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The Oresteia trilogy spark notes

Agamemnon

Context
Aeschylus was born in Eleusis, a Greek town near Athens, in 525 B.C. He was the first
of the great Greek tragedians, preceding both Sophocles and Euripides, and is credited
by many as having invented tragic drama. Prior to Aeschylus, plays were more
rudimentary, consisting of a single actor and a chorus offering commentary. In his
works, Aeschylus added a "second actor" (often more than one), creating a new range
of dramatic possibilities. He lived until 456 B.C., fighting in the wars against Persia, and
attaining great acclaim in the world of the Athenian theater.
Aeschylus wrote nearly ninety plays. However, only seven have survived to the modern
era, including such famous works as Prometheus Bound and The Seven Against
Thebes.Agamemnon is the first of a trilogy, the Oresteia,the other two parts of which
are The Libation-Bearers and The Eumenides.The trilogy--the only such work to survive
from Ancient Greece--is considered by many critics to be the greatest Athenian tragedy
ever written, because of its poetry and the strength of its characters.
Agamemnon depicts the assassination of the title character by his wife, Clytemnestra,
and her lover. The Libation-Bearers continues the story with the return of Agamemnon's
son, Orestes, who kills his mother and avenges his father. In The Eumenides, Orestes
is pursued by the Furies in punishment for his matricide, and finally finds refuge in
Athens, where the god Athena relieves him of his persecution.

The events of Agamemnon take place against a backdrop that would have been familiar
to an Athenian audience. Agamemnon is returning from his victory at Troy, which has
been besieged for ten years by Greek armies attempting to recover Helen,
Agamemnon's brother's wife, who was stolen by the treacherous Trojan Prince, Paris.
(The events of the Trojan War are recounted in Homer's Iliad.) The tragedies of the play
occur as a result of the crimes committed by Agamemnon's family. His father, Atreus,
boiled the children of his own brother, Thyestes, and served them to him.
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Clytemnestra's lover, Aegisthus (Thyestes's only surviving son), seeks revenge for that
crime. Moreover, Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter, Iphigenia, to gain a favorable
wind to Troy, and Clytemnestra murders him to avenge her death. The weight of history
and heritage becomes a major theme of the play, and indeed the entire trilogy, for the
family it depicts cannot escape the cursed cycle of bloodshed propagated by its past.
Overall Summary
Agamemnon begins with a Watchman on duty on the roof of the palace at Argos,
waiting for a signal announcing the fall of Troy to the Greek armies. A beacon flashes,
and he joyfully runs to tell the news to Queen Clytemnestra. When he is gone, the
Chorus, made up of the old men of Argos, enters and tells the story of how the Trojan
Prince Paris stole Helen, the wife of the Greek king Menelaus, leading to ten years of
war between Greece and Troy. Then the Chorus recalls how Clytemnestra's husband
Agamemnon (Menelaus' brother) sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia to the god Artemis
to obtain a favorable wind for the Greek fleet.
The Queen appears, and the Chorus asks her why she has ordered sacrifices of
thanksgiving. She tells them that a system of beacons has brought word that Troy fell
the previous night. The Chorus give thanks to the gods, but wonder if her news is true; a
Herald appears and confirms the tidings, describing the army's sufferings at Troy and
giving thanks for a safe homecoming. Clytemnestra sends him back to Agamemnon, to
tell her husband to come swiftly, but before he departs, the Chorus asks him for news of
Menelaus. The Herald replies that a terrible storm seized the Greek fleet on the way
home, leaving Menelaus and many others missing.
The Chorus sings of the terrible destructive power of Helen's beauty. Agamemnon
enters, riding in his chariot with Cassandra, a Trojan Princess whom he has taken as his
slave and concubine. Clytemnestra welcomes him, professing her love, and orders a
carpet of purple robes spread in front of him as he enters the palace. Agamemnon acts
coldly toward her, and says that to walk on the carpet would be an act of hubris, or
dangerous pride; she badgers him into walking on the robes, however, and he enters
the palace.
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The Chorus expresses a sense of foreboding, and Clytemnestra comes outside to order
Cassandra inside. The Trojan Princess is silent, and the Queen leaves her in frustration.
Then Cassandra begins to speak, uttering incoherent prophecies about a curse on the
house of Agamemnon. She tells the Chorus that they will see their king dead, says that
she will die as well, and then predicts that an avenger will come. After these bold
predictions, she seems resigned to her fate, and enters the house. The Chorus' fears
grow, and they hear Agamemnon cry out in pain from inside. As they debate what to do,
the doors open, and Clytemnestra appears, standing over the corpses of her husband
and Cassandra. She declares that she has killed him to avenge Iphigenia, and then is
joined by her lover Aegisthus, Agamemnon's cousin, whose brothers were cooked and
served to Aegisthus' father by Agamemnon's father. They take over the government,
and the Chorus declares that Clytemnestra's son Orestes will return from exile to
avenge his father.

