by Aeschylus
425–26 / 373 the blessed race that lives / beyond the North Wind’s lair These are the Hyperboreans, “those beyond Boreas,” a mythical tribe that lived in the distant north in a state of bliss. They were associated with Apollo, who had visited their land before he went to claim Delphi as his seat, and returned for three months each winter.
429–30 / 375–76 the sharp snap of this / double lash the sound of the laments of Orestes and Electra; for the double lash, cf. note on Agamemnon, 730–31.
441 / 387 the shrill triumphant cry See note on Agamemnon 33–34.
459–61 / 402–4 The end of Libation Bearers will show that this principle applies as much to Orestes as to any of his predecessors in revenge.
483–85 / 423–24 the way a Mede would do … a wailing woman from Susa The Greeks associated passionate and violent lament with Oriental, and especially Persian cultures. The Greek text refers to “the Arian manner” and “a Cissian wailing-woman”; since “Arian” was an alternate name for the Medes, and Cissia was the region of Persia surrounding the ancient capital city of Susa, we have used those more familiar names.
504 / 439 he was mutilated Agamemnon’s corpse is said to have undergone maschalismos, literally “armpitting,” in which a murder victim’s hands and feet were cut off and strung on a rope that was then drawn under the corpse’s armpits and tied around the neck. The purpose of such a rite was presumably to disable the corpse and so prevent the victim from taking revenge on the murderers. Here, however, it seems to be mentioned chiefly as a further aggravating factor in the crimes against Agamemnon.
531 / 461 Now force will battle force, and justice justice Not only a violent struggle, then, but a conflict of one dike against another. We are reminded for the first time in Libation Bearers of Clytemnestra’s and Aegisthus’ claims to have accomplished justice by killing Agamemnon (e.g., Agamemnon, 1637 / 1432, 1754–58 / 1525–27, 1814 / 1577, 1848–52 / 1604–7).
557–62 / 483–88 For this appeal to the self-interest of Agamemnon’s ghost, see note on 290 / 257.
584–87 / 510–13 The Chorus Leader marks the end of the long prayer sequence at Agamemnon’s tomb by turning Orestes’ thoughts to the planning of the deed he has vowed to do. Orestes’ questioning of why Clytemnestra sent libations to Agamemnon’s tomb (588–98 / 513–22), will provide the key to that plan.
619 / 542 Look how I read it Orestes in effect makes the dream his own by the act of interpreting it in a way that gives him at once an omen of victory and the means to shape his plan. At 629–30 / 551–53, the Chorus adopts his interpretation and adds a prayer for its realization.
634–35 / 556–58 the ones who killed … / by treachery, will by treachery be killed This is the form of vengeance Apollo enjoined at 309–10 / 273–74.
642 / 563 we’ll both speak with a Parnassian accent This is the accent spoken in the region of Phocis, around Mount Parnassus, to which Orestes was sent as a child (cf. Agamemnon 1008–13 / 877–81). Nothing in the language Orestes uses in his role as the Phocian stranger (750–810 / 653–706) deviates from standard Attic Greek of tragic dialogue. It is possible that his delivery had a flavoring of Phocian pronunciation, but perhaps more likely, within the non-naturalistic conventions of tragic performance, that the audience found it sufficient that he said he would do so.
644–57 / 565–76 Orestes’ plan contains provisions for situations that do not arise (the possibilities that he and Pylades are not admitted to the palace and that Aegisthus is found at home and sitting on Agamemnon’s throne). Aeschylus may be using versions of the story known to his audience (Aegisthus is shown being murdered as he sits on his throne on a number of red-figure vases from earlier in the fifth century) to create uncertainty about just how the plot will develop. It is significant that, apart from the plural in the promise of revenge against “the ones who killed an honored lord” (634 / 556), Orestes avoids any mention of the killing of Clytemnestra, the act that will be so fraught with emotion and laden with consequences for him. Instead, he breaks off with the successful completion of the plot against Aegisthus. Orestes will only confront the human meaning of matricide when the moment has come to commit it.
