Oresteia

"The Eumenides" redirects here. For mythological deities, see Erinyes.

For the Russian-language opera, see Oresteia (opera).

The Oresteia (Ὀρέστεια) is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus which concerns the end of the curse on the House of Atreus. When originally performed it was accompanied by Proteus, a satyr play that would have been performed following the trilogy; it has not survived. The term "Oresteia" originally probably referred to all four plays, but today is generally used to designate only the surviving trilogy. "The individual plays probably did not originally have titles of their own" The only surviving example of a trilogy of ancient Greek plays, the Oresteia was originally performed at the Dionysia festival in Athens in 458 BC, where it won first prize. Overall, this trilogy marks the shift from a system of vendetta in Argos to a system of litigation in Athens.

Agamemnon

Agamemnon
The murder of Agamemnon, from an 1879 illustration from Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church.
Written by	Aeschylus
Chorus	Elders of Argos
Characters	Watchman Clytemnestra Herald Agamemnon Messenger Cassandra Aegisthus Soldiers Servants Elders of Argos (Chorus)
Setting	Argos, before the royal palace

Introduction

The play Agamemnon (Ἀγαμέμνων, Agamemnōn) details the homecoming of Agamemnon, King of Argos, from the Trojan War. Waiting at home for him is his wife, Clytemnestra, who has been planning his murder, partly as revenge for the sacrifice of their daughter, Iphigenia, and partly because in the ten years of Agamemnon's absence Clytemnestra has entered into an adulterous relationship with Aegisthus, Agamemnon's cousin and the sole survivor of a dispossessed branch of the family, who is determined to regain the throne he believes should rightfully belong to him.

Storyline

The play opens to a servant on top of the house, reporting that he has been sleeping there "like a dog" (kunos diken) for a year, "for so rules the manly-willed heart of a woman" (that woman being Clytemnestra awaiting the return of her husband, who has arranged that mountaintop beacons give the signal when Troy has fallen). He laments the fortunes of the house, but promises to keep silent: "A huge ox has stepped onto my tongue." However, when Agamemnon returns, he brings with him Cassandra, an enslaved Trojan princess and priestess of Apollo, as his concubine, further angering Clytemnestra.

From the silence of the watchman the chorus begin with the great parados, which as Kitto expressed it ['It lays down the intellectual foundation of the whole trilogy'], bears the weight of the trilogy . . . Through descriptions of the past, hopes and fears for the future, and statements of the present (which together constitute the narrative) this song develops a series of tensions . . .[it] opens with the narrative of events leading towards the Trojan expedition

The central action of the play is the agon between Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. She plays the loving, waiting wife and attempts to persuade Agamemnon to step on a purple (sometimes red) tapestry or carpet to walk into "his" palace as a true returning conqueror. The problem is that this would indicate hubris on Agamemnon's part, and he is reluctant. Eventually, for reasons that are still heavily debated, Clytemnestra does convince Agamemnon to cross the purple tapestry to enter the oikos, the home.

While Clytemnestra and Agamemnon are offstage, Princess Cassandra, who had heretofore been silent, is suddenly possessed by the god Apollo and enters a tumultuous trance. Gradually her incoherent delirium starts making some sense and she engages in anguished discussion with the chorus whether she should enter the palace, knowing that she too will be murdered. Cassandra has been cursed by Apollo for rejecting his advances. She has the gift of clairvoyance, but the curse means that no one who hears her prophesies believes them until it's too late (i.e. they are fulfilled). In Cassandra's soliloquy, she runs through many gruesome images of the history of the House of Atreus as if she had been a witness of them, and eventually enters the palace knowing that her fate is preordained and unavoidable. The chorus, in this play a group of the elders of Argos, are left bewildered and fearful, until they hear the death screams of Agamemnon, and frantically debate on a course of action.

