1. Whitney Shue
Allen Culpepper
Research Essay
20 Apr 2014
Clytemnestra VS Agamemnon
The male and female brains are vastly different in many ways. Thought processes in the
brains of different sexes take different courses whilst making decisions. In the play Agamemnon
by Aeschylus, the main character Agamemnon is away fighting the Trojan War for 10 years,
leaving behind his wife Clytemnestra, the rest of his family, and the people of Argos.
Agamemnon faces troubling weather on the way to Troy, so he decides the best option to ensure
his safe venture is to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia in return for favorable weather from the
Gods. When the time comes for Agamemnon to come back home, he has the wrath of
Clytemnestra to look forward to. While she does not make it well known, she is extremely hurt
by the death of their daughter and the fact that it was a decision made by her own husband, the
father of their daughter. When he comes home with a mistress named Cassandra whom he takes
home from war, Clytemnestra forces him to walk on a special carpet. He finds this gesture both
odd and not endearing but he goes along and walks on the special carpet. She then kills both
Agamemnon and Cassandra. Later on the reader realizes Clytemnestra was unfaithful to
Agamemnon with his cousin Aegisthus and they planned the murder. Using psychological
research on topics such as oxytocin, PTSD, gender roles, gender dichotomization, and marriage,
the reasons behind decisions made by the characters in Agamemnon will be disclosed.

2. Oxytocin is a hormone made in the hypothalamus gland of the brain. While it is made in
the brains of both sexes, its main connection is life-affirming activities as maternal behavior,
lactation, selective social bonding and sexual pleasure (DeAngelis 1). Research shows that
oxytocin levels are abnormally high during stress or unhappy relationships. Clytemnestra was
obviously unhappy enough with their relationship enough to betray Agamemnon with his cousin
Aegisthis while her husband was at war. Clytemnestra was also under immense stress. She had to
take the place of Agamemnon when it came to making decisions for the people of Argos. She
also had to grieve the loss of her only daughter, Iphigenia. When Agamemnon returned home,
Clytemnestra must have had an extreme amount of oxytocin running through her body, enough
to kill both Agamemnon and Cassandra with no regrets. Clytemnestra proclaims “You test me
like a witless woman, but I speak with a fearless heart to those who know; and whether you
yourself wish to approve or to blame me, it’s all the same! This is Agamemnon, my husband, but
a corpse, the work of my hand right here, a just architect. This is how things are.”
Extant literature has shown that women are twice as likely as men to develop post
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), even though more men are exposed to potentially traumatic
events. It has been suggested that assaultive or interpersonal forms of trauma experienced more
by women in comparison to men are associated with a higher probability of developing PTSD
and, thus, contribute to the higher prevalence of PTSD among women. Yet, when examining
gender differences for the traumatic events endorsed more by men (i.e., accidents, nonsexual
assaults, combat/war trauma, disasters and fires, serious illness, witnessing death or injury), a
recent meta-analysis found that women were still more likely to meet criteria for PTSD and
reported greater severity (Valdez 1). While Agamemnon fought at war for 10 years, the stress put

3. on him affected him differently than the stress Clytemnestra had. She faced PTSD with the loss
of her daughter and having to cope with not having her husband by her side during a grieving
period. While she was angry with her husband, one could assume she still needed some type of
support while going through her loss. It has been argued that emotional responsiveness is a
socially influenced, gender-based characteristic, such that it is more acceptable for women than
men to show emotional vulnerability. Thus, we can conjecture that gendered personality
characteristics of masculinity and/or femininity may play a role in initial reactions to trauma and
subsequent posttraumatic sequelae (Valdez 1). While it was normal for Clytemnestra to be
emotional, it was harder for Agamemnon to have an outlet to express his emotions because it
was not seen as socially acceptable for his gender. (Chorus): "[Agamemnon] spoke, declaring
'Fate will be heavy if I do not obey, heavy as well if I hew my child, my house's own darling,
polluting her father's hands with slaughter streaming from a maiden at the altar: what is there
without evil here? How can I desert the fleet and fail the alliance? Why, this sacrifice to stop the
wind, a maiden's blood, is their most passionate desire; but Right forbids it. So may all be well!'"
(205-217). It was not an ideal decision to sacrifice his daughter but it was something he felt
would benefit his family rather than them losing both Agamemnon and Iphigenia. When he
received no emotional support for his decision, he had no choice but to keep his emotions to
himself and accept defeat from his wife although he made the decision he thought would be most
beneficial to the entire party involved.
Gender roles are different stereotypes made by society as a whole. They are social norms
in which the mindset is examples such as “only females can cook” or “only men can work on
cars.” A role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders proposes that perceived

