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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Monday, August 03, 2026

2 comments:

Stephen said...

I recently learned while listening to TROY that Agamemnon getting murdered by his wife in the tub was a bit of a tragic misunderstanding...she was doing it because he'd unwillingly "sacrificed" their daughter to Artemis to make up shooting a stag on her land, but Artemis was evidently more interested in seeing his willingness than the slaughter itself; she zapped a stag into the girl's place, and the girl herself was zapped to some island to serve as a priestess. Made me think of the Hebrew story about Abraham being willing to sacrifice HIS son, only for a ram to be supplied at the last minute. (Only, Agamemnon was only willing to sacrifice his daughter because literally everyone but his wife was telling him "If you don't do it, bro, then we've created this huge fleet to sail to Troy for absolutely no reason and we're all going to look ridiculous").

I have to wonder if the real Greeks had family stories as messed up as the House of Atreus...

CyberKitten said...

What I've read of his death, Agamemnon pretty much deserved it. Although, as always, with the Gods involved manipulating people for their own twisted 'amusement' its sometimes hard to tell!

It's 'odd' how earlier ancient stories show up in the Bible in 'new' retellings... Its almost as if they were copy/pasted into the narrative for some reason....

Mythic Greek family dynamics are WEIRD. No wonder Freud & Co used them to 'explain' how messed up humans are/can be!