Both Agamemnon and Jason are insensitive. Neither refers to his wife by name. Agamemnon only refers to Clytemnestra as “Leda’s daughter”. They expect everything they have done to their wives to be ignored and everything to be left without any mention of what they have done. Jason goes as far as saying that Medea should be thanking him when she confronts him. He says that she lives in Greece, rather than “an uncivilised country”, and had also “won renown.” In saying that he would rather not have “gold in (his) house) or the skill to sing a song lovelier than Orpheus sang” unless a famous name came with it, he reveals a part of his character. He wants to be famous; he wants his name to be known, at the expense of other things. Medea has noticed this. During her argument with Jason she says that “it was marriage to a foreigner that you would detract from that great name of yours”. Jason also shows his insensitivity by claiming that he married Glauce entirely out of his wanting to look after Medea and their sons. He claims that he did this so that they could “live comfortably and not go without anything.” If there were any good intentions of Jason, he then loses any chance of Medea genuinely agreeing and calming down when he says that he can “ensure (his) prosperity by “joining (their) two families”. This shows that he is prepared to use his family in order to preserve his comfort and wealth, and indicates that Jason can be selfish.
The greeting of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra is ironic. Among the first things she says to him is that “(their) child is gone” and that “by all rights (their) child should be (there)”. She means Iphigenia of course, but covers this up by quickly adding after a pause, “…Orestes”. Later on in the same speech she simply says the sentence “Our child is gone.” She hints about her anger but covers them up, Agamemnon not specifically referring to them.
The sympathies of the chorus change in both plays. In Medea, the chorus of Corinthian women strongly supports Medea at the beginning of the play, sympathising with her. However, they begin to pity Jason and no longer support Medea when Medea says she is going to kill her own children to spite Jason. In Agamemnon, the chorus is made up of old men who are too old to fight in Troy. They, if grudgingly, admire Clytemnestra. They respect her plan with the beacons so she would know when Troy had fallen, saying after she told them it was her that it was “spoken like a man”. However, they lose this respect when they find out that Clytemnestra has killed Agamemnon, their king who they admire for destroying Troy.
Because of the action of Jason and Agamemnon, many innocent people are killed. In ‘Agamemnon’, Cassandra is killed by Clytemnestra, despite the fact that Cassandra is a captive and had nothing to do with the death of Iphigenia. In ‘Medea’, Glauce, Creon and Jason and Medea’s sons are killed by Medea. These innocent victims in both plays are certainly not deserving of what happens to them. Because of what Jason and Agamemnon have done to hurt their wives, five people have been needlessly killed. Both Agamemnon and Jason care about their children. In ‘Agamemnon’, Clytemnestra says to Agamemnon, “you seem startled”, upon hearing the news that Orestes is gone. Additionally, in Euripides ‘Iphigenia in Aulis’, Agamemnon tries to send a message to Iphigenia to tell her to return home. When the message fails to get through, he tells Menelaus that he “will not kill (his) daughter.” After being persuaded to change his mind, realising he has no choice, he is still pained to do it, saying that her “hand’s touch brings swift tears flooding from (his) eyes.” Jason, after hearing the news that his sons are dead and during his confrontation with Medea he reveals how he longs “to clasp them, to kiss (their) dear lips”.
What have Medea and Clytemnestra sacrificed? Clytemnestra has lost a daughter, and this is her sole motivation for killing Agamemnon. Medea, however, has betrayed her family, left her home and killed her own brother to help Jason in every way she can. Jason has abandoned her after she has had two sons when she is in a foreign land with no friends or family to fall back on entirely for his own personal gain. She has then been told she has to leave the country, and she has been forced to flee to another foreign country at some point. Medea is more justified in wanting revenge. She is a far worse position than Clytemnestra, who still lives in her home with friends and family close by in the palace at Mycenae and has a new husband. Medea has also been very poorly thanked for her role in making sure Jason escapes Colchis with the Golden Fleece.
Jason’s fate is ironic. We know that he wants to be even more famous, and that he wants a great name. After Medea has killed his sons, Glauce and Creon, all hopes of him achieving this from his view are gone. There will be no children to pass his name on to their children and he won’t live in the palace as royalty as an important figure. As he has “no country of his own”, he finds himself in the same situation Medea was in at the beginning of the play, with no friends or family to fall back on in a foreign land. It is also ironic because Jason has got a famous name because of what Medea has done.
What were the motivations of Jason and Agamemnon to do what they did that angered their wives? Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter because he had sworn an oath to support the king who was married to Helen. He has to keep to his word. However, as Clytemnestra says it would have made more sense if one of Menelaus’ daughters were sacrificed as it was his wife who had ran away. On the other side of this, Agamemnon was the leader of the expedition, and so would have had immense pressure not to do anything to his fellow kings that could potentially worry them about his leadership (i.e. make one of them sacrifice a daughter) and also as leader it may have been his responsibility to ensure the gods were appeased, and so it was no different here. Jason has apparently re-married to provide prosperity for his sons, himself and Medea. According to Medea it is only for personal gain and to maintain an even more famous name. Jason already has sons to pass his name on and also has a famous name for his achievements with the Argonauts. As we remember him for that it is obvious his marriage is more out of greed than for the motives he claims.
Overall I believe Jason was more deserving of his fate. Agamemnon had not only sworn the oath but also had the responsibilities of being in charge of the Greek forces attacking Troy. The sacrifice of Iphigenia was practically unavoidable. Jason, however, re-marries for personal gain and greed. Despite his achievements on the Argo, he wants his name to be even more famous and also does not want it tarnished by being married to a foreigner. He already has sons and so his re-marriage can only be motivated by a want to move him into a higher social circle. In the end it turns out that his name was not tarnished by being married to a foreigner, but by what he did to that foreigner.