657–60 / 577–78 Orestes refers to the murder of Aegisthus as yet another third libation, reminiscent of Clytemnestra’s libation of blood (Agamemnon 1577–81 / 1384–87), but dedicated to the Erinys that cries out for vengeance. We should recall that Orestes is the snake that drinks his mother’s blood (627–28 / 549–50), the embodiment of the Erinys. See further Introduction, pp. 31–32.
660 / 579 You, Electra Orestes’ reiteration of his instructions to Electra with which the speech began signals the end of her role in the play. She will not appear or even be mentioned again.
666 / 583 the god who stands there by the door Our translation is more explicit than the Greek text, which says simply “this one here.” Who is meant? Pylades has been suggested, but the verb translated “watch over” (epopteusai) elsewhere in Aeschylus is used to invoke divine oversight of human affairs. Agamemnon would be possible, and the verb is appropriate enough for a sacred hero such as he has become. We join most editors, however, in assuming that Orestes points to the statue or symbol of a divinity placed near the door of the stage building. The pillar of Apollo agyieus that Cassandra addressed in Agamemnon, apparently a regular feature of the stage set (see note on Agamemnon 1229), is the most likely candidate and would be apt given Orestes’ reliance on Apollo’s oracle. A statue or herm of Hermes, who was invoked as “overseer” of Agamemnon’s power at the beginning of the play, and will be called on again to “oversee / and guide the contest” (837–38 / 728–29), be equally, or perhaps even more, appropriate. If the reference here is in fact to a deity represented near the door of the stage building, Aeschylus is here shifting our focus from the tomb to coming role to the palace (see note on 370).
669–749 / 585–652 First stasimon This choral ode is the first surviving example of a type that becomes common in the works of Sophocles and Euripides: a situation within the play is illuminated by examples drawn primarily from mythology. In this case, natural terrors as well as terrifying stories from myth set off the enormity of Agamemnon’s murder. The mythical examples all illustrate violent and destructive deeds of women, shifting attention from Aegisthus (cf. note on 644–57) to Clytemnestra, who will soon appear on stage. The Chorus emphasizes “passion … that … perverts / the yoke of wedlock” (683–86 / 599–601) and results in the killing of children (Althaea), fathers (Scylla), and—even worse—husbands (Clytemnestra and the Lemnian women).
701 / 613 the bloody Scylla This is the first surviving evidence of a story that must nevertheless have been well known to Aeschylus’ audience, since it is treated allusively here. Scylla’s name is not given in the Greek text, which merely refers to a “bloody maiden.” Nisus, however, was the brother of Aegeus, who was king of Athens, and father of Theseus, so the story is part of Athenian lore. We cannot trace it again until it reappears in works by the Roman poets Vergil and Ovid. The Romans tend to conflate this Scylla with the sea-monster of the Odyssey (cf. note on Agamemnon 1409–10), but there is no reason to connect them.
708–9 / 619 his lock / of immortality A life-token, like Meleager’s brand (692–99 / 604–11), and also akin to the hair that gave the biblical Samson his strength.
711–37 / 623–38 We print the third strophe and antistrophe in the order transmitted by the manuscript tradition. It implies the following sequence of thought: Clytemnestra’s outrageous murder of Agamemnon (strophe) is worse than the crimes of Althaea and Scylla, so horrible that it calls to mind the most terrible crime of all, the Lemnian women’s massacre of their husbands (antistrophe). That this order is correct is perhaps confirmed by the Chorus’ statement that the Lemnian crime is worst (presbeuetai, “takes pride of place”) among all such tales. Many scholars, however, have preferred to reverse strophe and antistrophe, making Clytemnestra’s crime the climactic element, and providing an easier transition to the c
onsideration in the final strophic pair of vengeance still to come.
725–26 / 631 the crime / of Lemnos Apparently already a byword for any horrifying deed (730–31 / 633–34), the transgression of the women of the island of Lemnos was so well known to Aeschylus’ audience that he could merely allude to it as something that caused them to be despised by gods and men. The women had failed to pay due honors to Aphrodite, and she therefore caused their husbands to spurn them in favor of Thracian women captured on raids. The women retaliated by slaying all the men of the island. Aeschylus emphasizes that their collective folly wipes out an entire people (733 / 636).
