Oresteia Trilogy Continued
Saturday, April 13, 2019
5:17 PM
The Second Play: Libation Bearers
• Libations: offering given to spirits of dead or God who lives underground
• Title comes from the chorus of Trojan slave-women who are carrying libations to tomb of
Agamemnon
• Clytemnestra doesn't visit his tomb due to bad dreams and his ghost potentially being
angry
• Orestes comes of age in exile and returns home to Argos (nostos), accompanied by his
friend Pylades
• They have consulted oracle at Delphi, where Apollo has commanded Orestes to kill his
mother and Aegisthus to avenge the murder of Agamemnon
○ Compare: Artemis demanding sacrifice of Iphigeneia
• Electra, his sister, at home in Argos, constantly laments at her father's tomb, remembering
him and calling for revenge
Funeral Lament
• The song sung over the corpse and afterwards, in regular commemoration of the dead,
was part of what was considered due to the soul of the deceased
• To neglect it was to risk the displeasure of the gods or ghost of the dead
• The lament was a carefully constructed song with elements specifically to the genre
• Normally was performed by kinswomen, sometimes with addition of professional (paid)
mourners
• Ritual gestures: tearing of hair, clothing, and face/chest striking
Offerings at the Tomb
• Normally offered on 3rd, 9th, and 30th days, and after a year
○ Also on certain festival days
• Offerings included: locks of hair, libations, grains, fruits, sacrificed animals, ribbons,
garlands, garments
• Accompanied by prayers, and/or ritual lament
Functions of Lament
• To express loss and grief
• To commemorate the dead
• To create social unity by rousing shared emotion and shared memory
• In cases of violent death, to invoke an avenger
○ Continuation of cycle of violence that was kept alive by voices of women
• The audience is important participant as witness to all of the above
Changes in Funerary Practices Over Time
• From the 6th century BCE
• Elaborate kin-focused funeral displays (focused on loss) begin to be limited by new laws
• In Athens, transition to the public oration - epitaphios logos - by a male leader for soldiers
fallen in battle, as a group; glorification of city
○ Speech not about loss, but the glory of what they fought for
○ Shift from emphasis of household to glorification of city
○ In these speeches, women are admonished to be silent/restrained (cycle of
violence ends)
• Athenian tragedy, a civic discourse, incorporates traditional women's lament
•
•
•
Elaborate kin-focused funeral displays (focused on loss) begin to be limited by new laws
In Athens, transition to the public oration - epitaphios logos - by a male leader for soldiers
fallen in battle, as a group; glorification of city
○ Speech not about loss, but the glory of what they fought for
○ Shift from emphasis of household to glorification of city
○ In these speeches, women are admonished to be silent/restrained (cycle of
violence ends)
Athenian tragedy, a civic discourse, incorporates traditional women's lament
Dangerous Voices
• Comparative anthropology examines tribal feuds among mountain clans (in Mani and
Epirus) in Greek society in the beginning of the last century
• Blood feuds escalated by calls for revenge in laments urging reciprocal violence
• Mothers and sisters call on sons and brothers to avenge violent death of loved ones
• In vendetta justice, men use actions, women use voices
Electra & Orestes
• Recognize they are brother and sister through lock of hair
• She shares story of what it is like in Argos
• Together they formulate a plan for Orestes to gain access to household for vengeance
Electra's Dangerous Voice
• Electra's lament keeps alive the memory of Agamemnon and his murder
• Also includes her calls for an avenger
• She is thus a threat to Aegisthus and Clytemnestra
• Her preoccupation with revenge and her dead father prevents her from moving forward in
life; her name means "without a marriage bed"
Orestes' Use of Deceit
• Orestes, disguised as messenger, announces his own death and so gains access to the
palace/household
○ "dead hand" motif
• Electra helps by pretending to mourn his death
• Clytemnestra's mixed response: is happy to hear her son is dead (was worried about him
coming of age) but acts sad
