Indescribably Zesty

Don’t hit first, but hit back. An eye for an eye. Tooth for tooth. It isn’t an uncommon thing, this concept of repaying what is done to you. We live in a world in which we believe we are the center and everything revolves around us. Because of that, we are inclined to treat others the way that they treat us rather than the way that we want them to treat us. It’s not always a bad thing, but when it starts to sound like a broken record of hurting one another it becomes impossible to end the cycle of pain. Similarly in Aeschylus’ play Agamemnon , the first in the trilogy of plays referred to as The Oresteia , there are obvious chains of evildoing which become intertwined and irreparably tangled and drive the house of Atreus into inescapable darkness.   It’s most likely that the beginnings of this incredibly long series of unfortunate events (Lemony Snicket knows what’s goin’ on!) began far before any of the characters present in Agamemnon were even born. Atreus is long gone befo...

Whether it is a big, white wedding in a beautiful field next to a rustic barn, filled with lots of family and friends or a minuscule, intimate wedding with just the two betrothed, a witness, and a judge in the courthouse, weddings are a happy occasion for most everyone involved. No matter what kind of wedding, at the end it's pretty clear that the lovely couple is, in fact, married... most of the time . However, in Virgil's The Aeneid , King Aeneas of Troy and Dido, the Tragic Queen of Carthage, are stricken with love for one another. While they claim to be married, the reality of their relationship and the validity of their marriage is unclear. To be realistic, it’s arguable whether the nature of Aeneas and Dido’s relationship was fated to be romantic, or whether they were actually in love, based on the interferences of Juno and Venus both. Juno reveals to Venus her schemes, and about how she’s going to “bind [Dido and Aeneas] in lasting marriage, make them one,” (4.155)....