Oresteia Essay

This is seen through a character named Clytemnestra the wife of Agamemnon. Men are seen as the head of the family, and thus they are in charge of deciding what will happen to the household without even consulting the women. Although the women play a very important character in the book, their characters can only be compared to that of men. For instance, when Clytemnestra spoke in a clever way, she was seen as a person who wants to intimidate the people of Argos. The chorus leader compared the way she spoke to a man because according to them the woman cannot speak in such a clever way. Although she enters the house, she is very sure that she is going to die. Clytemnestra lured her husband with a flattering speech and killed him together with Cassandra into the bath.

She tries to show that even what is believed that a woman cannot do, can be done by a woman. The chorus of elders does not believe that it was a woman who killed a man and even though Clytemnestra spoke it for herself that what she did was the right thing to for killing an innocent person, they are still in disbelief. Orestes the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon then seek revenge for the one who has killed his father (Aeschylus Choephori 503-507) He killed both his mother and Aegisthus for killing his father. Oresteia is set in two different cities that are Athens and Argos. Argos comprise of elected kingship as their leader. Agamemnon was the king; he led the people of Argos and went to represent them in the war.

He returned with a victory to the palace but was later killed by his wife. The succession of kingship in Argos is passed from Father to son and is a law that must be applied in Argos. The reign of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus was not only over the house of Agamemnon, but it was felt all over Argos. Argos shows no distinction between the household and the polis when they waited for Orestes to set for the things in the right direction. Since Clytemnestra murders her husband, she moves outside the households. She assaults the polis and households but not only that, but she also destroys the balance of nature that existed between the two. She destroyed the balances that existed between the two when she allied with Aegisthus in killing her husband.

The case was then to be submitted to the judge by the third party rather than the goddess hearing the case. Athena accepts that she would rather have divine sanction than political suction and she establishes the legitimacy of the decisions that were dealt with in the households before. Athena sides with Orestes for killing his mother because of revenge. She argues that the murder of a mother by her son might be forgiven but what Clytemnestra did for murdering her husband was the worst. Thus a husband should not kill the wife or should the wife kill the husband. Thus, Orestes changed the circle of revenge by seeking justice. Athena then establishes the public court for the first time in the polis. The circle of violence is thus broken since all cases of murder are now transferred to citizens.

The solution of the problem to the circle of blood was relevant when Athens was struggling between democracy and aristocracy which started after Greco-Persian wars. The polis became authoritative when forces in the household were told to submit under the law of polis instead of killing one another. The killing of people has therefore reduced since all the cases are solved in the court, and the judge is the one responsible for coming up with the verdict on what should be done to the criminal. However, the new system of law does not give the suspect and the prosecutor a chance to negotiate and solve their problem on their own. Work Cited Aeschylus.  The Oresteia of Aeschylus: Agamemnon, Choephori, Eumenides. Printed at The University Press and published for the Greek play committee by Bowes & Bowes, 1920.