Greek Drama · Part 4 · Aeschylus · C1
Aeschylus: The Eumenides
Part 4 of Greek Drama: the last play of the Oresteia. Orestes has killed his mother to avenge his father, and the Furies, ancient spirits of vengeance, hunt him across the world. In Athens, the goddess Athena does something new: she sets up a court with a jury of citizens to judge him. The votes are equal. Her decision ends the cycle of revenge, and the Furies become the “Kindly Ones”. The language of law and the courtroom, persuasion and argument (it could be argued that, on the other hand, the evidence shows), with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
Agamemnon killed his daughter. His wife killed him. In the second play, their son Orestes came home and killed his mother. Each murder demanded another. Tonight, in the last play, something has to break the chain.
That is exactly Aeschylus’ answer, Philo. The goddess Athena brings Orestes before the first court with a jury, in Athens itself. Tonight we hold the trial with them: the prosecution, the defence, the votes, and the verdict.
In the second play of the trilogy, The Libation Bearers, Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, returns home in disguise, is recognised by his sister Electra, and, on the orders of the god Apollo, kills his mother Clytemnestra and her lover. At once the Furies (Erinyes) appear: ancient, terrifying female spirits who punish those who shed the blood of their own family.
In The Eumenides, Orestes flees to Apollo’s temple at Delphi and then to Athens. There Athena refuses to judge the case alone. She chooses a jury of Athenian citizens and founds a court on the hill of the Areopagus, which will judge cases of murder forever. The Furies prosecute; Apollo defends Orestes. The jury’s votes are equal, and Athena casts the deciding vote for acquittal: when votes are equal, the accused goes free.
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