Overall Analysis
Agamemnon is the first play in a trilogy, the Oresteia, which is considered Aeschylus'
greatest work, and perhaps the greatest Greek tragedy. Of the plays in the
trilogy, Agamemnon contains the strongest command of language and characterization.
The poetry is magnificent and moving, with skillful portrayal of major and minor
characters alike.
The play's mood carries a heavy sense of impending doom. From the Watchman's
opening speech through the Chorus' foreboding words and Cassandra's prophesies, the
drama prepares the audience for the King's murder. The actual act of violence occurs
off-stage, a traditional practice in Greek tragedy. Thematically, the murder of
Agamemnon must be understood in the context of three other acts of violence, all of
which precede the action of the play.
The first significant violent development in the play is the theft of Helen and the Trojan
War that followed; again and again, the Chorus declares that even the deaths following
the conflict should be dropped at Helen's door. The second violent act is Agamemnon's
sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia, which justifies Clytemnestra's resolve to murder him.
Perhaps the most vile display of violence is the terrible sin of Agamemnon's father,
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Atreus, who cooked his own brother's children and served them to him. This act justifies
Aegisthus' role in the play. But in a broader sense, it is the source of the ancestral curse
that pervades the trilogy, as one act of violence leads to another.

The title character, Agamemnon, appears only briefly, and comes across as a cold
husband and arrogant king. Clytemnestra, with her icy determination and fierce sense of
self-righteousness, is far more attractive to the audience; we sympathize with her for
much of the play. However, her entanglement with the odious Aegisthus and her murder
of the innocent hapless Cassandra remind us that, in the larger context of the trilogy,
she is not an avenger but an adulteress and a murderer whose crime leads inexorably
to Orestes' vengeance in the next play.
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Libation Bearers

Context
Aeschylus was born in 525 BCE. He is called the "father of tragedy", as he invented the
dramatic form that defined Athens's glorious heyday. Along with Sophocles and
Euripides, the two other chief Athenian tragedians, Aeschylus stands as one of the most
important literary figures in the western tradition. He transformed a traditional religious
festival, that of the lament over the sufferings of Dionysus, into a literary form with social
and political consequences that pervaded Greek culture. Throughout history, he has
been a major influence on literature. Writers from Ovid to Shakespeare to Shelly and
Goethe have drawn directly from his ideas and models.
Like all other male Athenian citizens, Aeschylus was a soldier in addition to being a
producer of plays. His military experience included fighting in the battle of Marathon
against the Persians in 490 BCE and again against the Persians at Salamis and Platea
in 480 BCE. Athens, at that time, was part of a federation of small Greek states allied
against the enormous forces of the Persian army, which was led by king Xerxes.
We learn from reading Herodotus's Histories that all the odds were stacked against the
Greeks, as they were far outnumbered and out-financed. However, they had something
the Persians did not, namely, democracy and a commitment to individual freedoms. This
allowed them to fight far more fiercely than their opponents, who were all slaves of
Xerxes and who had no personal reasons for fighting the Greeks. As the translator and
editor of the Oresteia Robert Fagles maintains, the Greek victory over the Persians in
479 BCE was celebrated as "the triumph of right over might, courage over fear, freedom
over servitude, moderation over arrogance."

