Justice In The Iliad And Oresteia

Superior Essays
Difference The Greek City states or polis had many differences but also many similarities. Although the city states were made up of the same people, Greeks, the beliefs, government, and views of culture and everyday life vary between the different polis. Many times ancient literature opens one’s eyes to the norms of a society and for the Greek city states texts such as The Iliad, Oresteia and other such works. During the time period of the city states there were radical ways of thinking. These ideas were shown in the historical books or texts, written either by philosophers or story tellers. In stories such as the Iliad, the culture is painted in a light of a war, and the Oresteia is in the light of a family conflict. These two stories shine a light on what the Greeks thought about important issues. Many of the stories focus …show more content…
The gods worshiped by the Greeks played a large part in decided what is right and wrong. In the Iliad A Trojan, Paris ran off with the wife of Agamemnon’s brother who was a king. In response Agamemnon got the blessing from Zeus to restore justice his brother by starting a war with Troy. Another example of the sense of justice in the Iliad and Oresteia was when Clytemnestra killed her husband with the claim she was enforcing justice due to Agamemnon for killing their innocent daughter.
“By the justice I exacted for my child, by Ruin, and the Fury in whose honor I sacrificed this man. (Oresteia, 57)
This incident shaped much of the debate in the Oresteia for what was right and wrong in their morals for killing. On one hand, killing another family member is the worst thing you can do, but Clytemnestra was just trying to get justice for her slaughtered daughter, which causes herself to get murdered. Justice in this time period was a lot of pay back for something someone did to someone close to

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Justice has been an evolutionary concept that has been forever evolving for thousands of years. However, in order for the modern deduction of justice to have been made by modern standards, the concept of justice itself needs to be established. Although its formal understanding may have been unclear during their time period, Hesiod and Homer both attempt to understand and exert their opinions as to what justice is through their epic poems and other works. Even though some of their views on justice conflict and others compliment each other, they both laid a foundation to explain what justice meant in Greek society.…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In the epic poem, the Iliad written by Homer, several characters taking part in the warfare between the Achaeans and the Trojans are portrayed as embodying the heroic code of courage, physical strength, leadership, arete of value of honour, and the acceptance of fate. The heroic code is illustrated by the actions of the Trojan prince, Hector and the Achaeans strongest warrior, Achilles. Both of these characters display the Greek’s image of a hero, and can also let the reader discern what the society admires, looks up to and aspires to in its heroes. There are also characters who fail to be heroic, such as the Trojan “vivid and beautiful” prince, Paris. These characters in the Iliad illustrate the qualities that Ancient Greek society values.…

    • 1570 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Kleos is a term often used in ancient greek epics that can be translated now to “renown”, or “glory”. Kleos, or glory, is an encompassing theme within Homer’s epic the Iliad, it means the achievement of one’s immortal fame. It is a glory that lives on past the expiry of ones mortal life and is often the driving force behind many attitudes and actions of the central characters within the Iliad. This is especially prominent in the case of Hector and Achilles, Both characters are considered hero’s in their own right and are looked up to by the greeks. They both are part of the war that is the driving source of plot within the Iliad, where they make decisions, sometimes against rational judgment, in honour of achieving their Kleos.…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Though there are many works from ancient Greece that survived, there are two authors that are the most well-known or frequently taught. Homer’s two epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are perhaps the most well-known, because of the heroes epic battles of strength and wit against those deemed as enemies. Hesiod’s Works and Days, however, may be the most pertinent to finding out how everyday citizens of ancient Greece went about their everyday lives. These epics detail the lives of both extraordinary and ordinary men’s lives in ancient Greece. When compared to one another, Homer’s heroic world and Hesiod’s more common world have many similarities, such as views towards religion and right and wrong, and a significant difference, the role of women.…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The final days of democracy in Greece are in fact the story of how Athens lived its last century as an independent state. The moment of fall has to do with its time when it shined the most over Greece: at the height of power as leader of Athenian league and leader of Greek culture. The city-state pattern of Greece created a reality of competition, individuality and community centered exclusively around each political community. That is why Greece never reached a national consciousness, even that there were moments of unity when all Greeks acted as a single body (see Persian wars).…

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Athens Essay To begin to write on the topic of Athens is a remarkably overwhelming and broad undertaking. The city turned empire had some of the most creative and groundbreaking advancements to human society the world has ever seen. The city was one surrounded by controversy, a rogue doing whatever it wanted in order to achieve this city created in the wake of the goddess of wisdom, Athena. Some loved it, some did not. While many sources documented the city in a variety of aspects, we looked at two, the Periclean Funeral Oration, as well as Pseudo-Xenophon on the Athenian Constitution.…

