The Golden Mean in Agamemnon, Oedipus and Medea

The Golden Mean in Agamemnon, Oedipus and Medea


Passion is capable of driving an unfathomable series of crimes, wonders and feats. With this in mind, Aristotle formulated his idea of the virtuous Golden Mean. According to the great Greek philosopher, the best means of living is with moderation in all things. Specifically, moderation was most important within the idea of the tripartite soul. Appetites such as hunger, power, and greed occupied one part of this platonic concept. Next comes, the spirit which encompasses ambition, pride and anger. Lastly, was the function of reason and its ability to control the prior two components of the soul. With an ideal amount of rationality, one would be able to accomplish a balance, or a mean, in order to attain the three cardinal virtues of the Ancient Greek world: Temperance, Courage and Wisdom. Once these virtues were achieved, the person in question would understand and practice the concept of Justice.

This mean is not consistent for every person, and there is not a correct mean for every action. Each action has its own relative consequences. Applied to life, the Golden Mean is a way to dictate relative morality in society. By always taking a middle course of action, it is easier to avoid bad happenings and bad choices. This rational philosophy helps people to avoid letting their passions gain an upper hand on their temperance.

It is interesting to compare the Golden Mean to the Golden Rule of Christianity. In terms of the Golden Rule, the Mean would read “Do not unto others what you would not want done unto you” rather than the way Christians know it: “Do unto others as you would want done unto you.” A violation of this key caused a disproportionate set of circumstance, and was something to be despised in the ancient world. Disorder was the most feared, as Justice does not reign within a world of chaos.

A representation of the Golden Mean within Greek mythology is the tale of Icarus and Daedalus. The latter, the father, built wings for himself and his son so that they could escape the wrath of King Minos. Daedalus instructed Icarus in the fashion that he should fly saying, “fly the middle course,” meaning the place between the ocean’s coolness and the sun’s scorching heat. Happiness and harmony in life lies somewhere between, according to this simple philosophy. To fall anywhere but in the middle leaves you with an excess or defect, things despised by practitioners of this school of thought.

In the pieces we read, most of the main characters suffered from a violation of the Golden Mean. For some it was a combination of fractures of this guideline, including hubris, greed, anger and ambition.

Medea represents the opposite of the Greek idea of moderation and the Golden Mean. She has no sense of moderation in any facet of the concept. She understands only passion, and she acts and thinks through its haze. She does use reasoning, but in an adverse way. She uses her intellectual prowess to get whatever she wants, with no consideration for other people, even the ones she supposedly loves. She allows her greedy and power-hungry nature to take over her personality.

However, breaking tradition, Euripides does not “punish” his strong female character for her disregard for the harmony of life. Justice is not fulfilled in this story. Rather, she is rewarded with a clean and safe escape from danger. The playwright covers his bases by claiming it was the will of the gods that this woman escaped, and the gods are beyond reproach. This did not save him from criticism from citizens used to the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles, where everything works out.
Jason is also in violation of the Mean. He sins in more than one way. Full of pride, he says that Medea should be happy that she even felt the presence of such a great Greek hero. Here, he is blatantly in excess of pride. Jason earlier sinned with excess of ambition and greed by leaving his common law wife and children to pursue a more financial stable situation. For his violations, Jason pays with the lives of his new bride and his children. However, he does not pay with his life, as Medea so desired.

Sophocles’ plays were very concerned with what would later be known as the Golden Mean. His tragic heros all come to ruin because of violations of the Mean. Antigone falls because of excessive love for her brother, fallen in battle. Grieving, she could not bear to have her brother be damned forever without proper burial rites, so she went out onto the battlefield in violation of the king’s decree, to perform the ritual. Her lack of moderation in love caused her death. Aristotle would have said she failed to reason her situation correctly. Reasoning was key to all things according to the students of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. To “think well”, rationally, was the most important and fulfilling thing in life.

In Oedipus, many of the characters violate the Mean in similar ways. The title character, afraid of his fate, believes that he can somehow avoid it by running away from what he believes is his homeland. Little does he know that his fate was already written in stone. Oedipus was guilty of excessive pride for his flight from Corinth and his continuing belief that he could out run his prophecy.

For Aeschylus, the Golden Mean was also important. Within his plays, violations of the rule always led to the ruin of that character. Sacrificing his daughter for his own personal gain, Agamemnon is guilty of excessive greed and ambition. Iphigenia, his most beloved daughter, was not worth as much to him as wind for his sails. Exceeding in anger, Clytemnestra also violates the Mean by plotting and killing Cassandra and Agamemnon. Both the title character and the murderess are guilty of hubris, Clytemnestra for believing she can get away with her crime of passion and Agamemnon for his walk across the tapestries. Each of these characters comes to ruin because of their digressions from the guideline. Orestes returns to avenge his fallen father, and the circle is effectively closed. The gods pardon the young man for his unavoidable part in the tragedy and the curse is finished.

The plays of Sophocles and Aeschylus employ the Golden Mean as a mean of neatly tying up the loose ends of the characters of the play. This is also helpful in bringing a finality to a piece, as all the characters get what they had coming to them. Euripides, however, is less strict about the function of this rule within his plays. He uses it for his own ends as a writer, but does not employ it as stringently as the other two playwrights we read.