The House of Atreus bears a curse. One steeped in blood and nourished by decades of violence.
Klytemnestra knew this when she married Agamemnon, but being a princess in Sparta doesn't leave you with much choice, though she longs for it. The Fates s...
I'm a very visual person and writer, as you might've guessed from the abundance of descriptions I tend to use. So it makes sense that a lot of my inspirations come from pictures and in this case, classical paintings.
The Oresteia is a pretty popular theme of many artists and so there are multiple depictions of it, that sparked some of my imagination. Here are some of them.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The Anger of Achilles (1819) by Jacques Lois David
In this painting you can see Achilles on the left, reaching for his sword while looking at Agamemnon, who is standing on the right. Behind him, we have Iphigenia, who is being led to the sacrificial altar with her teary-eyed mother right behind her. An interesting detail to note here is Agamemnon's hand which seems to be pointing at something while he eyes Achilles as if he's ordering him to stand aside.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon (1868-1869) by Frederic Leighton
In this image, we can see Elektra in dark mourning clothing at her father's grave. This picture was the inspiration for the opening scene of chapter six. You can even see the phiale she pours wine out of leaning against the column in the foreground.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Clytemnestra (after the Murder) (1882) by John Collier
This painting shows the moment right after Klytemnestra murdered Agamemnon. You can see that there's blood on her clothes and it's still dripping from the axe she leans on. In the myth, she kills him (and Kassandra) with an axe, I changed that part and had her kill him with a dagger instead because it fit the particular scene better.
