ile she is loathed as she deserves,ö (Aeschylus, 455 B.C., The Libation Bearers, Act 1, lines 237 -239). Orestes becomes forceful and determined to avenge his father. Orestes, in The Libation Bearers calls out to the gods that: "Here is work that must be done. Here numerous desires converge to drive me on: the godÆs urgency and my fatherÆs passion" (Aeschylus, 455 B.C., Act 1, lines 298-300). We must remember that the actions and interference of the Gods is meant to symbolize the values and characteristics of humans in Greek tragedy. In this manner, it also appears that the Gods are not in favor of female dominance or women who act independently of males.
Quite often in the Oresteia we see that the actions of Clytemnestra are seldom those typically associated with the patriarchal view of the female sex or gender. She is often as cold, calculating and as ruthless as her husband, Agamemnon. She kills her husband and his mistress when he returns home. One reason for this is that notions of gender roles and norms were not as clearly defined in Ancient Greek society as they are today. As Koziak (1999, p. 87) maintains, ôWhile it is possible to use Greek poetry to inculcate manliness, the poems themselves do not display a component of many patriarchal ideologiesùthe view that the psychic interior of men and women differs either in their emotional styles or in its balance of reason and emotion.ö Surely AchillesÆ actions are as emotional as any woman in Greek literature.
Yet we see the rise of patriarchy during Ancient Greece in the way that Clytemnestra is ridiculed and shunned for the very same behaviors exhibited by males. We see that Helen and Athena are not shunned, even though they often exhibit behavior that is similar to ClytemnestraÆs fierceness, especially Athena. As Edith Hamilton (1952, p. 29) argues, in the earliest accounts of Athena in the Iliad, she is a ôfierce and ruthlessö battle goddess. Elsewhe...