Hair Nets, Fish Nets, And Nets Of The House Of Atreus

It seems to the chorus in the beginning of the Agamemnon that the war over Helen of Troy has made not only the city of Priam a victim of the Greek armies, but according to a prophet named Calchus, many cities have been caught by “…the long hunt net

The very last referral to nets in the Agamemnon is when Aegisthus is happy that his cousin, who was also the husband of his mistress, is dead. He looks at the dead king as a “monster in the nets of Justice,” (Ag. 1643). Although this statement seems harsh and pitiless, it concludes the first part of Aeschylus’ trilogy with the image of the monster being hunted, trapped, and killed with a net.

“Her father called his henchmen on, on with a prayer, ‘Hoist her over that altar like a yearling, give it all your strength! She’s fainting – lift her, sweep her robes around her, but slip this strap in her gentle curving lips… Her glance [was] like arrows showering, wounding every murderer through with pity…” (Ag. 230-239).

“Home from the long campaign he came, more won then lost on balance, home to her loyal waiting arms, the welcome bath...he was just emerging at the edge, and there she pitched her tent, her circling shroud – she shackled her man in robes, in her gorgeous never-ending web she chopped him down!” (Eum. 638-643).

Aeschylus intensely shows the importance of hunting with nets throughout the entire Agamemnon trilogy. He also reveals that the use of hunting nets should be reserved only for good intentions and justice – that the nets should not be used for personal gain or satisfaction. The Oresteia is one big man-hunt in which the generations of the house of Atrius were entangled. It began with the misuse of the nets of hunting, i.e. the killing of one’s own daughter, and the murder of one’s husband, and it ended with the correct use of the so-called hunting net, to undo a wrong. Humanity still uses nets for all types of survival, be it fishing for our families or trapping enemies during war times, but the warning that most stands out in the thoughts of the ancients is to not combine independent ideas for the result will most always be monstrous.

In the last part of the Oresteia trilogy, the Eumenides, Aeschylus again has dense references to the hunting nets. He begins with the ghost of the dead Clytemnestra wanting the Furies to avenge her murder by first insulting the weakness of their hunting nets. “he [Orestes] is through the thick of your nets, he breaks away! Mocking laughter twists across his face,” (Eum. 116-117). Even insults begin with poking fun at the insignificance of one’s “net.” This apparently

Some topics in this essay:
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