the fall of the house of Ateus Stories / Bardic Circle Date: Jun 14, 2004 - 11:44 AM for those of you who saw Troy this is my uptake on some of the other mytholgy involved The House of Atreus part one- Clyteminestra Once upon a time, Agamemnon, the great king of Macedonia, really needed to hedge his bets so that he could win a war. He had three children, two of which were girls. In those days, girls were pretty expendable, so he offered up one of his daughters to the goddess Artemis in sacrifice. His wife, Clyteminestra was outraged. She could not believe that men would go to war because her dumb sister had run away with a Trojan. Now her brother in law was collecting troops to avenge his honor. Not only did she feel the war was a waste of time, as a mother she never could agree that a child of hers was expendable for such a thing. The war lasted ten long years, and ten long years, Clyteminestra nursed her hatred for her husband. Ten long years, she mourned her daughter and ten long years she plotted her revenge. So after ten long years, Agamemnon comes home in victory, he sauntered into the house, demanded a bath and introduced his wife to the new slave girl he had picked up in Troy. Oh gods this girl was annoying, all she could talk about was doom and gloom. Clyteminestra told the girl, Cassandra, to get the bath ready and then just get the hell out of there, as fast as her legs would carry her. After ten long years at war, Agamemnon hadn't spent more than ten short minutes in the bath before his wife took his sword and put it through his throat. part two- Electra Electra was a spoiled brat. She was only 5 when her father went off to the war, and she hardly even remembered who her sister Imphegena was. She hated that all her mother focused on was Imphegena. She felt that her mother couldn't care less about her brother Orestes and herself. So when she heard the war was over and her father was coming home, Electra was estatic. She knew her father would bring back valuable gifts and amazing stories. She wanted to hear about how the Greeks whipped the Trojans butts. She wondered if her Aunt Helen would be with him. Aunt Helen was beautiful, and Electra was hoping to be able to live with her and get away from her mother. Her father was gone for ten long years, and within ten minutes of being home, he was dead. Electra could never forgive her mother, what she did was just wrong, wrong, wrong. This was not honor, this was not justice. Her mother was consumed with revenge and hate. The crime her mother committed demanded that Agamemnon's murder be avenged. As the child of the slain man, she was honor bound to act, but as a women she was helpless to do so. It was up to Orestes, as the son of Agamemnon, he must have justice, however he was reluctant to commit matricide to do it. Matricide was one of the crimes that would invoke the Furies, terrible monsters that would hound and torture him. But then there was Electra, she would hound and torture him too. She was constantly nagging him, telling him that he could never show his face if he allowed this crime to be unavenged. So, which would it be? Part three- The Judgment of Athena Athena was feeling pretty good these days, after all she had been on the winning side in the great war. Her heroes had kicked some major ass, even if did take them ten years. And Aphrodite was off sulking someplace. But now this whole thing with her most beloved hero, Agamemnon. What a mess. Orestes was hounded day and night by the Furies, he couldn't eat, he couldn't rest, and he was constantly begging the gods to help him. How could the gods help him? And why should they? He knew the price of matricide. After all, having one's honor was worth anything that the Furies would put him through. But now Apollo was involved, damn him. Apollo want to change the way things worked. He wanted to change the rules. With that golden hair and that golden tongue of his, he was trying to convince Athena that the Court of the Gods should be convened. Then he managed to convince all the gods, so Athena was forced to hold court. Well, Apollo was very persuasive. He had some new fangled idea that mothers weren't actually related to their children. He said that a woman was the vessel that only held the child. He said that it really was just the man who planted his seed and the children were only related to him. Athena pondered this, after all, didn't she spring full grown from her own father's head? She had no mother love, nor had ever born a child. Maybe Apollo was right, Maybe it was time to change the rules a bit, things had gotten a little stale in Olympus anyway. The humans always made her laugh when they got confused about things, it was always very entertaining. So Athena decided that, at least for now, she would agree with Apollo. she called the Furies off and Orestes was free from his torture. Then she sat back and watched the world change......... again. the end This article comes from Phoenix Phamily - Supporting the Phoenix festivals community http://www.jaxpagan.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.jaxpagan.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=374