○ She is no longer seen as a mother, but as an adulteress who is married to
someone who wishes to take the throne
Orestes Kills Aegisthus
• The dead is killing the living
• Clytemnestra retrieves an ax and is ready to kill her own son
• Once Orestes kills Aegisthus he must face his mother
Orestes Kills Clytemnestra
• She opens her robe to show her (nursing) breast
• Orestes turns to his friend, and is reminded of Apollo's command
• Despite Clytemnestra's appeal, Orestes remembers what was promised
• Female figure seen hovering is one of the furies with a snake in her hand
○ Represented like a devil for Clytemnestra herself
• After Orestes kills his mother he has visions of furies but chorus cannot see them (they
are visible in third play)
The Curse Renewed
• The Furies (Erinyes) pursue Orestes for matricide
Eumenides: The Third Play of the Oresteia Trilogy
• Eumenides: means the kindly goddesses
• This play is a transformation of justice
• Furies act as chorus and are after Orestes
The Curse Renewed
• The Furies (Erinyes) pursue Orestes for matricide
Eumenides: The Third Play of the Oresteia Trilogy
• Eumenides: means the kindly goddesses
• This play is a transformation of justice
• Furies act as chorus and are after Orestes
Prologue, spoken by Pythia, Apollo's Priest
“First among gods, in this my prayer, I give pride of place to the first of prophets, Earth; and next
to her daughter Themis, who, as a tale has it, was the second to occupy this prophetic seat
which had been her mother’s. The third to have the seat assigned to her—with her predecessor’s
consent, and not by the use of force against anyone—was another Titaness and child of Earth,
Phoebe; and she gave it as a birthday gift to Phoebus [Apollo], who bears Phoebe’s name as an
addition to his own. Leaving the pool and rocky isle of Delos, … and Zeus caused his mind to be
inspired with seercraft, and installed him on the throne here as its fourth prophet. Loxias [Apollo]
is thus the spokesman of his father Zeus.
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•
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Pythia: goddess that speaks the oracle
Conveys messages of the gods through her body/movement which are interpreted by
male priests
Given us history of the Delphic oracle
○ First of prophets: Gaia
○ Second: Themis
○ Third: Phoebe (Themis' sister, Gaia's daughter)
○ Fourth: gifted to Apollo by Phoebe for his birthday
§ He left Delos, and Zeus caused his mind to be wise
§ Loxias = Apollo
The Prologue: a History of the Oracle at Delphi
• Spoken by priestess of Apollo - Pythia
• Earth (Gaia) to Themis to Phoebe to Apollo (Phoebus)
• Contrast to Homeric Hymn to Apollo
○ Apollo slays Python, lays claim to Pytho, founds his oracular seat
○ A tale of heroic violence, dragon-slaying, laying claim to land
The Furies (Erinyes)
• Chorus of the play
• Later transformed to Eumenides
• They are horrifying to look at; Pythia collapses at the sight of them
○ Clothed in black, making horrible sounds, dripping from their eyes
• Recall Theogony: Furies born from drops of blood that fell to earth from Ouranos'
castrated genitals
• Their function is to punish those who spill kindred blood (revenge)
○ Orestes fate dependent on definition of "kin"
Orestes and the Furies
• He is seen fighting them with a sword
• Orestes infected with miasma
Orestes' Ritual Purification
• Orestes, pursued by the Furies, arrived at Delphi to supplicate Apollo to purify him of
miasma
• Apollo promises to be his champion; has put the Furies to sleep
○ Note how he describes them: old maidens, mad, abominable, associated with
Tartarus, hated by Olympians and mortals alike, bloodsucking, violent, mutilating
Apollo and the Furies
• Chorus (Furies): we drive from their homes those who assault their mothers
•
•
Orestes, pursued by the Furies, arrived at Delphi to supplicate Apollo to purify him of
miasma
Apollo promises to be his champion; has put the Furies to sleep
○ Note how he describes them: old maidens, mad, abominable, associated with
Tartarus, hated by Olympians and mortals alike, bloodsucking, violent, mutilating
Apollo and the Furies
• Chorus (Furies): we drive from their homes those who assault their mothers
• Apollo: what about a woman who slays her husband?