The cultural flowering that followed celebrated these values and established them as
the principles upon which Athens stood. There was an era of optimism, in which
Athenians felt that a new religious, political and personal harmony could arise out of the
primitive savagery of past wars. It is in this context that Aeschylus, at the age of sixty-
seven and after producing at least eighty plays, wrote his masterpiece, the Oresteia.
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Having spearheaded the defense of Greece against the Persians, Athens took a strong
leadership position amongst its neighbors and quickly began redefining itself as an
empire. In celebration of its new status, Athens set about redefining itself and its history.
In this context, we can view the Oresteia as representing the new charter myth of
Athens. From a very broad perspective, it chronicles the transition of the rule of law from
the old tradition of personal vengeance, which was bound to a cycle of bloody violence,
to the new system of law courts, wherein the state assumed responsibility for dealing
out just punishments.
The Libation Bearers itself stands at the crux of this transition, telling the story of
Orestes's quest to avenge his father's murder by murdering his mother and her lover.
Although Orestes's cause is just, the Furies treat him in the end just like any other
murderer, goading him into madness after he kills Clytamnestra. The chorus hopes all
along that the cycle of bloodshed might end with Orestes, but concedes at the end that
blood can only bring more blood. However, there is hope in the form of Apollo, the god
who has promised Orestes that he will not suffer for his crimes.
In the Eumenides, Athena convenes a trial for Orestes, in which Apollo and the Furies
argue against each other as to whether Orestes should pay for his crimes with death.
Such a resolution of a bloody conflict was unprecedented, and heralds a new phase of
civilized approaches to crime and punishment. Apollo represents the new order of light
and civilization against the primitive Furies, who scream only for blood and more blood.
Athena's acquittal of Orestes at the end of the play is a symbol of Athens's progression
into a new era of civilization. Moreover, Orestes's journey from boyhood to maturity is a
metaphor for the transformation of Athenian society itself.
Note: In order to understand the sequence of events that takes place in The Libation
Bearers, it is crucial to know something about the plot of the Agamemnon, the first play
in the trilogy of the Oresteia. The most famous telling of this myth takes place in
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Aeschylus preserves most of the traditional aspects of this
ancient myth, although he reformulates others to suit his times.
King Agamemnon was the brother of Menaleus, whose wife Helen (Clytamnestra's
sister) was abducted by Paris and brought to Troy, thus giving the premise for the Trojan
War. Angered over the slaughter that was fated to take place at Troy, Artemis punished
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the Greek fleet by stranding it on an island until a proper sacrifice should be offered.
After consulting the oracles, Agamemnon learned that only by sacrificing his own
daughter Iphigineia could he convince Artemis to allow the expedition to continue. He
did so, and the fleet proceeded to Troy, where it was victorious after ten years of
fighting.
Clytamnestra, Agamemnon's wife, was furious over the murder of her child, and swore
to seek vengeance. When Agamemnon returned home to Argos, bringing with him the
Trojan princess Cassandra as a concubine, Clytamnestra was waiting with a cunning
plot to kill him. She did not work alone however, but in conjunction with Aigisthos, the
lover whom she had taken in Agamemnon's absence. Aigisthos had his own reasons for
hating Agamemnon, as Agamemnon's father Atreus killed both of his brothers.
Clytamnestra lured Agamemnon into his bath, where Aigisthos stabbed him to death.
At the end of the Agamemnon, Clytamnestra is relieved that the deed is done, and
hopes that her house can now rest in peace. There are signs, however, that more
bloodshed is to follow. This sets the stage for The Libation Bearers, where Orestes will
return to avenge his father's death.
Plot Overview
Many years after king Agamemnon's murder at the hands of his wife Clytamnestra and
her lover Aigisthos, his son Orestes returns home with Pylades to mourn at his grave.
Orestes has been living in exile and has come back to Argos in secret, sent by an oracle
of Apollo. His mission is to exact vengeance for Agamemnon's death upon his
murderers. Apollo has threatened him with horrible punishments, including leprosy and
further exile, if he does not agree to accept this quest.
While standing at Agamemnon's grave, Orestes meets up with his sister Electra, whom
he has not seen since he was a child. There is a protracted recognition scene and then
a subsequent joyful reunion. Electra explains that she was sent to the grave by their
mother, Clytamnestra, to bring libations to Agamemnon in the hope she could quiet the
source of Clytamnestra's terrible dreams. Orestes and Electra, encouraged by the
chorus, discuss how much they love their father and hate their mother, and pray
together in order to invoke the spirit of Agamemnon to come to their aid in their quest for
vengeance.
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Orestes and Electra engage in wishful thinking about how their father could have lived,
but the chorus urges them to focus on the present and to act on their anger. Together,
Orestes and Electra plot to avenge Agamemnon's death. With the eager support of the
chorus, Orestes concocts a plan wherein he will gain admittance to the palace and kill
Aigisthos on the throne. Electra and the chorus are complicit, and disappear back into
the palace.

