are also referred to as Achaians, Argives, Danaans; Troy is also called Ilion._