• Chorus: that would not be kindred murder of a person of the same blood
○ Furies say Clytemnestra killing Agamemnon is not kindred murder
○ Ghost of Clytemnestra urging on the Furies (as if she's become one herself)
○ Clytemnestra only character to appear in all 3 plays of Oresteia (dead in the last
one)
The First Trial by Jury for Homicide
• Apollo tells Orestes to flee from Delphi to Athens
○ Go to temple of the altar of Athena (despite being cleared of miasma)
• Orestes travels for a year and arrives in Athens, where he supplicates Athena
○ Athena's allegiance: she arrives from site of Troy, where she has been taking
possession of the land conquered by Agamemnon
• Orestes' supplication puts Athens at risk
○ Athena will incur the anger of the Furies; are powerful goddesses who can cause
harm to Athens
Civic
institution
established for the first time: Athena institutes first trial by jury on the
•
Areopagus (hill of Ares)
○ Ancient site of Amazonomachy, the battle between Theseus and Amazons
• Furies argue that if Orestes goes unpunished, people will feel free to commit all sorts of
crimes
• Two sides: Apollo vs. the Furies; Athena presides
Eumenides (558-71)
Apollo:
The so-called “mother” is not a parent of the child, only the nurse of the newly-begotten embryo.
The parent is he who mounts; the female keeps the offspring safe, like a stranger on behalf of a
stranger, …. I shall give you powerful proof of this statement. A father can procreate without a
mother: a witness to this is here close by us [indicating Athena], the daughter of Olympian Zeus,
who was not even nurtured in the darkness of a womb, but is such an offspring as no female
divinity could ever bring forth.
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"the parent is he who mounts" (the male)
The mother's body is just meant to keep safe the embryo of a man
Argues father can procreate without a mother (birth of Athena)
Myths work to support superiority of male as a parent
Apollo's Defense of Orestes
• The mother is not a true parent; Athena is proof of this
• Compare Aristotle: roughly a century later, in a scientific treatise on the conception of
children
○ Male seed provides the determining contribution that results in a child, while the
woman provides merely the material (like seed in a field)
• Thus the father is more important and Orestes was right to kill his mother to avenge him
• Acquittal of Orestes: Athena's vote breaks the jury's tie vote
○ She explains that no mother gave birth to her and she "commends the male in all
respects"
Transformation of the Furies
• The Erinyes (Furies) are very angry, threaten to punish Athens with blight and infertility
•
•
Thus the father is more important and Orestes was right to kill his mother to avenge him
Acquittal of Orestes: Athena's vote breaks the jury's tie vote
○ She explains that no mother gave birth to her and she "commends the male in all
respects"
Transformation of the Furies
• The Erinyes (Furies) are very angry, threaten to punish Athens with blight and infertility
• Are slowly persuaded by Athena to let go of their anger
• They are transformed into Eumenides (Kindly Ones)
• They are given a home, powers, and great honours in a cave in Athens (Chthonic
goddesses)
○ Chthonic: belonging to the Underworld
• Celebration of the glories and virtues of Athens
• Their role is to "help friends, harm enemies"
○ Definition of justice in Classical Athens
A New Order is Established
• Change of clothing for Eumenides - dressed in crimson robes compared to previous black
rags
• Ritual procession by torchlight to their new home in the city
• Worship of the Eumenides is instituted in Athens
• Perpetual peace established between Athens and Argos
• Reconciliation between old blood-thirsty gods and new political gods
• Justice is transformed from reciprocal violent revenge to jury by trial in court, a democratic
institution
• Clytemnestra left unsatisfied; her revenge doesn't happen and is left without a voice