A platform is then rolled out displaying the butchered corpses of Agamemnon and Cassandra, along with Clytemnestra brandishing the bloodied axe, and defiantly explaining her action. Agamemnon is murdered in much the same way an animal is killed for sacrifice: with three blows, the last strike accompanied by a prayer to a god. She is soon joined by Aegisthus, now the king, strutting out and delivering an arrogant speech to the chorus, who nearly enter into a brawl with him and his guard. However, Clytemnestra halts the dispute, saying that "There is pain enough already. Let us not be bloody now." The play closes with the chorus reminding the usurpers that Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, will surely return to exact vengeance.

The Libation Bearers

The Libation Bearers
Orestes, Electra and Hermes in front of Agamemnon's tomb by Choephoroi Painter
Written by	Aeschylus
Chorus	Slave women
Characters	Orestes Electra Servant Clytaemnestra Pylades Cilissa Aegisthus Attendants
Setting	Argos, at the tomb of Agamemnon

Introduction

The Libation Bearers (Greek: Χοηφόροι, Choēphoroi) is the second play of the Oresteia. It deals with the reunion of Agamemnon's children, Electra and Orestes, and their revenge. Orestes kills Clytemnestra to avenge the death of Agamemnon, Orestes' father.

Storyline

Orestes arrives at the grave of his father, accompanied by his friend Pylades, the son of the king of Phocis, where he has grown up in exile; he places two locks of his hair on the tomb. Orestes and Pylades hide as Electra, Orestes' sister, arrives at the grave accompanied by a chorus of elderly slave women (the libation bearers of the title) to pour libations on Agamemnon's grave; they have been sent by Clytemnestra in an effort "to ward off harm" (l.42). Just as the ritual ends, Electra spots a lock of hair on the tomb which she recognizes as similar to her own; subsequently she sees two sets of footprints, one of which has proportions similar to hers. At this point Orestes and Pylades emerge from their hiding place and Orestes gradually convinces her of his identity.

Now, in the longest and most structurally complex lyric passage in extant Greek tragedy, the chorus, Orestes, and Electra, conjure the departed spirit of Agamemnon to aid them in revenging his murder. Orestes then asks "why she sent libations, what calculation led her to offer too late atonement for a hurt past cure"(l.515-516). The chorus responds that in the palace of Argos Clytemnestra was roused from slumber by a nightmare: she dreamt that she gave birth to a snake, and the snake now feeds from her breast and draws blood along with milk. Alarmed by this, a possible sign of the gods' wrath, she "sent these funeral libations"(l.538). Orestes believes that he is the snake in his mother's dream, so together with Electra they plan to avenge their father by killing their mother Clytemnestra and her new husband, Aegisthus.

Orestes and Pylades pretend to be ordinary travelers from Phocis, and ask for hospitality at the palace. They even tell the Queen that Orestes is dead. Delighted by the news, Clytemnestra sends a servant to summon Aegisthus. When Aegisthus arrives, Orestes reveals himself and kills the usurper. Clytemnestra hears the shouting of a servant and appears on the scene. She sees Orestes standing over the body of Aegisthus. Orestes is then presented with a difficult situation: in order to avenge his father, he must kill his mother. Clytemnestra bares her breast and pleads, "Hold, oh child, and have shame" to which he responds by saying to his close friend Pylades, the son of the king of Phocis: "Shall I be ashamed to kill [my] mother ?"(l.896-899). Some interpreters have suggested that Orestes' question may be connected to a greater theme in the Oresteia: that sometimes we are faced with impossible decisions; in this case, Orestes' familial duty to his father is fundamentally opposed to his familial duty to his mother. On the other hand, it appears straightforwardly as not much more than a pro forma rhetorical question because he readily accepts Pylades advice that it is the correct course of action. Pylades implores Orestes not to forget his duty to Apollo "and our sworn pact" (900). Orestes proceeds immediately with the murder and wraps the bodies of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus in the cloak that Agamemnon was wearing when he was slain.

As soon as he exits the palace, the Erinyes, or Furies as they are known in Roman mythology, begin to haunt and torture him in his flight. Orestes flees in agonized panic. The chorus complains that the cycle of violence did not stop with Clytemnestra’s murder, but continues.