746–48 / 649–51 a child / is brought to the house … / by the far famed Erinyes The child is both a new crime to requite the old crimes that are its parents (cf., e.g., 928–29 / 805, Agamemnon, 874–80 / 763–71) and the literal son, Orestes, who returns as the Erinyes’ agent to avenge his father’s murder.
750–902 / 652–782 Second episode This episode consists of two short, self-contained scenes separated by a brief passage in anapests chanted by the Chorus (829–35 / 719–29). After a relatively static first half, centered around the rituals at Agamemnon’s tomb, Orestes’ revenge will move forward with headlong speed.
750 / 652 Boy! Boy! Orestes calls to the slave who would be expected to open the door to visitors. The theatrical technique of knocking on the door is widely taken up in comedy, but seen only rarely in later tragedy. As Taplin points out (Stagecraft [see Introduction, footnote 7], 340), Orestes’ return as an ordinary traveler makes a marked contrast to Agamemnon’s homecoming in the preceding play. His entrance into the palace to exact revenge will also be utterly unlike Agamemnon’s as unwitting victim.
756–65 / 658–67 The deception that is an essential feature of Orestes’ revenge begins with the assumption of a persona established by the elaborate imagery and somewhat supercilious tone of his instructions. There is a slightly comic atmosphere here, but of course in the service of grim ends; and some of Orestes’ ironies are quite pointed. Speaking of the mistress of the house as the one “who runs the place” (762 / 664), for example, has a special application to Clytemnestra, and Orestes’ suggestion that he would “frankly say whatever’s on his mind” (765 / 666–67) if he could speak to the master has a particular edge considering the elaborate plot now under way.
766 / 668 Until the palace door opens, we do not know who will receive the false report of Orestes’ death. That his mother now enters heightens the dramatic tension considerably. In her welcome there is once again irony, but of a different kind from that of Orestes. The offer of “warm baths” (768 / 670) cannot help but have a sinister ring in light of Agamemnon’s fate, and there is irony, too, in her mention of “the attention of judicious [dikaiôn, literally “just”] eyes” (769 / 671). Clytemnestra’s deferral to men when it comes to “graver business” (770 / 672) is something we know to be mere pretense.
791 / 690 His parent, though, should know The Greek word translated “parent” is a masculine participle; it might conceivably mean “mother or father,” but even then presupposes at least the possibility that there is a living father. Orestes ironically pretends ignorance of Agamemnon’s death.
793–802 / 691–99 There has been much dispute about whether Clytemnestra is sincere in her lament for Orestes. The Nurse will assert categorically that Clytemnestra’s tears were feigned (848–54 / 737–41), and her capacity for blatant hypocrisy was made amply clear in Agamemnon (e.g., 683–700 / 600–12, 981–1007 / 855–73; cf. 1563–65 / 1372–73). On the other hand, there is nothing in Clytemnestra’s words themselves that brands them as hypocritical. If they do not reflect a close human bond, that may be a sign that they are not feigned, for indeed there has been no such bond between Clytemnestra and her son. What she laments is the way in which the curse on the house destroys even at a distance the son she thought was safe, and we know that what is still to come will only confirm her fear of its “hideous carousing” (802 / 698). What is less clear is the meaning of the hope she apparently invested in Orestes while he was still alive. The Greek text here has been much disputed and emended without any fully satisfactory understanding being reached. The apparent idea is that Orestes might somehow, at some later time, have put a stop destruction of the Argive royal house by agreeing to some compromise satisfactory to all concerned.
825–39 / 719–29 Choral interlude The Chorus, left alone on stage, prays for Orestes’ success in marching anapests (see note on Agamemnon 48–123). Because the passage is preceded by an exit and followed by the entrance of a new character, it meets Taplin’s criteria (Stagecraft of Aeschylus [see Introduction, footnote 7], 51–56) for an act-dividing song, a function usually filled by a full-fledged choral ode. From another perspective, however, two scenes are joined by this brief stanza into a single unit: the intrigue launched by Orestes’ dialogue with Clytemnestra in the previous scene will be unexpectedly extended by the Chorus’ timely intercession with his old Nurse.
