Answer:
The Odyssey contains several references to Agamemnon’s return from Troy. The main reason for this seems to be to allude to and create parallels with Odysseus’s own situation. Some of these parallels are as follows:Both heroes were trying to return to Greece from Troy. Both had families waiting for them. Whereas Odysseus’s faithful wife Penelope and young son Telemachus were eagerly awaiting his return, Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra was plotting with her lover Aegisthus to kill her husband. The significance of this parallel is to demonstrate the two differing husband-and-wife relationships depicted in The Odyssey. Whereas the epic idolizes Penelope as a loving and committed wife staving off the advances of more than 100 suitors, it portrays Clytemnestra as deceitful.
Similarly, their sons also demonstrate divergent personalities. Whereas Agamemnon’s son Orestes avenges his father’s murder by killing his own mother and her lover, which makes his name, Telemachus has yet to prove himself. Orestes is praised and exemplified, and used as an example to urge Telemachus to find his father.
Suitors plan to kill Telemachus on his return, just as Agamemnon’s wife and her lover plan to kill him. Another interesting parallel between Odysseus and Agamemnon is that while Odysseus’s son Telemachus kills the suitors to end their despotism in his father’s palace, Agamemnon’s son kills his own mother. This is a dark parallel, which is similar in its nature of action (death), yet different given the relationship of the killers with their victims.
Agamemnon and Odysseus both have sons waiting for them. While Odysseus’s son Telemachus awaits his father’s return, the goddess Athena pushes him to look for his father. Agamemnon and his son Orestes unite sooner, but the son must avenge his father when the time comes. Both relationships between son and father are intimate and meaningful, with mutual pride. This is evident from their way of dealing with a situation involving their respective fathers. Whereas Orestes picks up arms to avenge his father, Telemachus does the same to avenge the reputation and respect of his father, which the suitors are trying to destroy.
The biggest contrast in Homer’s The Odyssey is with respect to Penelope and Clytemnestra. The Odyssey considers Penelope, wife of Odysseus and a cousin of Helen, the second-most beautiful woman in Greece. While her husband is away, 100 or more suitors try to compete for her hand in marriage, but her virtues as a loyal and committed wife help her rebuff their proposals. She longs for her husband and prays for his well-being.
In contrast, Clytemnestra (Agamemnon’s wife) indulges herself in a relationship with Aegisthus. She plots with him to kill her husband, and is not loyal to Agamemnon. The reason given for this is Agamemnon’s sacrifice of their daughter, Iphigenia. When the gods command him to kill Iphigenia, he does so to enable the ships to move toward Troy for the Trojan War. Clytemnestra is justified as a killer, but not as a wife. This action is what brings out the stark contrast between her character and Penelope’s.
Step-by-step explanation:
plato