References in other Greek Dramas

Pietro Pucci of Cornell University argues that in referencing The Libation Bearers in Electra, Euripides made a social commentary on the relationship between truth and evidence. Euripides criticized the scene of recognition when Electra realizes that the lock of hair on Agamemnon's tomb belongs to Orestes. In his own play Electra, Euripides has Electra make a scathing remark about the ridiculous notion that one could recognize a brother solely by a lock of hair, a footprint and an article of clothing. What Euripides (presumably purposefully) ignores in Aeschylus' play was the religious significance of the act of placing a lock of hair on a tomb, which was a much more powerful clue as to who left the lock than the actual nature of the hair. Only a friend of Agamemnon's would dare approach his grave and leave a lock of hair, and even more importantly, this ritual had a specific father/ male heir significance. Aeschylus' Electra, therefore, recognized her brother based on her faith in a religious act. Euripides' Electra, on the other hand, judges the situation solely on evidence, and comes to the wrong conclusion that Orestes cannot be present, when in fact the audience knows that he is there and the two characters have just spoken to each other. This commentary suggests that Euripides is referring to the then pertinent argument over evidence and truth, an issue which had no weight when Aeschylus was writing.

While it has significant plot differences, the Theban cycle of plays by Sophocles have similar themes in how mistaken identity, generational curses, and vengeance cause murder and destruction of a "tragic" family. Written in classical Greece about 30 years after the Atreus series, it is probable that there Sophocles was at least aware of the Atreus series when writing his more famous Oedipus tragedies.

The Eumenides

The Eumenides
"Orestes wird von den Furien verfolgt" (Orestes pursued by the Erinyes) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Written by	Aeschylus
Chorus	The Erinyes
Characters	Priestess Apollo Orestes Ghost of Clytaemnestra Athena Athenian citizens
Setting	before the temple of Apollo at Delphi and in Athens

Introduction

The Eumenides (Εὐμενίδες, Eumenides; also known as The Furies) is the final play of the Oresteia, in which Orestes, Apollo, and the Erinyes go before Athena and a jury consisting of the Athenians at the Areopagus (Rock of Ares, a flat rocky hill by the Athenian agora where the homicide court of Athens held its sessions), to decide whether Orestes' murder of his mother, Clytemnestra, makes him worthy of the torment they have inflicted upon him.

Storyline

Orestes is tormented by the Erinyes, or Furies, chthonic deities that avenge patricide and matricide. He, at the instigation of his sister Electra and the god Apollo, has killed their mother Clytemnestra, who had killed their father, King Agamemnon, who had killed his daughter and their sister, Iphigenia. Orestes finds a refuge and a solace at the new temple of Apollo in Delphi, and the god, unable to deliver him from the Erinyes' unappeasable wrath, sends him along to Athens under the protection of Hermes, while he casts a drowsy spell upon the pursuing Erinyes in order to delay them.

Clytemnestra's ghost appears "exactly how or from where is uncertain . . . noteworthy is the poet's bold inventiveness in presenting her as a dream to a collection rather than to a single individual" , to the sleeping Erinyes, urging them to continue hunting Orestes. "As the first of them begins to awake the ghost departs" . The Erinyes' first appearance on stage is haunting: they hum in unison as they slowly wake up, and seek to find the scent of blood that will lead them to Orestes' tracks. Ancient tradition says that on the play's premiere this struck so much fear and anguish in the audience, that a pregnant woman named Neaira suffered a miscarriage and died on the spot.

The Erinyes' tracking down of Orestes in Athens is equally haunting: Orestes has clasped Athena's small statue in supplication, and the Erinyes close in on him by smelling the blood of his slain mother in the air. Once they do see him, they can also see rivulets of blood soaking the earth beneath his footsteps.

