Oresteia Essays

Blood for blood – a life for a life: this is the form of justice that exists in Aeschylus’s 2500-year-old trilogy, The Oresteia. But there are many kinds of justice, and Aeschylus explores its many forms: Familial and ensconced in law, reciprocal and democratic. Our modern world has organised justice – we have law courts and jurors, murder as manslaughter, conspiracy, association and attempted but Aeschylus asks: can there be one right way to determine justice? This underlying theme along with the

individuals. Aeschylus uses The Oresteia in order to explore these issues as characters in the play try to determine what it means to be just, what ought a just actor do, and what is the best model for achieving justice. The characters discuss ideas such as vengeance, reciprocity, balance, moderation, and finally the end result of the implied debate leads to a jury system. In this paper I will go over two of the several different interpretations of justice used in the Oresteia and compare and contrast

Hannah Terwin HIST 101 032 21 September 2014 Oresteia Essay The Oresteia: What is Justice? Aeschylus’ trilogy The Oresteia is one riddled with striking instances of vengeance; the plot is sparked from Clytaemnestra’s determination to avenge the murder of her daughter, and the spiraling of events only coils downwards to a messy myriad of retaliation and reprisal. Characters seek to make right the wrongs done unto them; blood is spilt, accusations are thrown, and a familial feud escalates to

Since the beginning of time, vengeance or retribution has been part of the human condition. This is chiefly true in Aeschylus's trilogy the Oresteia. One of the underlying themes in these works is the concept of “an eye for an eye” (Hammurabi). Atreus and Thyestes start the blood feud of retribution when Atreus tricks Thyestes into consuming the cooked flesh of his own children. It is then that Agamemnon, son of Atreus, and Aegisthus, the only surviving son of Thyestes, open up this series of misfortunate

family, death, gender, and justice. Plato’s The Republic also has themes like justice, morality, education, and wisdom. These two texts have helped define people and how they will act towards one another in their community. Gender is a big theme in Oresteia. Aeschylus has shown that his view of society is having men in charge. When the play was first written in 458 B.C. it was a time where the male was shown as the superior role over females. Even though they are portrayed as the better gender in this

In the play the libation bearers of the Oresteia trilogy, there arises vengeance that transfers over from the play Agamemnon. There is a celebrated meeting in the play where Electra meets her long lost brother Orestes for the first time. Nevertheless, this is a story of tragedy, because they have to kill their mother. In Greek justice Orestes has the right to kill his mother for the killing of his father. He will question his rights and actions to actually kill his mother. The impact of vengeance

when it comes to people basing actions from emotional distress. When referring to revenge, people tend to feel no remorse once they have been wronged by someone especially someone they love. Throughout the three different stories told in Aeschylus’s Oresteia, the reader can learn how each person seeking revenge ends up as the victim due to their actions taken as personal gain of power. Agamemnon is the first example of personal gain of winning a war through sacrifice of his daughter. This sacrifice would

In the trilogy The Oresteia, Aeschylus shows the never ending cycle of violence within the house of Atreus. The cycle acts as a “net” entrapping Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Orestes, and many other characters. This net has not only encapsulated characters but it also produces actions throughout the play provoking the audience to think of several different conflicted loyalties. Specifically, the rendezvous between Clytemnestra and the chorus highlights right versus wrong, self-help justice (in the form

Illusions, Imagery and Manipulation In John Lewin’s adaptation of Aeschylus’ Oresteia, many situations throughout establish a lasting tone that characterize the ideas and situations being presented, figurative language and imagery are used very actively throughout all three acts on the Oresteia that depict a lasting tension between the characters. Throughout this trilogy, the characters are characterized directly and indirectly through their words and actions. The poetic language used throughout

When observing the series of events that transpire throughout the course of The Oresteia, the three plays, we do see something of a fixation on revenge, taking vengeance for being wronged in many different scenarios, many of them resulting in deaths. In many of these situations, vengeance serves as their form of justice, though whether they are one and the same is the question. The expression goes that "An eye for an eye makes the world go blind" but another saying says that "Justice is blind"

