The Quarrel of Agamemnon & Menelaus
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Abstract
In Odyssey Book 3, Nestor relates how a quarrel between the Atreidae led to a split of the Achaean army over departure from Troy. This story implies a representation of Agamemnon and Menelaus, their relationship, and their respective political roles, that is not reconcilable with that of the Iliad. I argue that Nestor’s tale reflects a tradition whose influence is visible in later texts, particularly the Cyclic Nostoi and some dramas of Euripides. While the Iliad clearly ignores this tradition, its language betrays some awareness of it; and in a few cases it is arguable that the Iliad alludes indirectly to a very different conception of Menelaus’s political role in the expedition against Troy.
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4
As I argue in Sammons 2009a, esp. 183-4.
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5
Cf. Rousseau 1990, 328-9.
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9
Clay 1983, 47 attempts to reconcile mention of Athena’s wrath with her otherwise positive role in the story of Odysseus, but it seems most likely that the former relates to a pre-Odyssean feature of the traditional nostoi myth. Failure to name a specific cause of Athena’s wrath (i.e., the impiety of Oilean Ajax) and the rather awkward addition of Zeus as a second divine agent behind the quarrel suggest an effort to soften the contradiction: Cf. Hölscher 1990, 95-8; Danek 1998, 81-5.
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10
See Christensen 2009, esp. 150-2 for analysis of this scene.
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12
See Dickson 1995, 101-52; Christensen 2007, 131-76.
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19
E.g., Monro 1884, 39; Severyns 1928, 370-1.
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20
Danek 1998, 79-81; Burgess 2001, 154-5; Marks 2008, 112-22; cf. West 2002, 213-4. Bethe 1922, 258-61 reached similar conclusions from an Analytic perspective.
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22
Cf. Monro 1884, 38; Bethe 1922, 266. As Monro and Bethe argue, the Ἀτρειδῶν κάθοδος referred to by Ath. 7.281b should be identified with the Nostoi, the alternative title reflecting this poem’s main subject matter: so West 2003, 17; differently Huxley 1969a, 167-8 and Bernabé 1996, 93. Within the Odyssey, the story of the quarrel does little to advance the overall characterization of the brothers and their relationship; later in Book 4 Menelaus appears to be the same mild-mannered figure we know from the Iliad, and to feel genuine sorrow for his brother’s fate.
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24
Cf. Peradotto 1969, esp. 261-3 on both the Atreidae relative to the Iliad. Interestingly, Aeschylus’s play is one of those which depict a single Achaean departure from Troy, thus eliding the whole story of the quarrel (see n. 15 above).
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25
Willink 1971, 348. Language tends to be vague on this point, as in Sophocles’ Philoctetes, where the brothers seem to be spoken of as co-captains of the expedition (δισσοὶ στρατηγοί, 264) to whom Neoptolemos must appeal for the arms of Achilles (360ff.). Cf. also A. A. 40-7 (esp. διθρόνου Διόθεν καὶ δισκήπτρου / τιµῆς ὀχυρὸν ζεῦγος Ἀτρειδᾶν), S. Aj. 251 (δικρατεῖς Ἀτρεῖδαι) and 959 (διπλοῖ βασιλῆς). As we shall see, similarly vague language is found in some passages of the Iliad.
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26
Cf. Calder 1966, 40; Anderson 1997, 175-6; more on the Polyxena below. On TrGF adesp. 637, see n. 35 below.
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33
Cf. Preiser 2000, 84. Although in the Telephus there was presumably no divine wrath involved, it seems that there were one or two oracles pertaining to the curing of Telephus and/or his ability to lead the Achaeans to Troy; on this see Handley & Rea 1957, 37-8.
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41
For example, Sale 1989, esp. 377-80, speculates with some probability that that poet inherited a set of formulas to describe the Trojans which were mostly negative in tone. The poet, evidently because he had a gentler view of the Trojans than his predecessors, used these formulas in a more restricted fashion, namely only as a feature of Achaean speech about the Trojans; this left something of a gap in the formulaic repertoire with which the poet himself describes them. For a recent discussion of Sale’s theory, see Stoevesandt 2004, 32-8.
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43
Willcock 2002, 223-4; Willcock 2004, 53.
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44
Rousseau 1990, esp. 339-51.
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45
Sammons 2009a.
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49
Rousseau 1990, 331-2.
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51
Cf. Taplin 1990, 67. Again a comparison can be made with the Odyssey, when Odysseus deems fortunate ‘those who died in wide Troy, paying a favor to the sons of Atreus’ (χάριν Ἀτρεΐδῃσι φέροντες, 5.306-7). In Nestor’s tale, when Odysseus returns to Agamemnon in Nestor’s narrative he and his companions are described as ‘bringing honor to the son of Atreus, Agamemnon’ (Ἀτρεΐδῃ Ἀγαµέµνονι ἦρα φέροντες, 3.164). Does the use of such a phrase highlight the separation of the brothers?
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52
Cf. Edwards 1991, 87 on Il. 17.247-51.
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54
Cf. Kirk 1985, 69 on the “breathless” style of these lines, “with sporadic interjection of pure abuse.”
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57
Rousseau 1990, 332, n. 19.
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59
Brown 2006, 35-6 notes that the vocative patronymic is regularly used to address Agamemnon, only once to address Menelaus (at 17.12), though he considers it significant that the one time Menelaus is addressed as ‘son of Atreus’, it is by a Trojan (as in the present case) rather than a fellow Greek.
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60
Scodel 2008, 88, 127 assumes that Chryses does not know his daughter has already been assigned as geras to a particular hero; hence his address to the army as a whole is an error that exacerbates Agamemnon’s angry response. Edwards 1980, 6-9 argues that the poet departs from a conventional supplication-scene in order to emphasize the contrast between Agamemnon’s reponse to Chryses and that of the army. Taplin 1992, 62-3 suggests that the army’s response raises questions about whether Agamemnon acts within his authority in refusing the ransom.
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61
Brown 2006, 35 argues that “the address, while formally plural, is functionally directed at Agamemnon alone—or at least primarily so.”
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62
Cf. Pulleyn 2000, 126.
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The Quarrel of Agamemnon & Menelaus
In: MnemosyneSearch for other papers by Benjamin Sammons in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
In Odyssey Book 3, Nestor relates how a quarrel between the Atreidae led to a split of the Achaean army over departure from Troy. This story implies a representation of Agamemnon and Menelaus, their relationship, and their respective political roles, that is not reconcilable with that of the Iliad. I argue that Nestor’s tale reflects a tradition whose influence is visible in later texts, particularly the Cyclic Nostoi and some dramas of Euripides. While the Iliad clearly ignores this tradition, its language betrays some awareness of it; and in a few cases it is arguable that the Iliad alludes indirectly to a very different conception of Menelaus’s political role in the expedition against Troy.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 965 | 139 | 12 |
| Full Text Views | 284 | 3 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 123 | 10 | 0 |