As they surround him, Athena intervenes and brings in eleven Athenians to join her in forming a jury to judge her supplicant. Apollo acts as attorney for Orestes, while the Erinyes act as advocates for the dead Clytemnestra. During the trial, Apollo convinces Athena that, in a marriage, the man is more important than the woman, by pointing out that Athena was born only of Zeus and without a mother. Athena votes last and casts her vote for acquittal; after being counted, the votes on each side are equal, thus acquitting Orestes as Athena had earlier announced that this would be the result of a tie. She then persuades the Erinyes to accept the verdict, and they eventually submit. Athena then renames them Eumenides (The Kindly Ones), and they will now be honored by the citizens of Athens and ensure the city's prosperity. Athena also declares that henceforth hung juries should result in the defendant being acquitted, as mercy should always take precedence over harshness.

Proteus

Although Proteus, the satyr play which originally followed the first three plays of The Oresteia, is lost, except for a two-line fragment preserved by Athenaeus, it is widely believed to have been based on the story told in Book IV of Homer's Odyssey, where Menelaus, Agamemmnon's brother, attempts to return home from Troy and finds himself on an island off Egypt. The title character, Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea, is described in Homer as having been visited by Menelaus seeking to learn his future. Scholars have speculated that although the rest of the Oresteia describes mankind's victory over the earth, Proteus may have shown – albeit in a lighter and fairly optimistic vein – that the sea remains as an eternal challenge. "The satyrs who may have found themselves on the island as a result of shipwreck . . . perhaps gave assistance to Menelaus and escaped with him, though he may have had difficulty in ensuring that they keep their hands off Helen" In 2002, Theatre Kingston mounted a production of The Oresteia and included a new reconstruction of Proteus based on the episode in The Odyssey and loosely arranged according to the structure of extant satyr plays.

Analysis and themes

That the play ends on a happy note may surprise modern readers, to whom the word tragedy denotes a drama ending in misfortune. The word did not carry this meaning in ancient Athens, and many of the extant Greek tragedies end happily.

Social progress and justice

This gruesome sequence of events is only the last installment in a long litany of abhorrent crimes. The story begins with Tantalus, who hubristically decides to test the gods' omniscience by killing, cooking and serving his own son, Pelops, to them. The gods detect the ghastly plot and resurrect Pelops, who, being of exceptional beauty, acquires the god Poseidon as his lover. Poseidon's favors secure Pelops the royal bride Hippodamia, at the expense of causing the death of her father, King Oinomaos. Pelops and Hippodamia beget two sons, Atreus and Thyestes, but Pelops favors Chrysippus, a son he already had by a nymph. The brothers, aided by their mother, then kill their half-brother, whose patrimony they covet. Banished for their crime, they usurp the throne of Argos as joint kings, but soon Thyestes seduces Atreus' wife. Atreus then kills Thyestes' sons and serves them to their father as dinner. Thyestes flees in despair, and is advised by Apollo to father a son by his own daughter: only such a son (Aegisthus) could exact vengeance against Atreus' son (Agamemnon). This succession of five generations of horrid intrafamilial crime is the emotional and juridical load that the Trilogy must resolve.

Worth noting here is the metaphorical aspect of this entire drama. Initially, in their role as avengers of bloodshed, the Erinyes are classical equivalents to the Code of Hammurabi and the Torah, which demand “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. Thus, they initially embody the concept of lex talionis, or “law of retribution”.

The change from an archaic self-help justice by personal revenge or vendetta to administration of justice by trial symbolises the passage from a primitive society governed by instincts to a modern society governed by reason: justice is decided by a jury of peers, representing the citizen body and its values, and the gods themselves sanction this transition by taking part in the judicial procedure, arguing and voting on an equal footing with the mortals. This theme of the polis self-governed by consent through lawful institutions, as opposed to tribalism and superstition, recurs in Greek art and thought.