Unexpectedly, Clytamnestra comes to the door when Orestes knocks, thus forcing him
to fabricate a story about his origins. He claims to be a stranger bearing sad news of the
death of Orestes. Clytamnestra laments, and sends Cilissa, Orestes's old nurse, to tell
Aigisthos to come with his bodyguard to hear the news.
The chorus intervenes, intercepting Clytamnestra's message, and tells Cilissa to compel
Aigisthos to come alone, without his guard. Although she does not understand why the
chorus seems so gleeful, since she assumes that Orestes is dead, Cilissa does as she
is told. Aigisthos appears briefly on stage, after which he goes back into the palace to
meet Orestes. His death is announced by his servant, who cries out for Clytamnestra to
come and see what's happening.
Alarmed at all the shouting, Clytamnestra appears and immediately realizes that
something is horribly wrong. The doors open, and she sees Orestes over the fallen
body of Aigisthos. The climax of the play follows, as Orestes resolves to carry out his
vengeance on his mother. He hesitates at the crucial moment, however, when
Clytamnestra bares her breast to him and implores him to respect their filial bonds.
Pylades steps in at this moment, and reminds Orestes of his duty to Apollo. Orestes
regains his resolve and deflects all of Clytamnestra's pitiful arguments. He stabs her,
and the chorus rejoices. He wraps the two bodies in the same shroud in which
Agamemnon was killed, and announces to the world that he has carried out the
commands of Justice.

However, now that the deed is finally done, Orestes falls victim to the Furies's retributive
violence. He goes mad and flees the stage in the direction of Delphi, where he will seek
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refuge at Apollo's shrine. The chorus despairs at the end of the play that the cycle of
bloodshed has not stopped with Orestes's action, but continues ever still.
Themes
The cyclical nature of blood crimes
The ancient law of the Furies mandates that blood must be paid for with blood in an
unending cycle of doom. The chorus states this fact several times throughout the play,
most clearly in the first section of the kommos, which is discussed i n the quotes section
of this SparkNote. Vengeance is just, they say, and it has been the law of the house for
generations. In its opening lines, the chorus describes how "[t]he blood that Mother
Earth consumes clots hard, it won't seep through, it breeds revenge and frenzy goes
through the guilty" (lines 67–70). Nothing else can wash away a bloodstain but more
blood, which in turn requires more blood in order to be cleansed. The chorus offers no
solution to this dire situation of violence breeding m ore violence. They merely state it as
the natural law and do what is in their power to help Orestes fulfill his role in the divine
plan. However, over the course of The Libation Bearers, we get the sense that this time,
things will be different . Apollo has promised Orestes that he will not suffer for his crime,
and we know that a god is unlikely to go back on his word. The Oresteia as a whole is
Aeschylus's way of saying, "the buck stops here." Man cannot hope to build a
progressive civilization if he is steeped in a perpetual bloodbath. A way out must be
found, a new, more civilized law.
The lack of clarity between right and wrong
At times, one may find Aeschylus rather overwhelming in his complexity. However, it is
this complexity that compels us to return to him again and again. One of the
manifestations of this complexity is that there are no clear good guys or bad guys, but
rat her men and women who are faced with impossible choices. Agamemnon,
Clytamnestra, and Orestes are all caught between a rock and a hard place, which we
may find to be tragically unfair. Aeschylus is telling us that life is unfair, and that we must
develop systems for ourselves so that we can cope with the difficult decisions we will
inevitably face.
Orestes's particular situation pits his filial duties to Agamemnon against his filial duties
to Clytamnestra. If he does not murder Clytamnestra, the Furies will pursue him. But
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even when he does murder her, the Furies still pursue him. There is no co mpletely right
or wrong answer, Aeschylus tells us, but there are better and worse choices. Since
Apollo has thrown his weight behind the path of vengeance, Orestes chooses to comply
with his commands. In fulfilling his duty towards Apollo and his fat her, Orestes
condemns himself to suffering. He chooses to make this sacrifice, however, in order to
preserve the laws of society.
The conflict between new and old gods

