What was the Oresteia about and what does it teach?
What was the Oresteia about and what does it teach?
The Oresteia tells the story of the house of Atreus. The first play, Agamemnon, portrays the victorious return of that king from the Trojan War and his murder by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus. At the play’s end Clytemnestra and her lover rule Árgos.
What are the main themes of the Oresteia?
The principal themes of the trilogy include the contrast between revenge and justice, as well as the transition from personal vendetta to organized litigation. Oresteia originally included a satyr play, Proteus (Πρωτεύς), following the tragic trilogy, but all except a single line of Proteus has been lost.
What is the point of the Oresteia?
The main idea of The Oresteia is that injustice and such primitive instruments of morality as the blood-feud must be eliminated if human society is ever to attain to a high level of social organization, which can only be done by the introduction of a public morality and civic legal processes.
What is the theme of The Libation Bearers?
In The Libation Bearers, Aeschylus makes a clear distinction between familial bonds that are wholesome and healthy, and those that have become twisted and deadly.
What happens at the end of Aeschylus Libation Bearers?
He stabs her, and the chorus rejoices. He wraps the two bodies in the same shroud in which Agamemnon was killed, and announces to the world that he has carried out the commands of Justice. However, now that the deed is finally done, Orestes falls victim to the Furies’s retributive violence.
What does the word Oresteia mean?
The Oresteia (Ancient Greek: Ὀρέστεια) is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus in the 5th century BC, concerning the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra, the murder of Clytemnestra by Orestes, the trial of Orestes, the end of the curse on the House of Atreus and pacification of the Erinyes.
How does Clytemnestra act like a man?
These ‘manly’ qualities are best demonstrated in Clytemnestra’s use of language, particular examples include ‘I stand where I dealt the blow; my purpose is achieved. Thus have I done the deed; deny it I will not’ and ‘You are testing me as if I were a witless woman’ (Agamemnon 1379-80; 1402).
Who is the chorus in The Libation Bearers?
slave women
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.
What are the messages in the play Eumenides?
The Eumenides is all about justice and judgment getting the upper hand over the bloody cycles of revenge that dominated the action of Agamemnon and Libation Bearers (the first two plays in the Oresteia trilogy). Now, the key thing here is that justice and judgment triumph.
What is the plot of Libation Bearers?
In the first play of the Oresteia trilogy, Agamemnon returns to Argos after ten years away at the Trojan War. His wife Clytemnestra, who has been ruling the kingdom in his absence, murders him and his concubine Cassandra.
How does Electra recognize Orestes at the start of Libation Bearers?
Electra discovers a lock of hair on Agamemnon’s grave. The chorus becomes agitated, asking whose it is. Electra says that it is identical to her own. She knows that it is Orestes’s hair, for she can see his curls, and assumes that he sent it in order to honor their father.
