#11: The Oresteia

Written by Ashley Burroughs; Edited by Allison Sudol

The three plays: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides form the Greek trilogy called the Oresteia. Due to the reoccurring tropes in all three plays it is evident to the reader that the plays were written at the same time. For example, the light and dark imagery, the image of the entangling net, the eagle, and the snake.

Libation Bearers:
The language is clearer than in Agamemnon, but there remains a haze over what is true. Disguises: Electra does not recognize Orestes when he first approaches her, yet she does recognize his hair and footprint as being identical to her own. This recognition is the first hint that genetics, or blood relations hold a great significance in the play. Clytaemestra on the contrary, does not recognize Orestes when he arrives at the palace. The lies of Orestes and Clytaemestra also serve to confuse the readers’ idea of who is telling the truth. Disguise is also central to the play because it allows the characters to conceal their true identity/motives while plotting against others undetected.

The Chorus
the chorus changes form in each play of teh Oresteia. In Agamemnon the chorus consist of the elders in the city (the polis). They are mostly onlookers to the action, and mainly serve as commentators. In The Libation Bearers, the chorus consists of the slave women, or servants. In the beginning of the play they have been ordered by Clytaemetsra, along with Electra, to pour libations in hope of appeasing the spirit of Agamemnon. This chorus is more active than the chorus of Agamemnon. For example the women advise Electra to pray to the God’s for revenge through Orestes, her exiled brother, and they also encourage Orestes to go through with killing his mother. “For the death act calls out on Fury/ to bring out of those who were slain before/ new ruin on ruin accomplished” (107). The Chorus also tells Orestes three stories of women’s treacheries-- Althea who killed her son, Skylla who killed her father Nisus, and the Lemnian women who killed their husbands. (p114-115) These stories serve illustrate the evils of women and further discredit Clytaemestra before Orestes kills her.

Electra’s reasons’ for wanting revenge on her mother:
-She has been reduced to slavery by her mother
-She banished Orestes (the legitimate heir to the throne)
-She murdered Agamemnon
-(Electra never mentions the sacrifice of her sister Iphegenia, by her father)

Orestes’ reasons for killing his mother
-It is his “father’s passion” that his death be avenged
-The God’s (Apollo) have commanded him to do so. If he denies the request of the gods he faces mental and physical illness, as well as a life without community. “ulcers that ride upon the flesh/ madness and empty terror in the night/ no share in the communal bowl” (p 103).
-He wants the inheritance that is entitled to him and that his mother and Aegisthus have stolen.
-Prejudice against women. Orestes feels that it would be dishonorable for his citizens to be ruled by women. (Clytaemestra and Aegisthus, who is said to have a “female heart.”)

Cilissa’s Speech
Her speech serves to discredit Clytaemestra as the mother of Orestes, so that later in the Eumenides he will not be held accountable for his crime. She uses clear and direct language, which makes her words appear trustworthy. She claims that in fact she raised Orestes and therefore she is his “true” mother. “darling Orestes I wore out my life for him/ took him from his mother, brought him up./ The nurse and laundry women had a combined duty and that was I”(119) Cilissa goes on to explain that she nursed and toilet trained Orestes. The toilet training is particularly important because toilet training is the first time that a child is introduced to culture. This is traditionally the role of the mother but in this case, Cilissa took on the responsibility.

Mock Trial
Before the actual trial that takes place in The Eumenides there is a preliminary cross examination that takes place between Orestes and Clytaemestra. Clytaemestra’s defense against Orestes is the following:
-She attempts to use the maternal bond(this has already been discredited by Cilissa’a speech)

-That she was only acting in accordance with destiny because Agamemnon was fated to die. (the curse)

-Agamemnon was also unfaithful (Cassandra). This is where Clytaemestra’s argument breaks down. It was not uncommon or unlawful for a man to have mistresses; however, for a woman adultery was a great offense.

-(Clytaemnstra does not mention the sacrifice of Iphegenia as a justification for killing Agamemnon, though it was her primary motive in the first play.)

Clytaemestra is unsuccessful in persuading Orestes not to go through with killing her. After she is dead Orestes brings out the robes, stained with Agamemnon’s blood as physical evidence to prove Clytaemestra’s guilt. This physical evidence has great significance because in criminal cases it is often the physical evidence that convinces the jurors and not the arguments.

The Eumenides

The Chorus
In the Eumenides, the chorus consists of the Furies, who are central characters to the play. Aeschylus depicts these being as monstrous and foul creatures (harpies, gorgons). As the chorus descend from male citizens to female monstrosities, justice progresses from the retribution of the old system to the democratic legal system at the end of the trilogy.

This play shows the transition between old justice and new justice.

Chthonic Gods (furies)	Olympian Gods (Apollo and Athena)
Oikos (aristocratic)	Polis (democracy)
Dark	Light
Past	Future
Female/ matriarchal	Male/ patriarchal
Ritual Justice (furies)	Legal Justice (the courts)
Nature	Culture
Physis	Nomos

The Trial Scene:
Prosecutors: the Furies (the chorus)
Defendant: Orestes
Defense Attorney: Apollo
Judge: Athena
Jury: 12 mortal citizens of Athens

Furies position:
-They are sympathetic to Clytemnestra because she is a woman and a mother, and the furies are female. They abide by the old rules in which a crime against ones own blood is a greater offense then the same crime committed against a non-family member

Apollo’s position:
-For Clytemnestra to kill her husband, who is a man and a king(which constitutes regicide) is a greater offense than the murder of Clytemnestra(the death of a woman).

-The Father of a child is the only true parent. “The mother is no parent of that which is called her child, but only nurse of the new planted seed that grows. That parent is he who mounts. A stranger she preserves a stranger’s seed, if no god interferes”(158). The Greeks believed that the seminal fluid contained all the components of life and that the womb was nothing more than an incubator. They also believed that the seminal fluid was connected to the brain and therefore gave a person his or her intelligence.

Athena’s position:
-Before the jury gives their verdict Athena announces that if there was to be a tie that she would vote in favor of Orestes, because in cases regarding men and women she will always side with the man because she did not have a mother.

The Verdict and the Aftermath:
The jury comes back with a tied vote and Athena votes in favor of Orestes. The furies are “furious” and they promise to place a plague on the people of Athens. Athena is able to placate the furies by giving them a place in the new justice system. “If you go away into some land of foreigners,/ I warn you, you will come to love this country/ And you in your place of eminence beside Erechtheus in his house/ shall win from female and from male processionals/ more than all the lands of men could ever give” (165). Athena basically bribes the furies not to plague the land by offering them a position of authority in Athens, thus absorbing the old system of justice into the new system. The Furies will create fear in the people which will subsequently prevent crime.