At the beginning of The Libation Bearers there is no contradiction between the will of the
Furies and the will of Apollo, but by the end of the play we see that a split is developing
between these two orders of gods. The Furies represent th e ancient, primitive laws,
and demand that blood must always be paid for with blood. Apollo compels Orestes to
avenge his father, but then suggests that the cycle of violence will end, as he will not
have to die in recompense for his crime. In the Eumenides, this theme is fully
developed, as the Furies are tamed and relegated to a far less powerful position in
society. It is also significant that that Furies are female deities, while Apollo is
masculine, thus equating civilization and progress with male influences. In order for
society to prosper, the female powers must be subdued.
The difficult nature of inheritance
The Oresteia teaches us that, while we cannot choose how we are born, we can choose
how to approach that birthright. In returning to Argos to pursue a terrible quest, Orestes
shows himself to be a noble character. He does not flee from destiny , but calls upon his
father's spirit and his mother's resolve in order to do what must be done. As the only son
of a murdered father, Orestes is fated to avenge his death. He approaches this fate with
sophistication and grace, never wavering in his convic tion that he is doing the right
thing, but also never sinking to the point of reveling in the slaughter. Towards the
beginning of the play, Orestes states that he has returned to Argos in order to claim his
inheritance. By this he means the kingdom that i s rightfully his. However, implicit in this
statement is the idea that he must claim his share in the destructive bloodshed that has
plagued the house for generations. Clytamnestra had sent him away as a child so that
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he might escape this fate. But, in order to claim his inheritance and become a man,
Orestes must return to the origin of his misery and confront it head on.
Symbols
Serpents
There are a total of six references to serpents in The Libation Bearers, each of which is
significant to the development of the plot. The serpent is associated with the net
metaphor, as a serpent kills by constricting its coils. Serpents in Greek c ulture were
viewed with much the same mixture of suspicion and reverence as they are today. They
were strange creatures that were associated with the divine. In this play, Clytamnestra is
associated with the serpent because she killed her husband with her twisting plots. Her
dream that she bears a snake that bites her when she feeds it is the reason behind her
decision to send Electra and the chorus to Agamemnon's grave. Orestes then lays claim
to this serpent image, announcing that he is the snake at his mother's breast, and that
he will not hesitate to bite. Clytamnestra brings on her death when she recognizes
Orestes as the serpent from her dream. At this moment, he actualizes the vision of
himself that he had prophesized and strikes Cl ytamnestra dead.
Eagle
While the eagle is mentioned only once in The Libation Bearers, it is an important
symbol in the context of the whole myth. On their way to Troy, Agamemnon and
Menaleus see an omen that bodes ill. Two eagles swoop down upon a pregnant hare
and tear her to shreds. The eagles represent the warrior kings, and the hare represents
Troy. While they will be victorious, they will do so by committing bloody acts that are
sure to bring retribution. Artemis ensures that Agamemnon will pay for his crimes,
forcing him to sacrifice his daughter in order to get to Troy, thus condemning him to
death at Clytamnestra's hands. In his first long prayer in The Libation Bearers, Orestes
refers to Agamemnon as "the noble eagle father" who has "died in the coils, the viper's
dark embrace." The eagle is the symbol of Zeus, the bird of victory and freedom.
However, no matter how noble a king Agamemnon was or how glorious his exploits
were, he still dies in the nets of Clytamnestra's plotting. While the ea gle may have
temporarily gotten away with spearing the hare, the viper will strangle him in turn.
Agamemnon's robes
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After murdering Clytamnestra and Aigisthos, Orestes inexplicably produces the bloody
robes in which his father dies and wraps them around his victims as a sign of the justice
of his act. These robes represent both the devious plots of Clytamne stra, as they coil
like the snake, and the presence of Agamemnon's spirit as a witness to Orestes's
fulfillment of his duty. We know that blood can only be washed away with blood. By
wrapping Agamemnon's robes around his murderers, Orestes substitutes the ir blood for
that of his father, so that his father can finally rest in peace.
Motifs
Light and Dark
As this play chronicles the transition of society from its dark and primitive origins to its
new civilized and illuminated state, it is natural that the motif of light and dark should
occur throughout the play. The house of Atreus has sat under a dark clo ud for many
generations, beset by misery and bloody murder again and again. However, as the
chorus joyously states, Orestes will be a savior and bring light back into their lives. He is
able to do this because he is backed by Apollo, who is th e god of the sun and all things
associated with illumination, including civilization itself. The Furies on the other hand,
are associated with death and everything else that lurks beneath the ground. They wear
black and are able to drag people down in to madness, which is also associated with
darkness. Under their law, no light ever shines through the clouds, as the blood must
continually flow. In order to break free of its dark and bloody past, the house must also
sever ties with the Furies that have lurked around it for so long.
Net imagery
The net is the most important metaphor that runs through the Oresteia. Net imagery is
used to represent treachery, confusion, and entrapment. Nets' binding powers associate
them with snakes, who strangle their victims to death. In the Agamem non, Cassandra
has a vision of a net and realizes that it is Clytamnestra herself, closing in around her
prey. The physical manifestation of Clytamnestra's devious plot is the robe of
Agamemnon, which Orestes calls a net at the end of the play. Just as one weaves
words in order to persuade someone of something, so Clytamnestra and Orestes weave
plots in order to trap their enemies. Nets are naturally cunning devices, as one usually
does not see the net closing in until it is too late. We c an understand this metaphor in
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opposition to a spear or sword metaphor, which would imply direct and open contact
with the enemy. A net is like a trap that is laid well in advance. For this reason, it is
associated with all kinds of plotting and deception .
Important Quotes Explained
Such oracles are persuasive, don't you think? And even if I am not convinced, the rough
work of the world is still to do. So many yearnings meet and urge me on (lines 297–299)
This passage comes at the end of Orestes's explanation for why he has returned again
to Argos. Standing at Agamemnon's grave with Electra and the chorus, Orestes
describes how Apollo sent an oracle commanding him to return home to avenge his
father's death. If he should refuse, he would suffer horrible diseases and exile from
every human community. His description is vivid and horrifying, enough to convince
anyone to do the god's bidding.
However, Orestes explains that other reasons have motivated his return besides
Apollo's threats. His sorrow for his father, his poverty, and his anger over Aigisthos's
usurpation of his father's throne. This distinction between different motivations proves to
be crucial at the climax of the play, when suddenly all of Orestes's resolve disappears
just as he is about to kill Clytamnestra. While his personal reasons for seeking
vengeance drive his actions through most of the play, it is Apollo's command that forces
him to complete the deed. This is significant because it shows that while Orestes was
willing to take personal responsibility for his matricide, his actual motivation at the
moment of the murder comes from a divine source. Because Apollo was responsible for
the actual crime being carried out, he will protect Orestes from the Furies when they
come to claim their retribution in the Eumenides.
Important Quotes Explained
For word of hate let word of hate be said, cries Justice. Stroke for bloody stroke must be
paid. The one who acts must suffer. Three generations long this law resounds. (lines
311–314)
The chorus says these words at the end of their first section in the kommos.They are
the mouthpieces of the primitive law of retribution, which mandated that blood be paid
for with blood. One who failed to avenge the murder of a kinsman was as guilty as if he
had committed the crime himself. Justice demands that evil deeds be punished by
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further evil deeds. The chorus says these words in order to stir up hate and anger in
Orestes and Electra. They insist that the old order of law must be respected, and that
Agamemnon's murderers must pay for their crimes. While the chorus celebrates
Orestes's intention to kill the killers, they show little awareness or concern for his fate
after he has completed the act. They focus only on the immediate claims of Justice,
which demand that Orestes turn murderer himself. It will be up to Apollo and Athena in
the Eumenides to break this cycle of bloodshed.