The dramatization of societal transformation in this myth (the transition to governance by laws) is both a boast and justification of the then relatively new judicial system. The concept of objective intervention by an impartial entity against which no vengeance could be taken (the state) marked the end of continuous cycles of bloodshed, a transition in Greek society reflected by the transition in their mythology – the Erinyes are a much greater part of older Greek myths than comparatively more recent ones. The reflection of societal struggles and social norms in mythology makes plays like these of special interest today, offering poignant cultural and historical insights.

Philos-aphilos

"Philos-aphilos" (φίλος ἄφιλος; "love-in-hate") is a vigorous force throughout the trilogy. All of the bloodshed throughout the play is “murder committed not against an external enemy but against a part of the self.” This can be interpreted literally: Orestes slays his mother, his own flesh and blood; Aegisthus is Clytaemestra’s accomplice in the murder of his cousin Agamemnon, and Agamemnon had killed his daughter Iphigeneia, even as a required sacrifice.

“A part of the self” can also be interpreted more figuratively as a significant other, such as a spouse; thus, Clytaemestra’s feelings for Agamemnon are characterized as ‘philos-aphilos’ as well. As Richmond Lattimore defined it thus, “the hate gains intensity from the strength of the original love when that love has been stopped or rejected.” Clytaemestra’s love for Agamemnon has been quashed by his sacrifice of Iphigeneia and his return with Cassandra as a concubine. Likewise, Orestes’ sentiments toward his mother are intensified by anger at her murder of his father and resentment at the fact that she chose her lover over her children – essentially, they are “the price for which she bought herself this man.” These conflicting feelings are embodied in Clytaemestra’s dream about nursing the snake.

Lattimore also draws a parallel between the Oresteia and Hamlet, suggesting that the sensation of ‘philos-aphilos’ engendered by Prince Hamlet’s emotional connections to his mother, Queen Gertrude, and to Ophelia, who are both on the side of King Claudius – himself a close blood relative who might have held Hamlet’s affection and regard before usurping the throne – are what make the play a tragedy.

See also

• The Oresteia in the arts and popular culture

Translations

• Robert Browning, 1889 – verse: Agamemnon
• Arthur S. Way, 1906 – verse
• Edmund Doidge Anderson Morshead, 1909 – verse: full text
• Herbert Weir Smyth, Aeschylus, Loeb Classical Library, 2 vols. Greek text with facing translations, 1922 – prose Agamemnon Libation Bearers Eumenides
• Gilbert Murray, 1925 – verse Agamemnon
• Louis MacNeice, 1936 – verse Agamemnon
• Richmond Lattimore, 1953 – verse
• Philip Vellacott, 1956 – verse
• Paul Roche, 1963 – verse
• Peter Arnott, 1964 – verse
• Howard Rubenstein, 1965 - verse Agamemnon
• Hugh Lloyd-Jones, 1970 – verse
• Rush Rehm, 1978 - verse, for the stage
• Robert Fagles, 1975 – verse
• Robert Lowell, 1977 – verse
• Tony Harrison, 1981 – verse
• David Grene and Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, 1989 – verse
• Peter Meineck, 1998 – verse
• Ted Hughes, 1999 – verse
• Ian C. Johnston, 2002 – verse: full text
• George Theodoridis, Agamemnon, Choephori, Eumenides 2003-2007 – prose: [1]
• Ethan Sinnott Director/Set Designer/Translator, 2008 Spring Production Gallaudet University Theatre arts Department
• Alan Sommerstein, Aeschylus, Loeb Classical Library, 3 vols. Greek text with facing translations,2008
• Dominic J Allen & James Wilkes, 2009 for Belt Up Theatre Company [2]
• Anne Carson, 2009, An Oresteia - A translation featuring episodes from the Oresteia from three different playwrights; Aeschylus' Agamemnon Sophocles' Electra, and Euripides' Orestes
• Peter Arcese, 2010 - Agamemnon, in syllabic verse

References

• Collard, Christopher. Introduction to and translation of Oresteia (202) Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-283281-6

External links

BBC audio file. The Oresteia discussion in In our time Radio 4 programme. 45 minutes.