La strana coppia. Tieste e Cassandra profeti di sventura nell’Agamemnondi Seneca

Abstract

In Seneca’s Agamemnon, we find two prophecies of the king’s murder: the first made by Thyestes’ ghost in the opening of the play, and the second made by Cassandra. Thyestes reads the events as a posthumous revenge against his brother Atreus, who was Agamemnon’s father: to fulfil this aim, he also committed incest with his daughter. His prophecy is thus focused on the son of the incest, Aegisthus. Cassandra, on her side, considers the killing of Agamemnon as a vengeance for his destroyed motherland Troy, and the death of his father and brothers. Her prediction is centered on Helen’s sister, Clytemnestra. The factual narrative of the murder, delivered by the same Cassandra, differs from both prophecies, and shows how the two seers tried to manipulate the events at their personal revenge aims. Indeed, they both read the play as their own drama, competing for authorship.