They killed an honored man by cunning, so they die by cunning, caught in the same
noose. (lines 556–558)
Orestes speaks these words as he begins to outline his plan for killing Aigisthos. It is
significant that in laying out this plan, he makes no mention of what he intends to do
about Clytamnestra. However, while he does not address it directly, he alludes to his
intention to kill his mother in this quote, as he speaks of the killers in the plural form.
Orestes's statement pays homage to the old laws laid out by the chorus in the quote
discussed previously. Although warriors in battle should confront their enemies directly,
Clytamnestra and Aigisthos forfeited that right when they tricked Agamemnon into
making himself vulnerable to murder. Thus, Orestes is justified in his approach to the
confrontation.
This line is echoed again nearing the climax of the play, when Clytamnestra asks who is
shouting up and down the halls, and the servant tells her that the dead are killing the
living. Immediately recognizing that Orestes has plotted against her, Clytamnestra says,
"By cunning we die, precisely as we killed" (line 888).
But you, when your turn in the action comes, be strong. When she cries 'Son!' cry out
'My father'sson!' Go through with the murder—innocent at last. (lines 827–830)
The chorus speaks these words in their last ode before the climax of the play. After
praying to Zeus, the household gods, Apollo and Hermes, the chorus addresses
Orestes (figuratively, not literally.) Anticipating Clytamnestra's emotional hold over her
son, the chorus warns him that when she appeals to him as a mother, he should deny
his bond to her and call himself Agamemnon's son only. This way, he will not really be
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guilty of matricide, as Clytamnestra has been discredited as his mother. Since

