The Oresteia’: the First Criminal Jury Trial
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CHICAGOLAWBULLETIN.COM WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2013 ® Volume 159, No. 188 ‘The Oresteia’: The first criminal jury trial drama group in New the first criminal jury trial in they argue it is a clear case of York recently created Western civilization. CRIMINAL murder. Orestes responds that a theater piece out of It is the subject of “The he had a duty to avenge his an oral argument in a Oresteia,” a trilogy written by PROCEDURE mother’s murder of his father. U.S. Supreme Court the Greek dramatist Aeschylus But the Furies, in turn, respond Acase. Barnes v. Glen Theatre, 501 in the 5th century B.C. that Clytemnestra was properly U.S. 560 (1991), concerned Here’s a quick background. avenging the murder of her whether the Kitty Kat Lounge in When King Agamemnon led the daughter Iphigenia. South Bend, Ind., had a First Greeks to Troy during the The jury comes back split, 6-6. Amendment right to present Trojan War, he left his wife, TIMOTHY P. Established procedure provided nude dancers. (Assuming the Clytemnestra, at home. To obtain O’N EILL that Athena, as judge, had to cast club had some Notre Dame from the gods a fair wind for his the deciding vote. Athena votes clientele, I guess the attorneys’ fleet, he sacrificed their to acquit Orestes. The verdict is goal was to “Win one for the daughter, Iphigenia. accepted by all and the crisis is Timothy P. O’Neill is a professor at stripper.”) Because she was furious, The John Marshall Law School. In 2012 resolved. In describing the show, the Clytemnestra took a lover. he was awarded the Chicago Bar Aeschylus shows that the legal critic for the New York Times Because he could, so did Association’s Herman Kogan procedures of Athens are far made this perceptive comment: Agamemnon. When Agamemnon Meritorious Achievement Award for superior to the bloody cycles of “A disproportionate number of returned from the war, legal journalism. Readers are invited to family clan vendettas. A blood theatergoers are lawyers. I have Clytemnestra and her lover visit his Web log and archives at feud is a zero-sum game, but no empirical proof to support killed Agamemnon and his lover. jmls.edu/oneill. “civic justice tries to offer this — surely none that would In doing so, Clytemnestra hoped something to everybody.” Cantor hold up in court — but it’s an to avenge the murder of violate one legitimate principle notes that Orestes, of course, opinion based on a lifetime of … Iphigenia. or another.” wins since he is acquitted. talking to … lawyers, who invari - Enter Orestes, the son of The conflict Orestes faced But after the verdict, Athena ably seem more informed about Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. came from ancient Homeric promises that the Furies will be the current theater season than He has a problem. On the one values. Aeschylus wrenches the honored by Athens and asked to the average person I meet at a hand, the gods expect him to story out of the Homeric past remain in the city. party.” avenge the death of his father and places it in a contemporary Why? Because, in Cantor’s And why not? Like characters (although his father had killed Athenian courtroom. As Cantor words, Athens “cannot simply on a stage, lawyers deal with Orestes’ sister). On the other describes it, “The Oresteia reject the irrational forces the conflicts in need of resolution. hand, if he kills his father’s moves from the [ancient Furies represent … Rather, Situations that come in moral murderer, he will also be killing Homeric] rule of the family clan Athens must find a way to incor - tones of black-and-white his mother — something strictly to the [modern Athenian] rule of porate the Furies within its generally do not make it to a forbidden by the gods. the [city].” boundaries and make their lawyer’s desk. Instead, the issues What’s a good son to do? Paul This means “moving from the power work for the city, not that constitute a lawyer’s work A. Cantor, an English professor barbarism of the revenge ethic against it.” often come in 49 or 51 shades of at the University of Virginia, (championed by the old gods of The Furies supply the gray. Some appear insoluble; all examines Orestes’ tragic the earth, the Furies) to the civi - emotional outrage that a society require a resolution. dilemma in his new book “The lizing power of the law court must bring to wrongdoing but, at There is still no more effective Invisible Hand in Popular (championed by the new gods, the same time, procedures estab - dramatic device than a criminal Culture: Liberty vs. Authority in Athena and Apollo).” In the lished by Athens provide a way trial. You are probably familiar American Film and TV” (2012). Homeric world, revenge-seeking to properly channel that outrage with those depicted in “To Kill a Cantor applies Georg W. F. family clans led to a never- into justice. Mockingbird,” “Anatomy of a Hegel’s definition of tragedy to ending cycle of bloodshed. But as Cantor quotes a classicist who Murder” and “Inherit the Wind.” Orestes’ situation: “In Hegel’s Cantor notes, “The city and its describes the Oresteia as But I want to talk about a play view, a tragic situation involves legal institutions come into being progressing “from Furies to with a murder trial that has the conflict of two goods, one to bring a violent cycle of juries.” The play is “a hymn to more sex, violence and legitimate ethical principle revenge to an end.” the civilizing power of the city bloodshed than a whole season of clashing with another. In such an So Aeschylus has Orestes and especially its legal institu - “Wives With Knives.” And ethical dilemma, the tragic hero tried for matricide before a jury tions.” It is a story that everyone criminal lawyers should be espe - has no way out without incurring of 12 Athenians, with the goddess involved in the criminal justice cially interested since it deals guilt — no matter which course Athena serving as judge. The system should regularly revisit with what is usually considered of action he chooses, he will prosecutors are the Furies and and ponder. Copyright © 2013 Law Bulletin Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Law Bulletin Publishing Company..