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The Oresteia Character Analysis

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The Oresteia by Aeschylus, is a series of three Greek tragedies centered around the Atreides Curse. This curse began with King Tantalus, a son of Zeus, feeding the Gods his son, Pelops, and Demeter who was so distraught over her missing daughter, did not realize her meal was human. The first play in the Oresteia begins with Agamemnon arriving home from Troy with two slaves. His wife, Clytemnestra forces him to walk upon a red carpet and later kills him and his slaves whilst he is in the bath. The second tragedy consists of Orestes killing Aegisthus and his mother in order to take revenge. Orestes is then attacked by Furies, symbolizing the wrath and vengeance by tormenting Orestes for the rest of his life. The final play consists of Orestes pleading to Athena for help, in order to release the Furies whom have taken it upon themselves to take revenge for Clytemnestra. Athena holds a trial at Athens, to determine if Orestes was correct for enacting his revenge, and comes to the conclusion that he is. Thus, the Furies are to be kept at Athens and become goddesses called the Eumenides and will help good people and yet torture bad people. In the aftermath of this book the Achaeans evolved from a revenge issued form of justice, to a more civil, modern day one. Agamemnon begins with Agamemnon murdering his daughter, Iphigenia, before heading off to the battle of Troy. “Yes, he had the heart to sacrifice his daughter, to bless the war that avenged a woman’s loss, a bridal rite …show more content…

Thus, the plays suggest that murders would continuously happen without the use of the court system to determine whether the defendant is guilty or innocent. Ultimately, the trilogies ended us with a modern day use of justice, rather than the anger-driven revenge format, that had occurred

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