Clytamnestra has taken on the attributes of a man and violated the safety of the home,
she no longer has a right to the privileges of a mother and deserves to die like a man.
This quote also reflects the chorus's naiveté regarding the outcome of Orestes's
actions. They engage in the same kind of wishful thinking for which they criticized
Orestes and Electra after the kommos. We will soon discover that the Furies do not
consider Orestes to be innocent at all.

Wait, my son—no respect for this, my child? The breast you held, drowsing away the
hours, soft gums tugging the milk that made you grow? (lines 896–898)
Clytamnestra says these words as Orestes is dragging her towards the body of
Aigisthos in order to murder her alongside her lover. After taking on the attributes of a
calculating man throughout the Agamemnon and calling for an axe to fight off Orestes,
Clytamnestra here reverts to her maternal role in a last ditch attempt to fend off death.
While there is a possibility that she is sincere in her wish to return to proper female
norms, it is too late now to cross back into that territory. The audience is likely to have
looked with disgust upon this emotional gesture, seeing it as a hypocritical act. Not only
have we watched Clytamnestra forgoing her female role in favor of taking a strong male
position over the household, but we have also learned from Cilissa that Clytamnestra
did not, in fact, nurse Orestes at her breast as she claims. In defense of Clytamnestra,
one could argue that Cilissa exaggerated her role in Orestes's upbringing in order to
further stain Clytamnestra's reputation. However, the audience would have sided with
Cilissa in this matter.
We can imagine that the chorus would have rejected this gesture entirely, as they have
already told Orestes to consider himself to be Agamemnon's son only. Orestes,
however, is deeply moved, and his resolve momentarily weakens. It is at this point that
Pylades steps in to remind him of his pledge to Apollo, saying that it is better to make
enemies of all men than to anger the gods. These words negate Clytamnestra's act and
condemn her to death.
Key Facts
Full Title · The Libation Bearers
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Author · Aeschylus
Type Of Work · Play

Genre · Tragedy
Language · Attic Greek
Time And Place Written · Athens, 458 BCE
Date Of First Publication · Unknown

Publisher · Unknown
Narrator · Not Applicable (drama)
Point Of View · Not Applicable (drama)
Tone · While Aeschylus uses a well-known myth as the basis for his Oresteia, he
approaches it in a distinctly different way than all other writers who came before him. He
has an agenda to convey, which is that only civil law courts can break the primitive cycle
of violence that destroyed Agamemnon, Clytamnestra, and Aigisthos. His tone is at
times moral and at times objective. He seeks to convey to us the nature of gods and
men.