Aeschylus, Oresteia, Loeb Classical Library 146, Edited and Translated by Alan H. Sommerstein This version of the myth of Orestes is made of three parts, each detailing an episode of the matricide and the punishment of Orestes and Electra. I will pay a closer look to the first book, Libation Bearers, and the last one, Orestes. The first book witnesses the murder of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, while the last part depicts Orestes’s descending into madness, followed by furies,

The Oresteia is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by ancient Greek playwright and tragedian Aeschylus. Consisting of Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides, The Oresteia follows the story of the curse on the House of Atreus. It is considered Aeschylus’s finest work and is the only existing example of an ancient Greek theatre trilogy in western literature. This essay will discuss the portrayal, significance and development of the oikos in The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus through the

will conclude whose vengeance was more acceptable. Excerpts from Earl Showerman, a Shakespearean expert and excerpts from Aeschylus The Oresteia and Shakespeare's Hamlet will support who was more justified in avenging their father. Going over the characters stories is important in deciding on whose vengeance is more justified. First events in The Oresteia, in Agamemnon, Orestes father, Agamemnon was killed by his wife Clytemnestra and her new lover Aegisthus. The reason Agamemnon sacrificed

The Oresteia is a play that is filled with conflict, and malice. In the first play, Agamemnon, The king Agamemnon and his wife Clytemnestra are at ends because Agamemnon killed their daughter. Although Agamemnon has his own flaws and sins, I think that he is a better person than Clymestrea. But what does it mean to be a good person? I think that a good person is someone who is selfless, loyal, and loving. Clytemnestra shows none of these traits. Agamemnon was selfless. This is apparent when he sacrificed

In The Eumenides, Orestes’s crime of killing his mother is unfairly punished by the Athena and her men, and it reveals the injustice done to Orestes’s mother Clytaemnestra. The story starts off by Lord Apollo and the Furies arguing for the justice Clytaemnestra’s murder. Both of them have completely different view of the situation, Apollo and Orestes both argue that what the latter did was just, since Clytaemnestra killed Orestes’s father unjustly. On the other hand, the Furies wholly disagree to

Manipulation: the skillful handling, controlling or using of something or someone. Throughout John Lewin's adaptation of Aeschylus' three-part Oresteia, the characters utilize the art of manipulation in order to achieve their own ends. This form of persuasion is first seen in the words of Queen Clytemnestra in her initial aim to take revenge upon the murderer of her child; then to condemn the son that slew her. Mortals are not alone in these acts of manipulation. Both the ancient and young deities

Within the Greek myths and mythos the gods and goddesses, although human, are all powerful and all knowing. Disobeying or angering these mighty beings always leads to a negative outcome. From Athena turning Arachne into a spider for boosting about being better. To Leto sending Apollo and Artemis to kill Niobe’s 12 children for boosting about bearing more children then her. Not even Oedipus in Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex is spared from the gods’ wrath. There are many symbols that reveal how a possible

Lauren Arant Mr. McInnis English IV 19 February 2018 The Medieval View of Courtly Love in “The Knight’s Tale” Courtly love can mean different things for different poets, genres, and periods. During The Medieval Times in western Europe, poets wrote in the courts of nobility and developed a new approach to love. In the Medieval Times, the new approach to love was called Courtly Love. The medieval view of Courtly Love is evident in “The Knight’s Tale” by chivalry, the rules of Courtly Love, and the

HOSEA The prophet Hosea lived in the kingdom of northern Israel in the eighth century B.C., a time of great political change and struggle. The Hebrew monarchy felt the need to make political alliances with pagan kings to keep Israel on friendly terms with other nations. Individual Hebrews often married or in business deals with pagans, were attracted to the sexual rites in the pagan fertility temple. Of particular danger to the Hebrew faith were the cults of the storm god Baal, the Lord of the Winds

The Orestes Plays are a trilogy of Greek tragedies written in 458 BCE by Aeschylus. The plays have remained relevant because they are one of the only complete Greek tragedies remaining and it is very easy to relate to the characters as we share the same neurological structures that Aeschylus targeted for the audience it was originally performed for. The second of the Orestes Plays of Aeschylus titled, The Libation Bearers, features the protagonist Orestes, who is persuaded by Apollo to seek revenge