Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Netting is an important image in Agamemnon, the first play in Aeschylus's Oresteia trilogy, where it symbolizes the constricting power of fate. Netting is also used to trap Agamemnon when he is in his bath, just before he is stabbed to death. This same net appears at the end of Libation Bearers, when Orestes commands the house servants to hold it up as evidence of the earlier crime. This time around, it also serves as an image of entrapment. Orestes is trapped by fate in much the same way that his mother and father were before him.