Tense · Not Applicable (drama)

Setting (Time) · Archaic Greece, about twenty years after the end of the Trojan War
Setting (Place) · Argos
Protagonist · Orestes

Major Conflict · Revenge must be sought for Agamemnon's murder at the hands of

Clytamnestra and Aigisthos. Apollo sends Orestes to do the job. Orestes must return
home, pay tribute to his father's tomb, plot with his sister Electra, connive his way into
the palace, and commit a double murder. All of this is very complicated and also
presents some difficult ethical questions.
Rising Action · Orestes returns home, runs into Electra at their father's tomb, plots with
her to avenge their father's murder, and gains audience with Clytamnestra and Aigisthos
under false pretences.
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Climax · Orestes commits matricide, a horrendous but necessary crime that is

sanctioned by Apollo.
Falling Action · The house of Argos is now free of Agamemnon's murderers, but
Orestes is haunted by his mother's curse and runs away screaming from the Furies who
come to claim him.

Themes · The cyclical nature of blood crimes; the lack of clarity between right and
wrong; the conflict between new and old gods; the difficult nature of inheritance
Motifs · Light and Dark; net imagery
Symbols · Serpents; eagle; Agamemnon's robes
Foreshadowing · This concept does not directly apply to this play, as Aeschylus's
audience would have been very familiar with the myth of Orestes. However, instances of
foreshadowing include the fateful vision of the vicious eagles attacking the hare, Apollo's
declaration that Orestes will not have to pay for his crimes, and Clytamnestra's snake
dream.

Eumenides
The play opens with Pythia, the priestess of Apollo, preparing to perform her morning
prayer. Her ritual is interrupted, however, by a bloodstained refugee who has come to
her temple to be cleansed. It is Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, who
killed his mother in order to avenge her murder of his father. Following him is a
relentless band of Furies, demonic goddesses whose only aim in life is to punish human
wrongdoers.

Though Pythia is terrified by this sight, and flees immediately, the god Apollo himself
takes her place. He reveals that Orestes only killed Clytemnestra at his divine
command, and explains to the audience that he has lulled the Furies to sleep, before
expressing his hatred of the merciless goddesses. Apollo tells Orestes that he must
continue to Athens, where Athena, the goddess of wisdom, will try his case. In the
meantime, however, he offers his half-brother, the god Hermes, to guide Orestes to
Athens.
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After Orestes has exited, the ghost of Clytemnestra appears, scornfully cursing the
Furies for their laziness. They wake up and are horrified to find their prey has escaped,
cursing the Olympian gods for helping a guilty man defy their power. At this moment,
Apollo emerges from the temple, and a verbal fight begins. Apollo finds the Furies
contemptible and horrific, relics of a time when vengeance was more important than
justice. The Furies, meanwhile, believe that Apollo is trying to steal their power. The
dialogue ends with the Furies vowing to pursue Orestes, even as Apollo promises to
protect him.

The scene shifts to Athens, where Orestes prays to Athena just as the Furies find him
once again, threatening and tormenting him when they do. Soon after, Athena herself
enters, and commands both the Furies and Orestes to tell her who they are and why
they’ve come to Athens—she explains that she must protect her city at all costs. Both
sides explain their presence to her, and agree to abide by her ruling.

Athena wishes to serve justice, but fears the wrath of the Furies. She decides, however,
to create the first ever murder trial in order to determine Orestes’ guilt, recruiting ten
honorable citizens to form a jury. The trial begins, with the Furies arguing that
Clytemnestra’s life was worth as much as Agamemnon’s. Apollo, however, argues that
men’s lives are worth more than women’s, and Athena agrees, casting the deciding vote
that allows Orestes to go free, an innocent man.

This chain of events horrifies the Furies, who believe that Athena has stolen their power
from them. Athena, however, wisely offers the Furies a new role: patron goddesses of
Athens. She explains that if they provide the city with peace and prosperity, they will
receive offerings and prayer in return. After some convincing, the Furies agree, and take
on the mantle of the Eumenides—“the kindly ones.”