A Man of His Time By Joshua Evers
After reading the accounts of Agamemnon's brutality that were practiced as if they were second nature, I came across an unfortunate but important connection that allows me to understand the account further. Agamemnon, as savage and barbaric as we make him out to be, was a man of his time. The reactions to any of his decisions would have NO chance of being condoned today, but in his time period it was just the thing to do. This explains the lack of social backlash and unexpected presence of support in his horrid attitude and actions. Think of the time period. If they truly believed in the gods and sacrifices, then his daughter's death should bring them far more than just a victory. Of course I by no means do I want to support Agamemnon, I would have better chances defending Bill Clinton.
Christopher Columbus, for example, was another man of his time. He is looked at as a hero to his people, but he performed and allowed the demolition of a people group and a culture. Primary sources speak of how he allowed his crew members to slash natives to test the sharpness of their swords. You could say Agamemnon and Columbus are similar, only Columbus's deeds were far less public and much easier to keep quiet. Consequently, I am not trying to sweep Agamemnon's mistakes under the rug, but I am correlating them to a pattern that many famous men in their time tend to follow- overstepping their boundaries with brute force and power, but leaving behind a legacy hinging on the records of their actions. For Columbus, it was treating natives as less than people, but in Agamemnon's case, his actions were too big to hide from the test of time.
I commented on the posts of Zane and Kayla.
It is hard looking back on history and trying to judge how right a person was in doing what they did. Should you judge based on time period? Is it ok to dismiss what people like Agamemnon did based on what was acceptable during the time period. Or should they be judged on if they did better than others who came before them. I'm sure there were more cruel rulers before Agamemnon. Or should we hold them to the standards of today with full knowledge that we had the advantage of time money and support of people that they didn`t. What people like Agamemnon and Columbus did was wrong, but it also needs to be understood in the context of their time and with full knowledge of the advantages that we have that allows to to look back and declare them wrong.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with what you are saying about the connection you made. I also had to stop and think about how women were seen differently than men while reading a conversation between the queen and the leader. But you are right. Things today are completely seen differently than things back in Agamemnon's time. For example, the murder of his daughter to please the gods and gain their help in the war was acceptable and sane back in his time. If someone today were to do the same thing or even something similar to that, he or she would probably end up in one of two places: prison or a mental institution. It is amazing how so much has changed. I am definitely happy I did not live in the time of Agamemnon.
ReplyDeleteOh you know, just casually tricking his wife into sending her daughter to death under the dad’s supervision. Everything to go to war. She discovered what they were going to do minutes before the execution, but made a brave speech, and hardly shed a tear. Milliseconds before the ax came down on her neck, Artemis felt pity and transformed her into a deer. This book is stupidly confusing, but maybe something good will come out of it.
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult to examine a culture we never experienced, at a time we never lived in, with people we never knew, under authority we never submitted too, etc. However, I do believe there is a constant moral law that continues throughout all generations, and by that I believe we can leverage ones action against right and wrong (but who decides what right and wrong is? That is a completely different question).
ReplyDeleteI agree with Phillip. I think we can take what Agamemnon did and compare it to some of the tragic things that others have caused closer to our time period, but I also think that there is a clear moral line drawn and that it defines what right and wrong is. Therefore, I believe that even if Agamemnon was doing something immoral that may be equal to, or worse than (according to human's standard of bad), another's immoral act, using other examples of immoral acts does not justify or "water down" what Agamemnon did.
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