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Sunday, October 21, 2018

Whu the moral outrage is missing in the Oresteia

The Eumenides, the 3rd part of Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy, is probably also the least accessible to contemporary readers (or viewers, if this is ever staged anywhere); Orestes, pursued by the eponymous Eumenides, or The Furies, who hound him about his assassination of his mother to avenge her killing of his father. As noted yesterday, there is a psychological aspect to this drama, as the Furies represent the torment in the mind of someone guilty or shamed about his action. The hounding and pursuit of O becomes a cause celebre among the Gods, as, if I have this right (and I probably don't) Athene comes to his defense arguing that the killing was a justified act of revenge and Appolo supporting the Furies, arguing that killing one's blood kin is a more treacherous act that a spousal murder. The matter is handed over to a jury - a silent chorus, in this play - that ends up split 6 to 6. Faced with this dilemma, the Gods agree to free O and to act in consort from then on in support of the House of Atreus - in other words, this play is political, and dramatization of the greatness of Athens, founded on a base of bloody murder but blessed by the Gods, a feel-good show for the B.C audience. So dramatically, the problem with this play is that the protagonist takes no action, he's the passive benefactor of a decision that the Gods make about his fate. The problem morally or ethically is that the whole spree of murders begins with Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter to appease the Gods as he sets out for the war in Troy. Can we blame is wife, Clytemestra, for exacting revenge even 10 years later? What kind of man kills his own daughter for any reason, and what kind of God will demand and accept a human sacrifice? This element of the trilogy seems just pushed aside by the end, never even, as far as I recall, mentioned by either the Furies or by Orestes. At least in the O.T., God calls it off; here, human sacrifice is part of the royal household cost of living. But for the benefit of whom?

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