In the three plays of the Oresteia, we encounter the themes of justice, power, and retribution, being present in all the plots. The occurrence of these themes in the plays allows a clash head-on in a supposedly interminable cycle of bloodshed and violence. However, this cycle is broken in the last play, the Eumenides, with divine intervention and the establishment of a system of trial by jury. In this paper, I intended to discuss how these themes deepen our understanding of the primordial instincts- e.g. fear, jealousy, hared, - in correlation with how these themes interact with the characters and plots of this trilogy. I also intend to discuss how the solution of Orestes’ case was problematic and unqualified for the description to which it
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For in this play, revenge emerges as something problematic, something which, rather than upholding and restoring the polis (city), is threatening to engulf it in an unending cycle of destruction, until the most powerful city in the Greek world is full of corpses and vultures. Consequently, one of the principal purposes of the first play is to force us to recognize that justice based on revenge creates special difficulties which it cannot solve, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” (Mahatma Gandhi). To use one of the most important images in the play, the city is caught in a net from which there seems to be no escape, “For it endured its life’s end in desolation and tears and the piteous blood of its people” (Agamemnon, Lines713-715). The traditional revenge ethic has woven a cycle of necessary destruction around the city, and those caught in the mesh feel trapped in a situation they do not want but cannot …show more content…
Apollo goes to even greater lengths, he threatens, “I command you to fear…from Zeus and me” (Eumenides , Lines 713-714), he then goes on to bribe the jury, hinting that he treats well, “the man who shows [him] worship” (Eumenides , Line 725). In similar fashion, before the jurors vote Athena herself exclaims to the jurors, “I am always for the male” (Eumenides , Line 737). In addition, the ballot vote for Orestes’ fate was, “In equal number for each side” (Eumenides , Line 751), perhaps the amount of jurors was another coy by Athena to choose the verdict that would align with her prejudices. Among the threats and biases, the jurors of Athens also renounced justice. However, their immorality allowed them to be beneficiaries. By giving up the fair execution of justice, based on the aforementioned drama, Athens protected itself from Apollo’s wrath and that of Athena’s. It also indirectly gained more patron deities, after Athena placated the Furies’ wrath with flattery and gifts, “For you have not been beaten…singing all follow our footsteps” (Eumenides , Lines
For in this play, revenge emerges as something problematic, something which, rather than upholding and restoring the polis (city), is threatening to engulf it in an unending cycle of destruction, until the most powerful city in the Greek world is full of corpses and vultures. Consequently, one of the principal purposes of the first play is to force us to recognize that justice based on revenge creates special difficulties which it cannot solve, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” (Mahatma Gandhi). To use one of the most important images in the play, the city is caught in a net from which there seems to be no escape, “For it endured its life’s end in desolation and tears and the piteous blood of its people” (Agamemnon, Lines713-715). The traditional revenge ethic has woven a cycle of necessary destruction around the city, and those caught in the mesh feel trapped in a situation they do not want but cannot …show more content…
Apollo goes to even greater lengths, he threatens, “I command you to fear…from Zeus and me” (Eumenides , Lines 713-714), he then goes on to bribe the jury, hinting that he treats well, “the man who shows [him] worship” (Eumenides , Line 725). In similar fashion, before the jurors vote Athena herself exclaims to the jurors, “I am always for the male” (Eumenides , Line 737). In addition, the ballot vote for Orestes’ fate was, “In equal number for each side” (Eumenides , Line 751), perhaps the amount of jurors was another coy by Athena to choose the verdict that would align with her prejudices. Among the threats and biases, the jurors of Athens also renounced justice. However, their immorality allowed them to be beneficiaries. By giving up the fair execution of justice, based on the aforementioned drama, Athens protected itself from Apollo’s wrath and that of Athena’s. It also indirectly gained more patron deities, after Athena placated the Furies’ wrath with flattery and gifts, “For you have not been beaten…singing all follow our footsteps” (Eumenides , Lines