Blaming Agamemnon : moral conflict and the first choral sequence of Aeschylus' Agamemnon

Abstract

Consider the following questions: is moral value subject to luck?2 How should we understand and cope with moral conflict?3 What do lines 40-263 of Aeschylus' Agamemnon mean, and why do the Chorus sing them? Martha Nussbaum in her recent book4 answers these questions and sees a deep connection between them. The sub-title of her book is "Luck and Ethics in Greek philosophy and tragedy" and in Chapter 2 she argues that the first choral sequence of Ag. answers the second question and gives a partial answer to the first. She also claims that Aeschylus has been misunderstood because of misguided modem philosophical assumptions concerning the two questions.