Justice Was Revenge

A detailed Summary of Justice Was Revenge

The Greek playwright Aeschylus explores the theme of justice in The Oresteia, a compilation of three plays, which traces the progress of justice. Agamemnon, the earliest play in the trilogy, portrays justice as revenge. Aeschylus' vivid imagery depicts Agamemnon returning home from the battle of Troy only to be savagely murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra. According to the old law of ancient times, when a blood relative is murdered the next of kin must avenge that murder. Consequently, in the second play titled The Choephoroe, Orestes must avenge his father's murder, but in order to do so he must murder his own mother. Nonetheless, according to this logic, "the Erinyes will punish him for the murder of his mother, but if he should fail to avenge his father, they will punish him" (211). This creates an interesting dilemma for the young protagonist. Aeschylus injects a ray of hope into this bloodstained collection by creating a feasible resolution. The third play, Eum!

enides, endeavors to satisfy the Erinyes and the humans by transforming justice as revenge into civic justice. The Oresteia's representation of justice simply as revenge in the first play shifts to become a justice based upon ethics

This setting leads to an inevitable meeting between the old gods, the Furies and the new gods, the Olympians, who "detest the Furies" (221). The Furies advocate the old traditions of "an eye for an eye" while the Olympians desire new traditions, where judges and juries decide the fates of wrongdoers. A case results where the Furies are the prosecutors and Apollo is the defender and Athene is the judge. When the jury is induced to vote the result is a tie. Athene must cast the deciding vote and considering that Athene "belongs altogether to her father" (256) she votes in favor of Orestes. She does not sympathize with Clytemnestra for she had no mother. When a statue of Zeus' head was smashed Athene rose up out of the head, so she was never born. She frees Orestes by voting in his favor. The Furies believe "the house of Justice is falling" (240), but Athene mollifies the Furies by renaming them "The Kindly Ones" and promising that alters will be set up in Athens to rever!

Aeschylus' The Oresteia intertwines a theme that is easily conceivable to those analyzing the plays for its universal meaning-justices progression through time. The Oresteia presents a logical progression of justice. The first play, Agamemnon is a play saturated with ambiguous characters like Clytemnestra and deadly finality. The revenge ethic is a method that Aeschylus uses to modify archaic beliefs and to show how those beliefs can be modified to appease everyone involved. The Choephoroe introduces a son, Orestes, who must battle with inner turmoil, as well as, the supernatural powers of the gods. He must kill his mother to avenge his father with the knowledge that he will inevitably be pursued by the Furies. Eumenides resolves all of the issues battling throughout the previous plays. Orestes is set free and the Furies are contented with their newly acquired veneration. In the end, "all came clear with the rays of dawn" (40). All is revealed in the final play, when !

dies to the chorus, justifies the murder, citing her daughter's sacrifice, and realizes despairingly that she will not escape retribution when she dreams of her death. In like fashion, Orestes shows the bodies to the Chorus, attempts to justify himself by saying, "It was with justice that I pursued this killing" (188), and begins to break down when he sees "his mother's wrathful hounds, the Erinyes" (193). In these cycles, Aeschylus depicts emotions leading to revenge and then reason contemplating that they did something wrong.

hat her son, Orestes, is dead she "assumes a look of sorrow, hiding inside her eyes the mirth she felt" (173). With the knowledge that her son is dead she can live without the fear of being avenged by her own son. Unfortunately, she does not realize that this is a false message. Thus, it is apparent that her ambiguity is one of her most emphasized character traits.

Hence, in the second play of The Oresteia, titled The Choephoroe, Orestes is faced with the dilemma of either killing his mother, whom he has not seen for seven years, or being haunted for a lifetime by the ghost of his dead father. Yet "what payment can

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Category: History