    • 1564 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Although very different story lines, the Iliad and the Bible have a mutual respect for a relatively large idea- Justice. Justice has been a huge moral for the readers of both, however in different ways. The definition of Justice does not change from book to book, nor does it have an underlying meaning in either however the path taken to justice in both is what differs. In the Iliad, the characters believe that justice is established through violent acts. Whereas the Bible, civilians are taught by God that justice is brought by acts of goodness, and always being…

    • 99 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Oresteia Play Analysis

    • 1741 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Aeschylus’s trilogy The Oresteia is a play of immense proportions, and at its heart it is a study of morality and the palpable tension of the competing ideas of dikē – justice or right. It depicts a societal change from one form of justice and law to another; from the law of the old gods to the law of the new. The third play in the trilogy, The Eumenides, depicts the culmination of this conflict, where all the individual conflicts reach their conclusions and the overarching themes of the trilogy come to their dénouement.…

    • 1741 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Throughout history, the presence of violence justified by the credence in godly figures is exemplified, especially in Aeschylus’ The Oresteia, and Homers’, The Odyssey. Although both archaic works concern the ideologies and practices of faith in the Greek mythological gods, the reasoning for violent actions and their means of justification differ in their aspiration for and fulfillment of vengeance, their justification through the divine, and their means of punishment. In The Oresteia, Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, was exiled from the House of Atreus by his mother, Clytemnestra, the Queen of Argos. Upon the return of Agamemnon from the Trojan War, Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus, murdered Agamemnon due to his sacrifice of Iphigenia,…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Sparta And Athens

    • 1037 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Sparta and Athens were both successful City States in Ancient Greece. Although they both were located in the same country, they both had conflicting views on several issues and they were different in the way they operated. The Athenians cared more about learning and the arts, while the Spartans were focused on military training and following orders. The two city states had different governments and social make-ups. Although the challenging city-states of Sparta and Athens were individually different as well as governmentally diverse, they both managed to become dominating powers in Ancient Greece.…

    • 1037 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The political structures of Greece and Rome depended on a city-state model. Regardless, the distinction between them Greece is a mountainous landmass with a pointedly fluctuating coastline with different little islands. The nobility of every city-state protected its freedom and demoralized any endeavors to shape a monarchy. In this manner, making the association between the Greek city-states was restricted, bringing about every city-state to grow autonomously of each other.…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Beg no more, you fawning dog - begging me by my parents! Would to god my rage, my fury would drive me now to hack your flesh away and eat you raw- such agonies you have caused me!” (Iliad, lines 184-187) Achilles, the Greek warrior gloats over his enemy Hector of Troy. Prior to this battle of vengeance, Hector had killed Achilles’ best friend Patroclus, dishonouring him by not giving him a proper burial and by taking his armour. Enraged, Achilles seeks revenge for his friend and slaughters Hector.…

    • 1409 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Aeschylus’s trilogy, The Oresteia, presents one reason for Clytemnestra murdering Agamemnon: as revenge for the sacrificial murder of her daughter, Iphigenia. While this is not the only reason for Clytemnestra’s action, it is the most ambiguous; for example, Clytemnestra presents herself as a devoted mother, but she constantly contradicts her actions with her words. For instance, Clytemnestra, acting as a loving mother, vowed to avenge her daughter’s death, but later on goes to curse her own son, Orestes. Clytemnestra even claims to send Orestes off with loving intentions, rather it was for her own security. Furthermore, The Libation Bearers questions Clytemnestra’s motherhood with a disturbing serpent metaphor.…

    • 1189 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The prosecution is biased when attempting to avenge injustice they overlook Clytemnestra’s sins and continue to excessively attack Orestes. My client, Orestes was justified in the murder of his mother. He was granted the authority to act in this manner by myself Apollo, who demanded that retribution be had. I ordered him to kill his mother because my father who you all know, Zeus, the God of justice believed it was the right course of action. We cannot deny the request of the Gods, unless you want to be struck down were you stand.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Clytemnestra was sure that Agamemnon deserved what he was getting. In the embedded scene, Orestes’ plot of justice also mimics Clytemnestra’s plot of justice. After receiving the news of his father’s death, Orestes did not immediately seek revenge out of anger. He put the well- being of his family before his need for justice and revenge. Although, Orestes’ feelings were diminished for the time being he knew that eventually his mother and Aegisthus would endure the revenge…

    • 1535 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays