An Introduction to Greek Theatre

Aeschylus

Aeschylus is the first of the three great Athenian playwrights (which include Euripides and

Sophocles). He was born at Eleusis in 525 and died in Gela, Sicily, in 456 BC. Aeschylus served

as a soldier in the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, at Artemisium and Salamis in 480 and at Plataea in 479. Even before these landmark battles, Aeschylus was a successful playwright: He produced his first play in 499 and, in 476/5, was invited to Sicily, by Hieron of Syracuse, where he produced The Women of Aitna. The following are the first few pages of the introduction to the 1922 Loeb edition, by the translator, Herbert Weir Smyth. While it constitutes a very nice essay on the life and works of Aeschylus, we must read in consideration of the time it was written: It tells us as much about attitudes towards Classical Greece in 1922 as it does about Aeschylus, and it shows us, as is its purpose, the almost religious devotion to, and admiration for, Athenian dramatic literature that was typical of a classical scholar of the time. Smyth is showing off: he has written an encomium, a genre of literature typical in the ancient world in which the author sings the praises of his subject while flaunting his own skills. [p. vii of the original]1 Of the periods of the world's history signalized by national aspiration and achievement, and at the same time fraught with a spiritual significance reflected in the mind of a master poet, the age of Aeschylus holds a foremost place together with the age of Shakespeare. Imagination bodied forth in poetry of the loftiest order found, alike in Hellas in the earlier part of the fifth century and in England under Elizabeth, its inspiration and ideal in the living present. The life of the Greek dramatist fell upon times of external and internal unrest, times of vivid emotions, of joy and wonder and hope, when the Athenian as an individual first discovered himself, first surveyed the spectacle of life with intellectual interest and in self- reliance, and with high spirit and impassioned energy engaged in keen struggle for his personal and national existence in confident expectation of an adequate reward, and with an ever-present recognition of his obligations to the commonwealth. It was the age of expansion and aggrandizement, the age that witnessed events that proved the resolution and the valour of Athens when she cast aside her timidity under despotism. In the lifetime of the poet Athens expelled the tyrant of the house of Peisistratus, reformed the constitution under

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1 For the purposes of citation, I have included the page numbers from the Loeb text. 3

Cleisthenes so that it now enlisted the support of all her citizens, and established a polity ensuring to the State a free course to further self-development into a true democracy. In his lifetime too the city acquired a material strength entitling it to take a commanding part as an international power in the triumph of Greece over the despotic barbarism that for a generation had menaced it with annihilation of its political existence. In this triumph the countrymen of the poet had displayed heroic self-sacrifice and indomitable courage. And when the Persian peril had passed, and the possibility of the return of the arbitrary lawlessness of tyranny was for ever removed, the later life of the poet witnessed the rebuilding of Athens, whose temples and homes had been razed by the invader, and at its close the beginning of those strongly conflicting currents of the older and the newer political life as the democracy was shaping its victorious course under the captainship of Pericles. In his youth the Athens of Aeschylus was a petty cantonal State ruled by the uncontrolled will of a despot; at his death, her citizens were warring simultaneously in Asia, in Egypt, in Cyprus; her fleet commanded the Aegean, and she was moving steadily toward an empire won and maintained by sea-power. Aeschylus is the only Athenian representative in literature of this age crowded with events of far-reaching importance both for the city-state, and for the larger world, an age represented in war and statesmanship by such giant figures as Miltiades, Themistocles, Aristeides, and Cimon ; in painting, sculpture, and the ceramic art by Polygnotus, Myron,

[p. ix] and Brygus; each of whom pad responded to the intense stimulus offered by his environment. Aeschylus was not merely a spectator, he was a participant in the impulses and mighty movements of the period, and helped to make his times in a far different way than his contemporaries Simonides and Bacchylides. Even as Homer mirrors the conflicts of an earlier age in an art characterized by exuberant fancy and spontaneous feeling, so Aeschylus mirrors the second great period of Greek thought as he presents the more reflective spirit of Attic national life as it was engendered by the war in defence of national independence. Liberty, won by revolution, had awakened the Athenian people to self-consciousness and stimulated it to inaugurate self-government under freedom safeguarded by law enacted by a sovereign people. Ideas of justice and the divine regulation of the world now acquired a significance hitherto unknown to a population largely agrarian. The barriers of that narrower, provincial world had now been swept away. Men, drawn together by external danger, experienced an impulse toward spiritual unity, heretofore unknown, and even an active sentiment of unanimity, which was soon however to be dissolved under the centrifugal influences of Greek political action. From the transformation in the external world of politics and society, the defeat of barbarian insolence, the momentary unification of the defenders of the freedom of Greece, Aeschylus may well have been led to his conception of the evolution of mankind, and of the gods themselves, proceeding from tyranny to liberty, from struggle to peace, from discord to harmony. To the confusions of anarchy

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and barbarism succeeds the equity that is the basis of law and order. But this transformation of the older Athens was scarcely more rapid or more profound than that of the tragic art under the hand of its true founder. The art of literature, as that of architecture and sculpture, displayed at this period a rapidity of evolution unequalled in history. Aeschylus exhibited his first play in 499, only thirty years after Peisistratus, who tempered tyranny with patronage of the arts, had established, as a public institution, the annual contest in tragedy at the festival of the City Dionysia. In this contest Thespis, reputed the first tragic poet, whose plays had heretofore been produced at village celebrations, won the prize. Aeschylus' first victory was gained in 484, four years before the battle of Salamis, and from that date till his death in 456 he was the master tragic poet of his time. The art as he received it, we may conjecture in the absence of all remains, consisted almost exclusively of choral songs varied with interludes of narrative, together with some brief dialogue between the leader of the chorus and a character impersonated by a single actor, whose introduction was due to the genius of Thespis. Plot, in the later sense, genuine advance in the action, and character-drawing were absent. The art, as he left it, had well- nigh attained to its fullest capacity of original expression. From Homer and Hesiod and the Cyclic poets, from elegiac, iambic, and melic poetry, especially that of Stesichorus, from ancient books of sententious wisdom and the earlier and contemporary writers in prose who dealt with the traditionary myths, Aeschylus derived his

[p.xi] mythology and the fabric of his fables, into which he breathed the breath of his own spirit and through which he found expression for his own thought on things human and divine. More by virtue of his imagination, his moral and religious feeling, and his brooding thought than by virtue of his reason and his intellect, he fashioned heroic personages into dramatic characters charged with will and passion, and whose motives, deliberately conceived, impelled the action forward; characters, even when individual, none the less contemporaneous with every age because typical of universal humanity. Greater, however, than the poet's power to stamp his single persons with individuality is his ability to sweep a wider horizon and to depict the characters of whole families and even of a whole people. His interest is less in the individual than in the family or national group in whose fortunes the individual is involved. The poetic gift native in him, an Athenian, his contact with life at a period of stimulating political and social convulsion, when man had attained to a sense of his spiritual no less than his political liberty, could find expression only in an art, which, though but just created, voiced as no other the instinct of his age and race. That art alone possessed the power to reflect the collective spirit of the intensified life of a free commonwealth that had no counterpart in the society depicted by the great epic poet, whose story of war and adventure still commanded the admiration of vast assemblies at the rival concourses of the rhapsodes. The myths, still darkly obscure from the twilight of their births, he refined in the light of the clarifying spirit of a faith based alike on reason and on piety.

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In the myths and legends of the race he discovered an ethical and religious content: he transformed them into problems of human destiny or of the divine righteousness: Prometheus suffers, Io suffers, before our eyes; and instantly we are made to confront the question whether the lord of Olympus is a just god. He naturalized himself in those high altitudes of thought and emotion whence he could survey the springs of good and evil, the mysterious agencies of the fate that makes man's character its instrument, the relation of punishment to sin, the meaning of suffering, the dealings of God with man, and the essential unity of the divine purpose. With these lofty themes he dealt primarily as an artist not as a preacher; and he discloses inconsistencies that forbid our ascribing to him any exclusive or deliberate philosophic or religious system of belief. Neither mystagogue nor philosopher moulded his spirit to mystery of dogma. Greater than his work was the man, greatest of his coevals, though the work is the distillation of a mind of spiritual grandeur, and burdened, in its ancient way, with the mystery of all the unintelligible world. Philosophy in Aeschylus' day had ceased to be the province of the solitary searcher into the causes of things. Except when, as in the case of Pythagoras, religion was associated with physics, the Ionian thinkers included man in their speculations only in so far as he constituted a part of nature. Aeschylus found in man the centre of gravity of the world, in man, whose mind, experience, and action are implicated alike in his environment and in those far-off influences that descend to him from successive

[p.xiii] generations of his ancestors. He had some inkling of the complexity of the causes underlying human events. He could, in the Prometheus at least, find the central germ for tragic action in motive developed pre-eminently from within. He has not indeed harmonized the discordant elements of life, but the keystone of his fully developed art is his recognition of the causal connexion of character, deed, and catastrophe. If he has less variety than Euripides and even than Sophocles, he sees life more as a unity than they. He related the eternal verities of the ancient wisdom of the race, the maxims of conventional ethics, to the life of man as it acts and suffers; and at the same time he displayed the universality of their application in the personages of the heroic past. Step by step, and by repeated trials, availing himself of the more favourable conditions in the State after the conclusion of the Persian war, he mastered the technique of his art, whose more mechanical (but none the less spiritual) forms, music and the dance, he developed to the highest perfection they enjoyed in connexion with ancient dramatic art. He gave to tragedy its directing principle in substituting for the choral the more vivid dramatic element, which alone could bring into high relief the impulse and the judgment inspiring human action. He created, it seems, the larger unities of trilogy and tetralogy, which, when formed of plays interconnected by the myth, each a drama comprising a complete action, yet itself only a part of a greater whole, embody the loftiest conceptions 6

of Greek dramatic genius. To Aeschylus belongs in fact the distinction of shaping a nascent art into the grand form: ἄπαν δ' εὑρόντος ἒργον. 1 He

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abridged the effect of time in obliterating the work of his predecessors. His successors might work in the light of his achievements, their understanding and their imagination largely set in motion by his own. He owed the direction of his craftsmanship to none greater than himself. He was, in a word, the legislator of the tragedy of the world. He did not seek to make his art conform to the taste of the day but to ennoble that taste in the light of an ideal world. Scanning farther horizons he dedicated his work to Time, which his contemporary Pindar called the "lord of the immortals," and "the best protector of just men."

The Oresteia In 458 BC Aeschylus produced the Oresteia trilogy which includes Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides. The overall theme of the trilogy is vendetta; the first two plays demonstrating the endless bloodshed, the endless cycle of vengeance, that the vendetta system propagates, and the third, Eumenides, proposing a solution through the submission of the individual to the will of the community. But each play within the trilogy has its own theme(s) and its own political agenda. Agamemnon In the Agamemnon, the conqueror of Troy returns home only to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra. The first half of the play deals with two themes: The Hybris - Ate - Nemesis cycle; and guilt, both earned and inherited.2 Agamemnon is guilty for the murder/sacrifice of his own daughter, Iphigenia; and he is also polluted by the curse on his family: Atreus, the father of Agamemnon, had murdered his own nephews, the sons of his brother/rival, Thyestes. The play opens with the news reaching Argos3 that Troy has fallen. The Chorus - a group of Argive elders - then summarizes the background story: Ten years previous, the Greek army was gathered at Aulis, waiting for fair winds to take the fleet to Troy: [184] So then the captain of the Achaean ships, the elder of the two,4 holding no seer at fault, bending to the adverse blasts of fortune, what time the Achaean folk, on the shore

1 Trans: "having created the genre as a whole." In other words, Aeschylus defined the art of dramatic literature in its entirety. 2 Griffiths, 1991: 50. 3 Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae, but in the Classical Period writers used Argos as a generic term to refer to the area. 4 Agamemnon was older than Menelaus. 7 over against Chalcis [190] in the region where Aulis' tides surge to and fro, were sore distressed by opposing winds and failing stores; and the breezes that blew from the Strymon, bringing them grievous leisure, hunger, and tribulation of spirit in a cruel port, driving the men distraught, and sparing nor ship [195] nor cable, by doubling the season of their stay, began to wither by wasting the flower of Argos;1 and when the seer, urging Artemis as cause, proclaimed to the chieftains another remedy, [200] more grievous even than the bitter storm, so that the sons of Atreus smote the ground with their staves and stifled not their tears.2

[205] Then the elder king spoke and said: " Hard is my fate to refuse obedience, and hard, if I must slay my child, the glory of my home, and at the altar-side stain with streams of a virgin's blood a father's hand. Which of these courses is not fraught with ill? How can I become a deserter to my fleet and fail my allies in arms? [215] For that they should with passionate eagerness crave a sacrifice to lull the winds - even a virgin's blood - stands within their right. May all be for the best."

But when he had donned the yoke of Necessity, with veering of spirit, [220] impious, unholy, unsanctified, from that hour his purpose shifted to resolve that deed of uttermost audacity. For mankind is emboldened by wretched delusion, counsellor of ill, primal source of woe. So then he hardened his heart to sacrifice his daughter [225] that he might prosper a war waged to avenge a woman, and as an offering for the voyaging of a fleet!

The Chorus has related the story of the sacrifice of Iphigenia to emphasise both the nature of Agamemnon and the motivation for Clytemnestra. After a speech by Clytemnestra warning of the dangers of impiety and wishing the Greek forces a safe journey home, the Chorus responds with an explanation for the victory: It was because of Paris' violation of divine laws that Zeus allowed the destruction of Troy: But this section might be as much about Agamemnon as it is about Paris: [367] "The stroke of Zeus" they may call it; 'tis his hand that can be traced therein. As he determines, so he acts. It hath been said by someone that the gods deign not to be mindful" of mortals who trample underfoot the grace of inviolable sanctities. But that man knew not the fear of God! Now it stands revealed [375] how ruin is the penalty for reckless crime when men breathe a spirit of pride above just measure for that their mansions teem with abundance surpassing their best good. But let there be such portion of wealth as brings no distress, [380] so that he who has a good share of sound sense may have a sufficiency therewith. For riches are no bulwark to the man who in wantonness has spurned from his sight the mighty altar of Righteousness. [385] No, he is driven on by perverse Temptation, the overmastering child of designing Destruction; and remedy is utterly in vain.

And again:

1 Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae, but here, and in Homer, the entire region is referred to as Argos. 2 Artemis demanded that Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia. 8

[763] But old Hubris is like to bring forth in evil men, or soon or late, at the fated hour of birth, a young Hubris and that spirit irresistible, unconquerable, unholy, even Recklessness (Até), black Curses unto the household, and like are they to their parents.

Agamemnon enters, riding on a chariot with Cassandra by his side, and Clytemnestra has a purple tapestry spread over the ground from the palace door to the chariot. But Agamemnon is suspicious: [918] … pamper me not after woman's wise, nor, like some barbarian, [920] grovel to me with wide mouthed acclaim; and draw not down envy upon my path by strewing it with tapestries. 'Tis the gods we must honour thus; but for a mortal to tread upon broidered fineries is, to my judgment, not without ground for dread. [925] I bid thee revere me not as a god, but as a man. Fame needs no carpeting and broideries to make her loud proclaim; to think no folly is Heaven's best gift. Only when man's life comes to its end in prosperity dare we pronounce him happy; [930] and if in all things so I might prosper, I have good courage.

Agamemnon and Clytemnestra go into the palace but Cassandra refuses to leave the chariot.

CASSANDRA: [1080] Apollo, Apollo! God of the Ways, my destroyer! For you have destroyed me, and utterly, this second time.1

CHORUS: She is about to prophesy, methinks, touching her own miseries. The gift divine still abides even in the soul of one enslaved.

CASSANDRA: Apollo, Apollo God of the Ways, my destroyer! Ah, what way is this that thou hast brought me! To what a house!

CHORUS: To that of Atreus' sons. If thou dost not perceive this, I'll tell it thee. And thou shalt not say 'tis untrue.

CASSANDRA: Nay, nay, rather to a house of Heaven loathed, a house that knows many a horrible butchery of kin, a human shambles and a floor swimming with blood.

1 Apollo gave Cassandra the gift of prophesy, but he also cursed her so that she appeared to be insane. 9

Cassandra then explains her visions to the Chorus: She see that Clytemnestra has taken a lover and that these two are about to kill Agamemnon. Cassandra also sees that Clytemnestra intends to kill her. Resolved to her fate, Cassandra then enters the palace and the screams of Agamemnon can be heard from within. Finally, Clytemnestra emerges and the bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra are brought out. Cassandra boasts of the deed and when the Chorus challenges her she replies:

CLYTEMNESTRA: [1412] Would you now condemn me to exile from the land, to the hatred of my people and the execration of the public voice; though then you had not to urge against him that lies here. And yet he, reckoning no more than if it had been a beast that perished - though sheep were plenty in his fleecy folds - he sacrificed his own child, even her I bore with dearest travail, to charm the blasts of Thrace. Is it not he whom you should have banished from this land [1420] in requital for his polluting deed? No! When you arraign what I have done, you are a stern judge. Well, I ''warn you; menace me thus on the understanding that I am prepared, conditions equal, to let you lord it over me if you shall vanquish me by force. But if a god shall bring the contrary to pass, [1425] you shall learn discretion though taught the lesson late.

CHORUS: Haughty of spirit you are and overbearing is your speech. Even as your mind is maddened by your deed of blood, upon your face a stain of blood shows full plain to behold. Bereft of all honour, forsaken of your friends, [1430] you will hereafter atone for stroke with stroke.

CLYTEMNESTRA: Hear this too, this the righteous sanction of my oath: By Justice, exacted for my child, by Ate and the Erinyes,1 unto whom I sacrificed that man, hope does not tread for me the halls of fear, [1435] so long as the fire upon my hearth is kindled by Aegisthus,2 loyal in heart to me as in days gone by. For he is no slight shield of confidence to me. Here lies the man that did me wrong, minion of each Chryseis at Ilium;3 [1440] and here she lies, his captive, and auguress, and concubine, his oracular faithful bedfellow, yet equally familiar with the sailor's benches. The pair has met no undeserved fate. For he lies thus; while she, who, like a swan, [1445] has sung her last lament in death, lies here, his beloved; but to me she has brought for my bed an added relish to my luxury.

1 See below, Eumenides. 2 Pelops and Hippodamia had, amongst others, two sons; Atreus and Thyestes. These two brothers became embroiled in a competition for the throne of Mycenae during which Atreus killed three of Thyestes sons and, having butchered the bodies, served the meat to Thyestes at a feast. In revenge, Aegisthus, a surviving son of Thyestes, killed Atreus. This same Aegisthus has now partnered with the Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, son of Atreus, in the current murders. This is a four generation story of revenge after revenge. 3 Chryseis was the daughter of Chryses and had been captured and made the slave-girl of Agamemnon. The Iliad opens with the offer, by Chryses, to ransom his daughter. 10

The play concludes with Aegisthus, nearly coming to blows with the elders of Argos, the Chorus, but finally asserting the tyranny of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, who would rule Argos together - in overt opposition to the will of the community.

CLYTEMNESTRA: [1657] Venerable Elders, go to your homes, and yield betimes to destiny before you come to harm. What we did had to be done. But should this trouble prove enough, we will accept it, sore smitten as we are by the heavy hand of fate. Such is a woman's counsel, if any deign to give it heed.

AEGISTHUS: But to think that these men should let their wanton tongues thus blossom into speech against me and cast about such gibes, putting their fortune to the test! To reject wise counsel and insult their master!

CHORUS: [1665] It would not be like men of Argos to cringe before a knave.

AEGISTHUS: Ha! I'll visit your with vengeance yet in days to come.

CHORUS: Not if fate shall guide Orestes to return home.

AEGISTHUS: Of myself I know that exiles feed on hope.

CHORUS: Keep on, grow thee fat, polluting justice, since you can.

AEGISTHUS: [1670] Know that you shall pay me the penalty to requite your folly.

CHORUS: Brag in your bravery like a cock besides his hen. Care not for their idle yelpings. I and you will be masters of this house and order it aright.

End.

The Libation Bearers The cycle of vengeance continues: In Libation Bearers Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, returns to Argos and, with his sister Electra, manages to kill both Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. The play opens with Orestes and his servant, Pylades, having arrived in Argos at the tomb of Agamemnon: [Scene: The tomb of Agamemnon. Enter Orestes and Pylades]

ORESTES: Hermes of the underworld,1 you who guard the powers that are your father's, prove yourself my saviour and ally, I beg you, now that I have come to this land and am returning home from exile.2 On this mounded grave I pray to my father to listen, [5] to give ear… I bring a lock of my hair to Inachus in requital for my nurture;3 and here, a second, in token of my grief. For I was not present, father, to bewail your death, nor did I stretch forth my hand for your corpse to be borne out to burial. [10] What is it I see? What may be this throng of women that wends its way here marked by their black cloaks? What has happened? Is it some new sorrow that comes upon the house? Or am I right in my surmise that it is in honour of my father that they bear these libations [15] to appease the powers below? It can be only for this cause; for, I think, it is indeed mine own sister Electra who is approaching, conspicuous among the rest by her bitter mourning. Oh grant me, Zeus, to avenge my father's death, and of your grace lend me your aid! [20] Pylades, let us stand apart, that I may learn for certain what this band of suppliant women may be doing.

Orestes and Pylades hide nearby while Electra and her attendants, who form the chorus, enter carrying libations. We learn that they have been sent by Clytemnestra herself who has been troubled by dreams. Electra, however, uses this opportunity to pray for vengeance at her father's tomb and she asks the Chorus to instruct her, to advise her in what sort of prayer she should speak at the tomb. They advise that she pray for justice:

ELECTRA: [124] Herald supreme between the world above and world below, 0h nether Hermes, come to my aid and summon me the spirits beneath the earth to attend my prayers, spirits that keep watch over my father's house, yes, and Earth herself, that brings all things to birth, and, having nurtured them, receives their fruit in turn. And I the while, as I pour these

1 Hermes conducts the souls of the dead to Hades. As messenger god, he communicates between the underworld and heaven. 2 Orestes was sent to live with Strophius in Phocis when Agamemnon left for Troy (Aesch. Agam. 880: Apollod. Epit. 6.24); or when Agamemnon was about to return (Euripides Electra 15 - 20). 3 The Inachus is the main river of Argos, and rivers were worshipped as life-giving gods. 12 lustral offerings to the dead, [130] invoke my father and thus voice my prayer: Have compassion both on me and on dear Orestes! How shall we rule over our own house? For now we are vagrants, as it were, bartered away by her that bare us, by her who in exchange has bought Aegisthus as her mate, even him who was her partner in your murder. [135] As for me, I am no better than a slave, Orestes is an outcast from his inheritance, while they arrogantly and with insolence enjoy the profits of your labour. Yet may Orestes come home - and with happy fortune! This is my prayer to you, and please, father, hear it well. For myself; grant that I may prove in heart [140] more chaste, far more, than my mother and in hand more innocent. These invocations on our behalf; but for our foes I implore that there appear one who will avenge you, father, and that your killers may be killed in just retribution. [145] (This is the way I interrupt my prayer for good, for them uttering this prayer for evil.) But to us be you a bringer of blessings to the upper world by favour of the gods and Earth and Justice crowned with victory." [She pours out the libations] Such are my prayers, and over them I pour out these libations. [150] It is your due service to crown them with flowers of lamentation, raising your voices in a chant for the dead.

The Chorus responds in agreement to Electra's prayer and as they do so Electra discovers the lock of hair left by Orestes:

ELECTRA: [164] My father hath by now received the libations, which the earth hath quaffed. But here is startling news! Share it with me.

CHORUS: Speak on - and yet my heart is dancing with fear.

ELECTRA: I see here a lock, a shorn offering for the tomb.

CHORUS: Who's can it be - some man's or some deep-girdled maid's?

ELECTRA: [170] That is easy to conjecture - anyone may guess.

CHORUS: How then? Let my age be lessened by your youth.

ELECTRA: There is no one who could have shorn it save myself.

CHORUS: 13

Indeed, for enemies are they for whom it would have been proper to make such an offering of their hair.1

ELECTRA: And further, to look upon, it is very like…

CHORUS: [175] Whose hair? That is what I want to learn.

ELECTRA: Our own - yes, very like, to look upon.

CHORUS: Can it then be that Orestes offered it in secret here?

ELECTRA: It is his curling locks that it most resembles.

CHORUS: But how did he venture to come here?

ELECTRA: [180] He has but sent this shorn lock to do honour to his father.

CHORUS: In your words lies still greater cause for tears, if he shall never more set foot upon this land.

ELECTRA: Over my heart, too, there sweeps a surge of bitterness, [185] and I am smitten as if a sword had stabbed me through and through. From my eyes thirsty drops of a stormy flood fall unchecked at sight of this tress. For how can I expect to find that someone else, some townsman, owns this lock? Nor yet in truth did she shear it from her head - [190] she the murderess, my own mother, who towards her children has taken to herself a godless spirit ill according with the name of mother. But, for my part, how am I to assent to this outright - that it adorned the head of him who is dearest to me in all the world, Orestes? Ah no! Hope but flatters me. Ah me! If only, like a messenger, it had a kindly voice so that I were not tossed by my distracted thoughts - but would plainly bid me spurn away this tress, had it been severed from a hated head; or, if it claimed kin to me, would share my grief, [200] an adornment to this tomb and a tribute to my father. But Heaven, which I invoke, knows by what storms we are tossed like men upon the sea. Yet, if it is our fate to win safety, from a little seed may spring a mighty stock.

1 That is to say that only a family member would have done so, and all of the family Electra knows to be in Argos are on the side of Clytemnestra. 14

[205] And look! Why here are tracks - a second proof - these tracks of feet, matching each other - and like my own! Yes, for here are two sorts of footprints, his own and some companion's. The heels and markings of the tendons agree in their proportions with mine own tracks. [210] I am in torment, my brain is in a whirl!

Orestes can't stand her torment and he reveals himself but Electra doubts his identity at first. But once she is convinced, the two begin to plot. Orestes informs Electra that Apollo has commanded him to avenge his father's murder:

ORESTES: [269] Certainly, the mighty oracle of Loxias1 will not abandon me, charging me to brave this peril to the end, and, with loud utterance, proclaiming afflictions chilling my warm heart's blood, if I avenge not my father on the guilty; bidding me, infuriated by the loss of my possessions, slay them in requital even as they slew. [275] And with mine own life, he declared, I should else pay the debt myself by many grievous sufferings. For he spoke revealing to mortals the wrath of malignant powers from underneath the earth, and telling how it causes a sickness with leprous ulcers that eat away the flesh, [280] leaving itchy white scales for skin.2 And of other assaults of the Avenging Spirits3 he spoke, destined to be brought to pass from a father's blood; [285] for the dark arrow of the infernal powers, who are stirred by slain victims of kindred blood calling for vengeance, and both madness and groundless terrors out of the night torment and harass the man, who sees clearly, though he moves his eyebrows in the dark; so that, [290] his body marred by the brazen scourge, he is even chased in exile from his country. For an offender such as this it is not allowed, so the god declared, to have part either in the festal bowl or in the genial draught; his father's wrath, albeit unseen, bars him from the altar; no one receives him or lodges with him; and at last, unhonoured of all, friendless, [295] he perishes, shrivelled pitifully by a death that wastes him utterly away.4 In oracles such as these must I not put my trust? Even if I trust them not, the deed must still be done. For many impulses conspire to one conclusion: [300] besides the god's behest, my keen grief for my father, and withal the pinch of poverty that my countrymen, the most renowned of mankind, who overthrew Troy with gallant spirit, should not thus be at the beck and call of a pair of women; [305] for woman he is at heart; or, if he is not, he shall soon put it to the test. There are two issues here: The pollution, or infection, of guilt needs to be cleansed, and blood avenged with blood. The second issue is often referred to as Blood Feud, Vendetta or Wergild

1 Loxias is an epithet of Apollo, referring to his role as sun god. 2 Greek religious thought held that guilt was like an illness, or virus, that not only made the guilty person physically ill, but was infectious and heritable. 3 The Erinyes, the awful goddesses who bring judgment upon the guilty, especially those who take the life of a family member. 4 Because of this concept of guilt, the Greek legal system had to be based on the assumption of guilt, rather than innocence as with our modern system. People accused of the worst crimes, once the accusation was made, were barred from temples, sanctuaries or the markets until they proved their innocence in court. 15

(from Salic Law). Under the terms of Blood Feud a family member of a person who has been injured or killed must either collect a compensatory sum of money from the family of the perpetrator, or exact vengeance in the form of blood; the death of the perpetrator. This is expressed in the famous Biblical 'eye for an eye' line (Leviticus 24:19-21). The problem with the system is that vengeance is answered with further vengeance and the killing never stops. This is the theme of the third and final play in this series, the Eumenides. The group, Orestes, Electra and the Chorus, devote many lines to the passionate declaration of their right to exact justice and they resolve to act. But Orestes wants more information:

ORESTES: [514] It shall be so. But it is in no wise amiss to enquire how, from what motive, she came to send libations, seeking too late to make requital for a deed past remedy. To the unconscious dead they were a sorry boon to send; their import I cannot guess. The gifts are too paltry for the offence. [520] For, though a man pour out his all in atonement for one deed of blood, it is labour lost; so the saying goes. If indeed you know, answer me; I am anxious to know.

CHORUS: I know, my child, for I was there. It was because she was shaken of heart by reason of dreams and wandering terrors of the night, [525] that she sent these offerings, godless woman that she is.

ORESTES: And have you learnt the nature of the dream enough to give me details?

CHORUS: She dreamed she gave birth to a serpent-such is her own account.

ORESTES: And where ends the tale and what its consummation?

CHORUS: That she laid it to rest, as it were a child, in swaddling bands.

ORESTES: [530] What food did it crave, the new-born, noxious thing?

CHORUS: She herself in her dream offered it her breast.

ORESTES: Surely her nipple was not unwounded by the loathsome beast? 16

CHORUS: No; with the milk it drew clotted blood.

ORESTES: For certain this is not meaningless; the vision means a man!

CHORUS: [535] Then from out her sleep she raised a shriek and awoke appalled; and many a lamp, which had been blinded in the darkness, flared up within the house to cheer our mistress. Thereupon she sent these libations for the dead, in hope that they might prove an effectual cure for her distress.

ORESTES: [540] Well then, I pray to this earth and to my father's grave that this dream come to its fulfilment in me. As I interpret, it fits at every point. For if the snake quitted the same place as I; if it was furnished with my swaddling bands; [545] if it sought to open its mouth to take the breast that nourished me, and with clotted blood mixed the sweet milk, while she for terror shrieked at this: then surely, as she has nourished a portentous thing of horror, so she must die by violence. For I, [550] turned serpent, am her slayer, as this dream declares.

Orestes now has threefold assurance: the direction from Apollo, the law, and his mother's dream all convince him that he can kill her with right and justice. While in Phocis, Orestes learned the local dialect. He plans, then, to gain entry to the palace as a stranger from Phocis with important news. He presents himself at the palace and Clytemnestra comes to the gate: [Enter Clytemnestra]

CLYTEMNESTRA: [668] Strangers, you have only to declare your need; for we have all that befits this house: Warm baths, beds to charm away fatigue, and the presence of honest eyes.1 But if, apart from this, there is matter requiring graver counsel, that is the concern of men, and with them we will communicate.

ORESTES: [674] I am a stranger, a Daulian of the Phocians. As I was on my way, carrying my pack, on business of my own, to Argos - even as I have ended here my journey - a man, a stranger to me as I to him, fell in with me, and enquired my way and told me his. Strophius, a Phocian (for as we talked I learned his name) and he said to me; [680] "Since, in any case, stranger, you are bound for Argos, bear in mind my message most sacredly and say to his parents 'Orestes is dead'. Whether his friends decide to bring him at home or to bury him in the

1 Irony: That very warm bath and those honest eyes are what snared Agamemnon when he arrived home. This sets up a pun below at 999. 17

land of his sojourn, an alien utterly for evermore, [685] convey their bidding back to me. Meantime a bronze urn encloses the ashes of a man mourned right well." This much I tell you as I heard it. Whether by any chance I speak to those with whom the question rests and whose concern it is, I know not; [690] but his parent should know the fact. The ruse works, Orestes is welcomed into the palace and ushered into another room to await Aegisthus, the Chorus remains: [Enter Aegisthus]

AEGISTHUS: [838] I have come not unasked but summoned by a messenger. It is startling tidings that, as I hear, are told by certain strangers who have come, tidings far from welcome: That Orestes is dead. To lay this too upon the house would prove a fearful burden when it is still festering and galled by the wound inflicted by a former murder. How can I deem this tale is the living truth? [845] Or is it but a panic-stricken report spread by women that leaps aloft to die away in nothingness? What canst you tell me about this to make it easier to understand?

CHORUS: We heard the tale, 'tis true-but pass within and make enquiry of the strangers. The sureness of a messenger's report is naught [850] compared with one's own enquiry of the man himself.

AEGISTHUS: I wish to see the messenger and put him to the proof again-whether he himself was present at the death or but repeats from vague report what he has heard. No! Be sure he cannot cheat a mind that's open-eyed.

[Exit Aegisthus] Aegisthus exits, to the room where Orestes awaits. The real action, as is always the case in Aeschylean drama, occurs off-stage. As the Chorus narrates, we hear the screams of Aegisthus from behind the proskyne, and a servant enters announcing the death of Aegisthus. The commotion draws the attention of Clytemnestra:

CLYTEMNESTRA: [885] What's this? What cry for help art thou raising in the house?

SERVANT: The dead are killing the living, I say.

CLYTEMNESTRA: Oh me! I catch the meaning of the riddle. By guile we are to be killed even as we killed. Someone give me a battle-axe, and quick! [890] Let us know if we are victors or vanquished; for even to this have I come in this evil business.

[Exit Servant. The door is opened and the corpse of Aegisthus is discovered. Nearby stands Orestes, and at a distance Pylades]

ORESTES: You, there, you are the one I seek. That man has had enough.

CLYTEMNESTRA: Oh me! Dead, valiant Aegisthus, my beloved!

ORESTES: You loved the man? Then in the same grave you shall lie; [895] and you will never abandon him in death.

CLYTEMNESTRA: Hold, my son! Have pity, child, upon this breast at which full oft, sleeping the while, with toothless gums you did suck the milk that nourished you.

ORESTES: Pylades, what shall I do? Shall I for pity spare my mother?

PYLADES: [900] What then becomes of Loxias' oracles from now on, declared at Pytho, and of our covenant pledged on oath? Count all men your enemies rather than the gods.

ORESTES: I judge you victor; you counsel me well. [To Clytemnestra] Come, this way! By his very side I mean to kill you. [905] And since, while he lived, you held him a better man than my father, sleep with him in death, since he is the man you love, but had hate for him whom you were bound to love.

Clytemnestra pleads her case, to no avail. Interestingly, she never claims to have killed Agamemnon with justification - as she does in the preceding play. Orestes drags her into the room while the Chorus first laments and then celebrates the deed. When Orestes emerges again, with the bodies brought by attendants, he is holding the wreath of a suppliant and Pylades carries the robe of Agamemnon:

ORESTES: [972] Behold this pair, oppressors of the land, who slew my father and made plunder of my house! Majestic they were once when they sat upon their thrones, and loving even now, as one may judge by what has befallen them; and their oath holds true to their pledges. Together they swore a league of death against my unhappy father, and together they swore to die; and well have they kept their oath. [980] But now again behold, you who hear this tragic account, the device for binding fast my unhappy father, wherewith his hands were 19 manacled, his feet were fettered. Spread it out! Stand round in a throng, and display it - a covering for a man, that the Father [985] (not mine, but he that surveys all things in this world, the Sun) may behold the impious work of my own mother; and so on the day I am judged may be present as my witness that with just cause I pursued this death, even my mother's; for of Aegisthus' death I speak not; [990] for he has suffered the adulterer's punishment as the law allows.1 But she who devised this abhorrent deed against her husband, whose children she had conceived, and carried in her womb, a burden then dear, but now, as the event shows, of deadly hate. What do you think of her? Had she been born sea-snake or viper, I think her very touch without her bite [995] would have made someone rot, if shamelessness and wickedness of spirit could do it. [Referring again to the robe…] What name shall I give it, be I never so fair-spoken? A trap for a wild beast? Or a covering for a corpse in his bier,2 [1000] wrapt round his feet? No, rather it is a net, a hunting-net, you might call it, or robes to entangle a man's feet. This is the sort of thing a highwayman might get, who tricks strangers and plies a robber's trade; and with this cunning snare he might slay many a man and gladden his heart thereby. [1005] May such a woman not dwell with me in my house! I would rather that God made me die childless!

CHORUS: Alas, alas, what terrible work! Wretched was the death that ended you. Alas! Alas! And for him who survives suffering also is blossoming.

ORESTES: [1010] Did she commit the crime or not? My witness is this robe, dyed by Aegisthus' sword. It is of blood this stain, which helps time to ruin the many delicate colours of embroidered fabric. Now at last do I speak his praises; now at last I am present to make lament for him, [1015]as I address this web that wrought my father's death; Nevertheless, I also fear the deed and the punishment and for my whole family; my victory is a pollution3 none need envy.

CHORUS: No mortal being can pass this life unscathed, free from suffering to the very end. No indeed, [1020] a current trouble endured only welcomes the next.

ORESTES: But, since I would have you know, for I know not how it will end, I see myself as a charioteer driving my team far outside the course; for my wits, hard to govern, whirl me away

1 Se Lysias, The Murder of Eratosthenes. It was legal, under Athenian law, for one man to kill another if he found the other in the act of adultery with his wife. Orestes is exaggerating that law somewhat - the adultery was hardly current or even recent. 2 A pun here, the Greek phrase means either a cloth placed over the funeral bier, or a bathrobe - both in Agamemnon's case. 3 Miasma, the Greek concept of pollution, a sickness that infects those guilty of crimes. It can be passed to others, and to offspring. This is the theme of the whole myth cycle: The curse of miasma on the family of Pelops. 20 overmastered, and at my heart [1025] fear wants to sing and dance to a tune of wrath. But while I still retain reason, I proclaim to those who hold me dear and declare that not without justice did I slay my mother, polluted murderess of my father, and a thing loathed of Heaven. And as for the promptings that gave me courage for this deed, [1030] I offer as my main surety Loxias, Pytho's prophet, who declared that, if I did this deed, I should stand clear of evil charge, but if I refused - I will not name the penalty; for no bowshot could reach such height of woe. And now behold me, how, [1035] armed with this branch and wreath, I go as suppliant to earth's central seat,1 Loxias' demesne, and to the bright fire famed imperishable, an exile for this deed of kindred bloodshed; to no other hearth did Loxias bid me turn. And as to the manner how this evil deed was wrought, [1040] I charge all men of Argos in time to come to bear me witness. I go forth a wanderer, exiled from this land, leaving behind, in life or death, this report of me.

CHORUS: No, you have done well. Don't say such things that will bind you to bad luck [1045] or reproach yourself: You have freed Argos by cutting off the heads of the two serpents!

ORESTES: Ah! Ah! Do you see them? The Gorgon maidens of justice wrapped in black robes and wound with snakes! [1050] I can no longer stay!

CHORUS: What are you imagining, dearest son of your father? Wait, don't let fear overtake you.

ORESTES: These are not imagined, not to me at least. I quite clearly see the dogs of wrath coming to avenge my mother.

CHORUS: [1055] It is just that the blood is still fresh on your hands - that is why your mind is so troubled.

ORESTES: Lord Apollo! Look! They come in packs and their eyes are dripping blood!

CHORUS: There is only one cure; the healing touch of Loxias [1060] will free you from this affliction.

ORESTES: You don't see them, but I do. I am pursued. I can stay no longer [Orestes rushes out]

1 The omphalos, the Greeks believed that the temple of Apollo at Delphi was the centre of the earth. See Eumenides 39. 21

CHORUS: Then farewell; and may the god watch kindly over you and guard you with good fortune! [1065] Look! Now again, for the third time, has the tempest of the family burst upon the royal house and run its course. First, at the beginning, came the cruel woes of children slain for food;1 [1070] next, the fate of a man, a king, when, murdered in a bath, perished the war-lord of the Achaeans.2 And now, once again, has come a third, a deliverer - or shall I say a doom?

[1075] Oh when will it work its accomplishment, when will the fury of calamity, lulled to rest, find an end and cease?

End.

Eumenides In the Eumenides we see both the culmination of the overall theme of the trilogy as well as an overt and timely political statement.3 The vendetta theme will find resolution at the end of Eumenides when Athena herself establishes a system of justice to replace and to end the cycle of vengeance - and she does so by establishing the Areopagus as court of law. This, in 458, four years after Pericles and Ephialtes had passed legislation reducing the Areopagus council from a constitutional and active legislative body to a court of law only. The play opens with the priestess of Delphi, the Pythia, revealing to the audience that she has just entered the temple of Apollo at Delphi as seen, therein, Orestes, seeking sanctuary at the altar. Also inside the temple are the Erinyes, the avenging spirits who pursue the guilty until vengeance has been fulfilled. But the Erinyes cannot, by divine law, seize Orestes so long as he is touching the altar.

PYTHIA: [39] I was on my way to the inner shrine, enriched with many a wreath, when, on the centre stone,4 I beheld a man defiled before Heaven occupying the seat of suppliants. His hands were dripping gore; he held a sword just drawn and a lofty olive-branch reverently crowned with a tuft of wool exceeding large, white was the fleece; for as to this I can speak clearly.

1 Aeschylus lists the murder of Thyestes' sons by Atreus as the first wrong - the crime which initiates all the troubles. 2 Skipping the sacrifice of Iphigeneia…? 3 For the political message in Eumenides see Meier, 1990: 82 ff. 4 The Omphalos or navel. A white stone, located in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, was believed to be the exact centre of the earth. 22

[46] Before this man there sat asleep on thrones a wondrous throng of women. No! Women they were surely not, Gorgons I rather call them. Nor yet can I liken them to forms of Gorgons either. [50] Once before this I saw some pictured creatures carrying off the feast of Phineus1 - but these are wingless, sable, and altogether detestable. Their snorting nostrils blow forth fearsome blasts, and from their eyes oozes a loathly rheum. [55] Their garb, too, was such as is unfit to bring before the statues of the gods or into the abodes of men. The tribe which owns this company I have never seen; nor do I know what region boasts to rear unscathed this brood and not repent its pains.

[60] But for the outcome, let that be now the care of the lord of this house, even Loxias2 himself, the powerful, for he is a revealer of healing remedies, a reader of portents, and for others he purifies their homes.

The Pythia exits and the scene shifts to the inner temple where Apollo is speaking to Orestes:

APOLLO: [64] No! I will not abandon you. Your guardian to the end, close by your side, or even when far removed, I will not show me gentle to your enemies. So now you see these maddened women overcome; fallen on sleep are these loathsome maidens - beldames, aged children, [70] with whom neither god nor man nor beast consorts ever. For evil's sake were they even born, since they inhabit the evil gloom of Tartarus beneath the earth-creatures loathed of men and of Olympian gods. Nevertheless, you should flee on and grow not faint of heart. [75] For as you ever tread the travelled earth, they will chase you even over the wide continent and beyond the sea and the cities girdled by the sea. And grow not weary before your course be run by brooding on this your toil; but when you have come to Pallas' burgh,3 [80] sit you down and clasp in your arms her ancient image. And there, with judges of your cause and speech of persuasive charm, we shall discover means to release you utterly from your distress; for it was at my behest that you did take your mother's life.

Apollo charges Hermes to guide Orestes to Athens. Clytemnestra's ghost appears and awakens the Erinyes who now form the chorus of the play, and who confront Apollo:

CHORUS: [198] Lord Apollo, listen in turn to our reply. You yourself are no mere abettor of this deed; It is your sole doing, and upon you falls all the guilt.

APOLLO: What do you mean? Explain yourselves!

CHORUS:

1 The Harpies, who were sent by the gods to punish Phineus by stealing his food (Apollodorus, i.9.21). The point being made here is that the Erinyes are even more frightening than the Harpies. 2 Loxias in an epithet for Apollo. 3 Pallas Athena's city: Athens. 23

By your behest you did prompt the stranger to slay his mother.

APOLLO: By my behest I prompted him to exact vengeance for his father. What then?

CHORUS: And thereafter you engaged yourself to give sanctuary to the red-handed murderer.

APOLLO: [205] And I bade him turn for expiation to this house.

CHORUS: And then you revile us who sped him on his way here?

APOLLO: Yes, I do, for it was improper that you approach this my house.

CHORUS: But to us this duty has been assigned.

APOLLO: What is this duty of yours? Proclaim your glorious prerogative!

CHORUS: [210] We chase from their homes those that slay their mothers.

APOLLO: But how then with a woman who kills her husband?

CHORUS: That would not be murder of the self-same blood and kin.

The scene now shifts to Athens where Orestes is seen clutching the statue of Athena even as the Erinyes enter in pursuit. Orestes prays to Athena for assistance and makes an interesting offer by way of compensation:

ORESTES: [287] So now with pure lips I piously invoke Athena, this country's queen, to come to my aid. Without effort of her spear, shall she win myself, my land and the Argive folk as staunch and true allies for evermore.

The First Peloponnesian War began in 461 and a year before that, Argos had joined in an alliance with Athens. Less than one year after the production of the Oresteia, Argos would send 24

1000 hoplites to assist the Athenians at the Battle of Tanagra. The Spartans won the battle, but barely. Athena appears and when she is appraised of the situation she decides the convene a court

ATHENA: [483] I will appoint judges of homicide bound by oath and establish a tribunal, a tribunal to endure for all time. Do you call your witnesses and adduce your proofs, sworn evidence to support your cause; and I will return when I have singled out the best of my citizens, that they may decide this issue in accordance with the truth, having bound themselves by oath to pronounce no judgment contrary to justice.

The court is convened and Apollo appears to stand as a witness in the trial. After the Furies examine Orestes they ask for Apollo's testimony:

APOLLO: [614] Unto you, this high tribunal created by Athena, I will speak as justice bids, seer that I am, I cannot utter untruth. Never yet, on my oracular throne, have I spoken anything touching man or woman or commonwealth, but what has been commanded by Zeus, the father of the Olympians. Mark how potent is this plea of justice; [620] and I charge you to yield obedience to the Father's will; for an oath hath not greater authority than Zeus.

CHORUS: Zeus - according to your testimony - gave you this oracular command: to declare to Orestes here that he avenge the slaying of his father, but of the honour due his mother take no account at all?

Apollo and the Furies debate the greater crime; the murder of a husband and king or the murder of a mother, before Apollo appeals to Athena:

APOLLO: [667] But for my part, 0 Pallas, as in all things else, as I well know how, will I exalt your city and your people, so with this man; for I have sent him as suppliant to your sanctuary that he might prove faithful for all time to come, and that your, 0 Goddess, might win him as a new ally, him and his descendants, and it abide everlastingly that the posterity of this people maintain their plighted bond.

ATHENA: Am I to assume that enough has now been said, [675] and shall I charge the judges now to cast their honest ballots in accordance with their true judgment?

CHORUS: For our part, every bolt of ours is already shot. But I remain to hear the issue of the trial.

ATHENA: Why should you not? As for you (to Apollo and Orestes), how shall I so dispose as to escape censure at your hands?

APOLLO: You have heard what you have heard; and as you cast your ballots, [680] let your hearts, my friends, hold sacred the oath you have sworn.

ATHENA: [681] Hear now my ordinance, you men of Attica, who pronounce judgment at the first trial ever held for bloodshed. Henceforth, even as now, this court of judges shall abide unto the people of Aegeus1 for evermore. [685] And this Hill of Ares, whereon the Amazons had their seat and pitched their tents,2 what time they came, embattled, in resentment against Theseus, and in those days built up this new citadel with lofty towers to rival his, and sacrificed to Ares; whence the rock takes its name from him, the Hill of Ares. [690] Upon this hill, I say, Reverence and her kinsman Fear, which both dwell in the hearts of my citizens, shall withhold them from doing wrong by day and night alike, so be it they do not themselves pollute the laws with evil influences; [695] stain clear water with mud and you shall never find sweet drink. I counsel my citizens to maintain neither anarchy nor tyranny and to hold in reverence, and never quite banish, Fear from the city. For who among mortal men is righteous that has no fear of anything? [700] Stand then in just awe of such majesty and you shall possess a bulwark to safeguard your country and your government, such as none of mankind has either among the Scythians or in Pelops' realm. This council I do now establish, [705] inviolable by lust of gain, august, quick to avenge, a guardian of the land, vigilant in defence of them that sleep. I have thus dwelt at length in exhortation to my people for time yet to be but you must now rise, take each his ballot, [710] and decide the cause under the sacred obligation of your oath. I have done.

Athena has just established the Areopagus Council. Since before the time of Solon this council

had nearly sovereign power in Athens (Ath. Pol. 3.6). In 462 BC, just four years before the production of the Oresteia, Ephialtes and Pericles spearheaded constitutional reforms which stripped the Areopagus council of all powers except that they should remain a court of law (Ath. Pol. 25.1 - 26.1). The question, then, is whether or not Aeschylus intended to ratify these reforms in public opinion with the presentation of the Eumenides. The jury was hung, with equal votes for both sides and Athena, as the final and presiding magistrate, cast her vote in favour of Orestes, acquitting him of murder. Apollo exits, as does

1 A mythical king of Athens. 2 According to legend, the Amazons invaded Athens and were defeated by Theseus. 26

Orestes, but not before yet another vow that the people of Argos will be indebted to Athens forever (754 - 777). Athena then invites the Erinyes to reside in Athens and, accepting, they promise to protect the people of Athens from internal strife and civil war:

CHORUS: May faction, insatiate of ill, ne'er raise her loud voice within this city - this I pray; and may the dust not drink the black blood of its people and through passion work ruinous slaughtering for vengeance to the destruction of the State. Rather may they return joy for joy in a spirit of common love, and may they hate with one accord; for therein lies the cure of many an evil in the world.

Euripides

The second of the three great Athenian playwrights (with Aeschylus and Sophocles),

Euripides was born to wealthy parents, Mnesarchides and Cleito in 480 BC, the year of the Persian invasion of Greece (Diog. Laert. ii.5.27). His life coincided with the rise to greatness of his home city, Athens and he was fortunate to die without seeing Athens surrender to Sparta in 403. Euripides won the City Dionysia only five times but that is a reflection of his bold innovations rather than the quality of his works - the judges at these affairs tended toward conservatism. Despite the support of his audiences, Euripides faced harsh criticism from the literary elite of Athens and in 408 he left Athens for the court of King Archelaus of Macedon. Euripides lived and wrote there until his death in 406. Euripides wrote over 90 plays and although we know the names of 81 of these, only 19 are extant. 28

Sophocles

Sophocles was born at Colonus, a small village just to the north-west of Athens, in 496/5 BC. The details of his family and his youth are obscure, but it seems probable that his father, Sophilus (or Sophillus) operated factories or hired out skilled slaves. What is certain is that his family was not aristocratic but was well-to-do; certain only because Sophocles was afforded the best education as a youth. He was only fifteen when he and his family fled to Salamis to witness the occupation of Athens by Xerxes, and after the Battle of Salamis Sophocles was a member of a boys' chorus which performed at the dedication of the trophy celebrating the victory. His first victory in the City Dionysia came in 468 with a play now lost, possibly called Triptolemus. Of his 123 productions only 7 survive, but we know that he won the City Dionysia 18 times. Sophocles' most famous plays are often grouped under the epithet 'The Theban Plays' and include (in the chronology of the myths themselves) Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. While these plays might appear to form a trilogy, they were actually each one of three separate trilogies - nine plays in all, six of which are lost. The earliest of these trilogies was produced in 441/40 and featured Antigone, however, the chronology of the story begins with Oedipus:

Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex) The play opens with Thebes beset by plague, and Oedipus, the king of Thebes, promising that he will find a cure:

OEDIPUS: [69 - 72] I have sent Menoeceus' son, Creon, my consort's brother, to inquire of Pythian Phoebus at his Delphic shrine, how I might save the State by act or word.

(Creon enters) [95] Let me report then all the god declared. King Phoebus bids us quickly extirpate a foul pollution (miasma) that infests the land, and no more harbour an inveterate sore.

OEDIPUS: [99] What expiation means he? What's amiss?

CREON: [100] Banishment, or the shedding blood for blood. This stain of blood makes shipwreck of our state. 29

OEDIPUS: Whom can he mean, the miscreant thus denounced?

CREON: Before you assumed the helm of State, the sovereign of this land was Laius.

OEDIPUS: [105] So have I heard; I never saw the man.

CREON: He was killed; and now the god's command is plain: Punish his killers, whoever they be.

Oedipus learns from Creon that Laius, the former king, was murdered while on his way to Delphi. While the Thebans were trying to solve the crime, a Sphinx came to Thebes and they were forced to abandon the investigation and concentrate on the Sphinx. Oedipus issues a decree, and a call for help: [216] You pray; 'tis well, but would you hear my words and heed them and apply the remedy, you might perchance find comfort and relief. Mind you, I speak as one who comes a stranger to this report, no less than to the crime; [220] for how unaided could I track it far without a clue? Which lacking (for too late was I enrolled a citizen of Thebes) this proclamation I address to all:

Thebans, if any knows the man by whom Laius, son of Labdacus, was slain, [225] I summon him to make confession to me. And if he shrinks, let him reflect that thus confessing he shall escape the capital charge; for the worst penalty that shall befall him is banishment; unscathed he shall depart. [230] But if an alien from a foreign land is known to any as the murderer, Let him who knows speak out, and he shall have due recompense from me and thanks to boot. But if you still keep silence, if through fear for self or friends you disregard my order, [235] hear what I then resolve: I lay my ban on the assassin whosoever he be. Let no man in this land, whereof I hold the sovereign rule, harbour or speak to him; [240] give him no part in prayer or sacrifice or lustral rites, but hound him from your homes. For this is our defilement, so the god has lately shown to me by oracles.

[245] Thus as their champion I maintain the cause both of the god and of the murdered King. And on the murderer this curse I lay (On him and all the partners in his guilt): Wretch, may he pine in utter wretchedness! And for myself, [250] if with my knowledge he gain admittance to my house, I pray the curse I laid on others fall on me. See that you give effect to all my best, for my sake and the god's and for our land, a desert blasted by the wrath of heaven. For, let alone the god's express command, [255] it were a scandal you should leave unpurged the murder of a great man and your king, nor track it home. And now that I am king, successor to his throne, [260] his bed, his wife, (And had he not been frustrate in the 30 hope of issue, common children of one womb had forged a closer bond twixt him and me, but Fate swooped down upon him), therefore I his blood-avenger will maintain his cause as though he were my own father, [265] and leave no stone unturned to track the assassin or avenge the son of Labdacus, son of Polydore, son of Cadmus, and Agenor.

And for the disobedient thus I pray: [270] May the gods send them neither timely fruits of earth, nor teeming increase of the womb, but may they waste and pine, as now they waste, aye and worse stricken; but to all of you, my loyal subjects who approve my acts, may Justice, our ally, [275] and all the gods be gracious and attend you evermore.

Oedipus then calls for the blind prophet Teiresias and asks for his assistance. But the prophet at first refuses and relents only when Oedipus interprets his silence as guilt.

OEDIPUS: [345] I am angry in the extreme, and will not hold my tongue but speak my whole mind. You I think are the one who planned the crime, yes, and performed it too, all save the assassination; and if not for the fact that you are blind, I would say that you committed the crime alone.

TEIRESIAS: [350 Is that the way it's going to be? Fine, then I demand that you obey your own decree and from this moment speak not to me or to the people of Thebes: For you are the one who pollutes this city!

Oedipus is, of course, furious at the accusation and himself accuses Teiresias and Creon of conspiring to depose him. Oedipus' charge and Creon's defence are written in verse but are clearly formed on the principles of refutation and cross examination practiced not only by Socrates but by litigants in the courts. So, for example, Creon's defence is what Aristotle (Rehtoric ii.24) calls an argument from probability:

CREON: [577] Then let me ask you, did you wed my sister?

OEDIPUS: A fact so plain I cannot well deny.

CREON: And as your consort queen she shares the throne?

OEDIPUS: [580] I grant her freely all her heart desires.

CREON: And with you two I share the triple rule?

OEDIPUS: Yes, and that is what proves you a traitor.

CREON: Not so, if you would employ reason as I do: First, I ask you to think, would any mortal [585] choose a troubled reign of terrors rather than security and peace, if the same power were given him? As for me, I have no natural craving for the name of tyrant, preferring to live a tyrant's life, and so thinks every sober-minded man. [590] Now all my needs are satisfied through you, and I have nothing to fear; but were I king, my acts would often run counter to my will. How could a title then have charms for me above the luxury of boundless influence? I am not so infatuate [595] as to grasp the shadow when I hold the substance fast. As it is now every man has a pleasant greeting for me and wish me well, and everyone who wants something from you speaks to me first because he knows he can win your favour through me. So why would I trade my position for yours? [600] That would be sheer madness, and I am not mad. No such ambition ever tempted me, nor would I have a share in such intrigue.

And if you doubt me, go to Delphi and cross-examine the oracle to determine the truth of my report; [605] next investigate If with the seer I plotted or conspired, and if it prove so, sentence me to death, not by your voice alone, but mine and yours. But condemn me not, without appeal, on bare suspicion. It is not right to adjudge bad men at random good, [610] or good men bad. I believe a man should cast away the thing he counts most precious, his own life, rather than spurn a true friend. You will learn in time the truth, for time alone reveals the just; [615] a villain is detected in a day.

Especially in the last paragraph, lines 603 - 615, the vocabulary and the style are forensic. Oedipus is, however, unconvinced and the argument stops only when Jocaste enters.

JOCASTE: [707] Then you can ease your conscience on that score. Listen and I'll convince you that no man is perfect in the prophetic art. Here is the proof in brief: An oracle once came to Laius (I will not say it was from the Delphic god himself but from his ministers) declaring he was doomed to perish by the hand of his own son, a child that should be born to him by me. [715] Now Laius - so at least report affirmed - was murdered one day by foreigners at a spot where three roads meet. As for the child, it was but three days old when Laius, its ankles pierced and pinned together, gave it to be cast away by others on the trackless mountain side. [720] So then Apollo brought it not to pass that the child should be his father's murderer, or the dread terror find accomplishment, and Laius be slain by his own son. That, at least, was what the prophet had predicted. Pay no regard to prophesies; [725] whatever outcome the god wants, he can easily bring it about himself. 32

OEDIPUS: What memories, what wild tumult of the soul came over me, lady, as I heard you speak!

JOCASTE: What do you mean? What has shocked and startled you?

OEDIPUS: I thought I heard you say that Laius [730] was murdered at the meeting of three roads.

JOCASTE: So ran the story that is current still.

OEDIPUS: Where did this happen? Do you know the place?

JOCASTE: Phocis the land is called; the spot is where branch roads from Delphi and from Daulis meet.

OEDIPUS: [735] And how long is it since these things happened?

JOCASTE: It was but a brief while before you were proclaimed our country's ruler that the news was brought.

OEDIPUS: 0 Zeus, what have you willed to do with me!

JOCASTE: What is it, Oedipus, which moves you so?

OEDIPUS: [740] Ask me not yet; tell me the build and height of Laius? Was he still in his prime?

JOCASTE: He was tall, and his hair was lightly strewn with silver; and not unlike you in form.

OEDIPUS: 0, I am a sorry man! [745] I think unwittingly I laid but now a dread curse on myself.

Oedipus learns that of the five attendants who were with Laius, one only survived. That man has been living in the mountains ever since and Oedipus now summons him to Thebes. While they wait, Oedipus tells his own story:

OEDIPUS: [774] My father was Polybus of Corinth, and my mother Merope, a Dorian; and I was held the foremost citizen till a strange thing befell me, strange indeed, yet scarce deserving all the heat it stirred. A roisterer at some banquet, flown with wine, [780] shouted "You are no true son of your father."

It irked me, but I stomached for the time the insult; on the next morning I sought out my mother and my father and questioned them They were indignant at the random slur cast on my parentage [785] and did their best to comfort me, but still the venomous barb rankled, for still the scandal spread and grew. So secretly, without their permission, I went to Delphi, and Apollo sent me back baulked of the knowledge that I came to seek. [790] But other grievous things he prophesied, Woes, lamentations, mourning, portents dire; To the effect that I should defile my mother's bed and raise up offspring too loathsome to behold, and slay the father from whose loins I sprang.

Warned by the oracle I turned and fled, and Corinth from that moment was to me unknown [795] save as I knew its region by the stars; Where I was headed I cared not, so I never might behold my doom of infamy fulfilled. And in my wanderings I reached the place where, as your story runs, the king was slain.

[800] Then, lady - you shall hear the very truth - as I drew near the triple-branching roads, a herald met me and a man who sat in a car drawn by colts - as in your story. The man in front and the old man himself [805] threatened to force me from the path and when I was pushed by the charioteer in anger I struck him, and the old man, seeing this, watched till I passed and from his car brought down on my head the double-pointed goad. [810] I had my revenge on him and more! One stroke of my good staff sufficed to fling him clean out of the chariot seat and laid him prone. And so I slew them every one. But if between this stranger there was anything in common with Laius, who more miserable than I, what mortal could you find more god-abhorred?

Doubt remains, but all is soon confirmed; Oedipus is the son of Laius and Jocaste, he has killed his own father and he has married and begotten children by his own mother. Both prophesies, the one given to Laius and Jocaste and the one given to Oedipus, have come true. Jocaste kills herself, and Oedipus gouges out his own eyes. As Oedipus is led out of Thebes the chorus has the final word:

CHORUS: 34

Countrymen and Thebans, look; this is Oedipus the great: He who knew the Sphinx's riddle and was mightiest in our state. Who of all our townsmen gazed not on his fame with envious eyes? Now, in what a sea of troubles sunk and overwhelmed he lies! Therefore wait to see life's ending before you count any mortal happy: Wait till free from pain and sorrow he has gained his final rest.

Bibliography

Of works cited and suggested reading

Burkert, Walter. 1985. Greek Religion. John Raffan trans. Harvard UP. Detienne, Marcel. 2006. ‘The Gods of Politics in Early Greek Cities’ in Political Theologies, Public Religions in a Post Secular World. Hent de Vries and Lawrence E. Sullivan eds. Fordham UP. Dillery, John. 2005. ‘Greek Sacred History’ in The American Journal of Philology 126.4; 505 – 526. Finkelberg, Margalit. 2005. Greeks and Pre-Greeks: Aegean Prehistory and Greek Heroic Tradition. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. Griffiths, John Gwyn. 1991. The Divine Verdict: A study of divine justice in the ancient religions. Brill. Halpern, Ben. 1961. ‘”Myth” and “Ideology” in Modern Usage’ in History and Theory 1.2; 129 – 149. Lloyd-Jones, Hugh. 1962. 'The Guilt of Agamemnon' in, The Classical Quarterly 12.2; 187-199. Lopston, Peter J. 1986. 'Argos Achaiikon' in L'Antiquité Classique 55; 42 - 65. Meier, Christian. 1990 (1980). The Greek Discovery of Politics. David McLintock trans. Cambridge MA, London: Harvard University Press. Originally published as Die Entstehung des Politischen bei den Griechen. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp. Patzek, Barbara and Bill Templer. 1990. ‘The Truth of Myth: Historical Thinking and Homeric Narrations of Myth’ in History and Memory 2.1; 34 – 50. Powell, Barry B. 2009. Classical Myth 6th edition. New York: Pearson Longman. Smith, Herbert Weir, trans. 1926. Aeschylus. Vol. 2 of 2. Loeb Classical Library. Storr, F. trans. 1912. Sophocles Vol. 1 of 2. Loeb Classical Library.