ORESTEIA: DISJECTA MEMBRAE
The first generation of classical gods were the Primordial Deities. They were overthrown
by the Titans and their leader, Cronus. The Titans were overthrown by their descendants, the
Olympians, and their leader, Zeus. One of many possible readings of The Oresteia is as a
revolutionary cosmological transition: gods to humans, archaic to modern, an etiological myth of
human autonomy.
In Aeschylus, madness seems to predominantly be a kind of contact with the divine world.
- Theodorou
There can be no such thing as a Christian tragedy. Christianity posits that God is good and does
not contradict himself; hence, in every moral dilemma there is ultimately a right and wrong. In
Greek religion, the Gods have no morality, and represent irreconcilable opposites.
- Wiles
Sacrifice transforms us. By going through the irreversible ‘act’ we reach a new plane. In order to
reach a new plane of existence in the initiation ritual, one must normally undergo ‘sufferings,’ an
encounter with death, through which death is overcome.
- Burkert
Perhaps even the most luminous sphere of our relations with the divine depends, in some way, on
that darker one which separates us from the animal … [Perhaps] on the last day, the relations
between animals and men will take on a new form, and man himself will be reconciled with his
animal nature.
- Agamben
The curse on the House of Atreus goes back several generations. Atreus and Thyestes were
brothers battling for control of Mycenae. Atreus became king and Thyestes seduced Atreus’ wife,
Aerope. Atreus feigned reconciliation by inviting Thyestes to dinner. Atreus killed two of
Thyestes’ sons and cooked them, feeding them to Thyestes. When Atreus revealed this to his
brother, Thyestes cursed Atreus’ house and descendants.
Agamemnon is a son of Atreus.
Aegisthus is the only surviving son of Thyestes.
Agamemnon and Aegisthus are cousins.
When Agamemnon is murdered, it is a revenge victory for the ghost of Thyestes.
After Clytemnestra killed Agamemnon, Aegisthus planned to kill her baby, Orestes. But
Electra, daughter of Clytemnestra, smuggled her younger brother to Phocis.
1600 - 1100 BCE: Mycenaean Greece
12th Century BCE: Approximate setting of events in The Oresteia
525 BCE: Attributed birth of Aeschylus in Eleusis, Greece
458 BCE: The Oresteia performed at the Festival Dionysius
456 BCE: Aeschylus’ death in Gela, Italy
The Trojan War began with a competition, the Judgment of Paris, between three
goddesses. Aphrodite won by offering Paris the most beautiful woman in the world: Helen. Paris
sailed to Troy with Helen, but Helen was married to the Greek King Menelaus.
Menelaus and his brother, King Agamemnon, sailed with the Greek army to Troy to bring
back Helen. On the way, the goddess Artemis stopped the winds at Aulis, preventing
Agamemnon’s ships from sailing. There are different explanations for Artemis’ rage at
Agamemnon. The most common is that Agamemnon killed a deer in a sacred grove of Artemis.
When the Chorus of Agamemnon related these past events, no specific reason was given for
Artemis’ rage.
The prophet Calchas informed Agamemnon that he must sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia,
to placate Artemis for sailing winds. Agamemnon deceived his wife, Queen Clytemnestra, who
brought her daughter to Aulis. There, Agamemnon killed Iphigenia. In some versions of the story,
Artemis saved Iphigenia at the last moment by replacing her body on the sacrificial stone with that
of a deer. In Aeschylus, Iphigenia died.
Agamemnon and his ships sailed to Troy, where they fought for 10 years. Eventually,
Odysseus conceived of the Trojan Horse. Cassandra, daughter of King Priam of Troy, warned that
the horse was a plot, but no one believed her. Cassandra had been given the gift of prophecy by
Apollo, but because she spurned him when he tried to lay with her, Apollo cursed her so that no
one would believe her prophecies. The Trojans brought the horse into their city. At night, the
Greeks emerged from it and sacked the town. In doing so, they committed several acts that
offended the gods. These included raping Cassandra, killing Priam on a sacred altar, and throwing
Priam’s infant son from the city walls.
The gods punished the victorious Greeks on their journey home. Odysseus was lost for 10
years attempting to return home to Ithaca, the subject of The Odyssey. Menelaus, with Helen, was
shipwrecked and eventually forced the shape-shifting god Proteus to help him home. This may
have been the narrative of the fourth part of The Oresteia, the lost satyr play Proteus. Agamemnon
returned home, where he was killed by his wife, Clytemnestra.
Tragos / Tragoedia: “Song of the goat,” etymology of the word “tragedy.”
Skene: “Tent,” the original Greek setting, inside of which were costume changes and the private
space of inside the house, versus the public space outside. In later Greek tragedy, probably by the
time of The Oresteia performances in 450 BCE, the skene became a wooden structure.
Eccyclema: “Rolled out.” The platform on which the dead bodies were displayed in Greek tragedy.
Diaballein: A separation from the self, shearing in two.
Theriomorphism: The ascription of animal characteristics to humans.
Taurobolion: From tauros = bull + -bolion = to throw. Ceremony wherein the initiate or priest is
placed beneath a bull and receives the animal’s blood as it is slaughtered. Believed to have Greek
origins (as indicated by the word’s etymology), documented practice during the a Roman empire.
2
Areopagus: “Rock of Ares.” In pre-classical Athens, the seat of the council of the elders. In the 5th
Century BCE, it transitioned into a court that oversaw homicides. The Oresteia provides an
etiological myth, suggesting that the court was founded by Athena.
Aeschylus was born into a wealthy family of nobility. Legend says that Dionysus visited
him in a dream and told him to write tragedies. He is known as the “father of tragedy.” According
to Aristotle, Aeschylus created dialogue amongst characters, whereas previously dialogue was
exclusively between characters and the Chorus. 7 of his 70-90 plays survive. Aeschylus was also a
soldier and fought in battles against the Persians. The gravestone epitaph he wrote for himself
mentions his military service, but not his plays.
Aeschylus appears to have favored serial trilogies, meaning trilogies of a continuous
narrative. The Oresteia is the only extant example of this kind of narrative trilogy. Greek tragic
poets wrote tetralogies: 3 tragedies, followed by 1 satyr play. The satyr play of The Oresteia was
called Proteus and is lost. Only a single complete satyr play exists from all of Ancient Greece.
Only 1 line remains from Proteus: “a wretched, miserable pigeon, trying to feed after its ribs have
been smashed by the fans winnowing in the grain.”
Aeschylus wrote, directed, and performed in his plays. He was known for spectacle, such
as the red tapestries in The Oresteia. He was also known for his use of silent characters, such as
Cassandra in The Oresteia. She is silent for a long time and the Greek spectators would have
believed she was an “extra’ or minor non-speaking role. But then, she surprises all by speaking.
Aeschylus was born in Eleusis, not far from Athens. He was initiated into the Eleusinian
Mysteries, a cult of Demeter. The Eleusinian mysteries may have been the oldest Greek mystery
cult. Revealing secrets of the cult was punishable by death. Aeschylus was put on trial for revealing
secrets in The Oresteia, but was acquitted. One of many readings of The Oresteia is as an
eschatological drama.
3