The Greek culture is renowned for political reforms (demokratia), architecture (such as the Parthenon) and the arts - however, one of their most important contributions deals with our understanding of revenge and cruelty. One salient example of cyclic revenge and the effects it can have on others is present in Aeschylus’s play “The Libation Bearers”. Before delving into the Greek Tragedy unit, I had little interest or admiration for these great works - now my outlook has evolved. Although “The Libation Bearers” focuses on the cyclic nature of death and revenge as well as the difference between right and wrong, it helps bring to light that a hero is neither good nor bad and is representative “of the ordinary man.”
A commonality between Greek …show more content…
For example, Achilles had a singular weakness, representative of a weakness in spite of overall strength, however, modern heroes have muddled the clear meanings introduced by the Greek Tragedies. Heroes, while they may be partly divine, are definitely human in nature. Orestes exhibits some humanity on his quest to avenge his father’s death. Before killing his mother as Apollo has commanded he says “O Pylades, what shall I do? I cannot kill my mother.” Pylades responds “Where then will be Apollo’s prophecies? Have everyone as an enemy rather than the gods” in essence telling Orestes that if he does not comply with what the gods require they will destroy him. However, the fact that Orestes was willing to stand up to the injustice of death is important for two reasons. First, he went against the gods - unheard of at the time. Second, he considered if his actions would further the cyclic blood crimes or seek to end it. Why he killed his mother is debateable… Did he do it to protect himself from the Gods? For revenge? To end the circle of death? These are the wrong questions though. One might purport: Why did Orestes falter for even a second? Now we realize that even though Orestes fearlessly complies throughout the Oresteia, there comes a moment when his humanity is overpowering, a moment where he can transcend the confines of the Gods, peer
A commonality between Greek …show more content…
For example, Achilles had a singular weakness, representative of a weakness in spite of overall strength, however, modern heroes have muddled the clear meanings introduced by the Greek Tragedies. Heroes, while they may be partly divine, are definitely human in nature. Orestes exhibits some humanity on his quest to avenge his father’s death. Before killing his mother as Apollo has commanded he says “O Pylades, what shall I do? I cannot kill my mother.” Pylades responds “Where then will be Apollo’s prophecies? Have everyone as an enemy rather than the gods” in essence telling Orestes that if he does not comply with what the gods require they will destroy him. However, the fact that Orestes was willing to stand up to the injustice of death is important for two reasons. First, he went against the gods - unheard of at the time. Second, he considered if his actions would further the cyclic blood crimes or seek to end it. Why he killed his mother is debateable… Did he do it to protect himself from the Gods? For revenge? To end the circle of death? These are the wrong questions though. One might purport: Why did Orestes falter for even a second? Now we realize that even though Orestes fearlessly complies throughout the Oresteia, there comes a moment when his humanity is overpowering, a moment where he can transcend the confines of the Gods, peer