4. inequality between the female gender role and leadership roles leads to 2 forms of prejudice: (a)
perceiving women less favorably than men as potential occupants of leadership roles and (b)
evaluating behavior that fulfills the prescriptions of a leader role less favorably when it is
enacted by a woman. One consequence is that attitudes are less positive toward female than male
leaders and potential leaders. Other consequences are that it is more difficult for women to
become leaders and to achieve success in leadership roles. Evidence from varied research
paradigms substantiates that these consequences occur, especially in situations that heighten
perceptions of incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles (Eagly 573).
When Agamemnon returns home with Cassandra, Cassandra knows they will soon be killed. As
she enters the house, she explains it as "a house that God hates . . . the shambles for men's
butchery, the dripping floor" (1090-92). In the past, Cassandra promised the Greek God Apollo
that she would bear him a child, for that favor he blessed her with the gift of prophecy. When she
broke that promise to him, he turned her blessing into a curse. She would still have prophecies,
but in return to her proclamations not a soul would believe her. She cries out to Agamemnon that
they will soon die at the hands of a woman, "a woman-lioness, who goes to bed / with the wolf"
(1258-59). Cassandra can see the vision perfectly clear, pointing out the smallest details of the
murder which will soon take place; "Caught in the folded web's / entanglement she pinions him
and with the black horn / strikes. And he crumples in the watered bath" (1126-28). While one
could say that it is only her curse of prophecy which makes her visions unbelievable, I believe
gender roles were a portion of what made her stories remain false to everyone besides herself.

5. Gender dichotomization is a tendency to distance masculine from feminine traits.
Dichotomization tendencies should be especially high among men who identify more strongly
with their gender group. Research portrays the motivated nature of gender dichotomization by
demonstrating that men, but not women, endorse more dichotomized ingroup identities when
reminded of the precariousness of their gender status and report stronger motivation to restore
their gender status following information that their ingroup identity is becoming less
dichotomized (i.e., increasing in other-gender-typical traits) (Bosson 1). The Chorus is
distressed about the fact that Agamemnon is killed by a woman. The chorus states “Oh for a fate
without excessive pain and not long-watchful by the bed, to come and bring to us quickly the
sleep which never ends, now that our most kind guardian has been brought down in death after
enduring much through a woman; by woman too his life was lost” (1448-1454). If Agamemnon
had been killed by a man, such as Aegisthus, would this passage still remain? I strongly believe
the only reason this passage remains in the play is because it is unexpected for a woman to kill a
man. It is more stereotypical for a man to kill another man rather than a woman being shown as a
murderer.
The chorus speaks out to Aegisthus on why he chose to let Clytemnestra be the killer
instead of doing the deed himself. “You- you woman! Against those who were newly from the
fighting, while you had kept the house at home and violated the husband’s bed as well – did you
plan this death for their commander? As if I shall see you ruling the Argives – you who planned

6. death for this man but had no courage to carry out the deed by killing him yourself!”
(Aegisthus): “That was because the deception was clearly a woman’s role, while I was a suspect
enemy from long ago” (1625-1627, 1633-1638). This subject also ties into gender
dichotomization. If Clytemnestra is a woman with the mind of a man, as she and other characters
in the play imply, then the Chorus thinks that Aegisthus is a man in flesh but a woman in spirit.
Aegisthus does not disagree with the Chorus, instead he insists it was the right thing to do under
the circumstances. Gender dichotomization is the extent to which one views her or his gender
group as possessing same-gender-typical traits and lacking other-gender-typical traits. For
example, a man high in gender dichotomization might view independent and assertive
(stereotypically masculine traits) as very central to the group “men” and warm and nurturing
(stereotypically feminine traits) as very peripheral to the group “men.” The more one
dichotomizes masculine and feminine traits in one’s ingroup identity, the more psychological
distance one perceives between masculine and feminine aspects of the identity (Bosson 1).
Aegisthus accepts what the Chorus thinks is degrading. He is content with the fact that he had
some characteristics of a female during a decision he made because it benefited him whether it
was a feminine or male characteristic.
In identifying the reasons behind the decisions made in Agamemnon, a reader may now
have a deeper understanding of the psychology behind what seems like a simplistic play. The
research provided includes information including PTSD, the hormone Oxytocin, gender roles,

7. and gender dichotomization. All of these subjects are strongly correlated with the characters in
Agamemnon and provide an analysis of the comparisons between the play and the psychological
research, giving both myself and any academic reader a more in depth look at the characters in
Agamemnon.
Works Cited
Aeschylus. Agamemnon. Trans. Philip de May. Cambridge Translations from Greek Drama.
Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge UP, 2003. Print.
"American Psychological Association (APA)." Http://www.apa.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr.
2014.
Bosson, Jennifer K., and Kenneth S. Michniewicz. "Gender Dichotomization At The Level Of
Ingroup Identity: What It Is, And Why Men Use It More Than Women." Journal Of
Personality And Social Psychology 105.3 (2013): 425-442. PsycARTICLES. Web. 9 Apr.
2014.
DiAngeles, Tori. "The Two Faces of Oxytocin." Http://www.apa.org. American Psychological
Association, Feb. 2008. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Eagly, Alice H., and Karau, Steven J. “Role Congruity Theory of Prejudice Toward Female

8. Leaders. Psychological Review, Vol 109.3 (2002): 573-598. PsycARTICLES. Web. 13
Apr. 2014.
Valdez, Christine E., and Michelle M. Lilly. "Biological Sex, Gender Role, And Criterion A2:
Rethinking The “Gender” Gap In PTSD." Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research,
Practice, And Policy 6.1 (2013): PsycARTICLES. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.