831–39 / 726–29 The Chorus’ invocation of Persuasion and Hermes as Orestes’ helpers in the coming battle emphasizes the all-important role of deception in achieving victory. Hermes plays a double role, with his chthonic character aligning him with the prayer to earth and Agamemnon’s tomb (828–29 / 722–23) and reminding us of a long series of prayers in the first half of the play. But as “lord / of stealthy night” (836–37 / 728), Hermes is also the god of shady dealing, stealth, and guile.
840–902 / 730–82 The Chorus intercepts the Nurse, whom Clytemnestra has dispatched to fetch Aegisthus. They have just prayed to Persuasion and stealthy Hermes to help Orestes; now the Chorus Leader helps by using persuasion to bring about Aegisthus’ death by stealth. The intervention of the Chorus in the action is unusual, but in emphasizing the role of deceit in Orestes’ revenge, it also draws attention to the fact that Aegisthus will enter the palace like Agamemnon, unsuspecting and defenseless. The Nurse is an almost comic character, with her prattling about babies’ bowels and other subjects that normally have no place in tragedy, but she is not here for comic relief, like the Porter in Macbeth. She brings the perspective of a person who loves Orestes for himself, as a mother should, but his own mother does not and cannot; and her reaction to his supposed death is touchingly immediate and intense.
841 / 732 Cilissa An ethnic name, “the Cilician woman,” presumably indicating that the Nurse was captured or bought in Cilicia, a region of southeastern Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). Slaves in tragedy, unlike those in comedy, are rarely given names.
844 / 734–35 The mistress orders me Once again Clytemnestra sends someone out to do her bidding, and again the result will be the opposite of what she intended.
848–54 / 737–41 Whether the Nurse’s depiction of Clytemnestra’s hypocrisy is taken at face value or not (cf. note on 793–802), it certainly makes clear that she is no ally of her mistress, and lends force to the contrast of her own very maternal lament with the far less intimate one of Orestes’ natural mother.
871 / 753 like a dumb beast There is an implicit comparison between the beast-like baby Orestes the nurse once nurtured and Clytemnestra’s recent dream of the snake who suckled at her breast—the now grown and no longer helpless Orestes who will kill her (cf. 627–28 / 549–50).
903–59 / 783–837 Second stasimon An extended prayer for the success of Orestes’ mission, articulated in three triads, each consisting of a strophic pair separated by a single stanza in a different meter (“mesode”). The first triad is directed to Zeus, the second to a different god or gods in each of its stanzas, and the third anticipates Orestes’ struggle and victory.
912–14 / 791–93 Another appeal to the god’s self-interest (see note on 290), although this time with no threat of withholding favor for noncompliance.
915–21 / 794–99 An extended metaphor in which the Chorus asks Zeus to help Orestes, the colt of Agamemnon, win the race in which he is now engaged, his quest for vengeance. Orestes “yoked to the chariot of struggle�
�� recalls a series of figures yoked in Agamemnon, among them Agamemnon yoked to horrible necessity (248–49 / 218), Troy yoked to its destruction (600–601 / 529), and Cassandra yoked to slavery (1091–92 / 953, 1219 / 1071). Here, however, the metaphor serves the hopeful meaning of a prayer for victory.
922 / 800–803 you gods within These are gods like Zeus ktêsios (see note on Agamemnon 1178) and Hestia, goddess of the hearth, who received simple domestic forms of worship, and were regarded as guardians of the family’s possessions.
926–27 / 803–4 wash clean the blood … ‘with / a fresh-kill act of justice The Chorus appears to hope that a new deed of blood can cancel out all those that came before and bring an end to the cycle of crime and retribution. By the end of the play, the Chorus will see that this “solution” is far more equivocal and uncertain (1212–17 / 1073–76).
929–30 / 807–8 the magnificent / great cave Apollo was thought of in antiquity as communicating with his prophetess at Delphi from a chasm beneath the temple. Since modern archeology has shown that there was no such geological feature, one can only speculate what might have given the impression of a cavern entrance within the temple’s inner chamber.
934–40 / 812–18 Hermes is invoked, as before, both as chthonic power and as god of stealth (cf. note on 831–39), but in addition as god of voyage, whose favoring breeze can keep the ship on course. The Chorus makes that image its omen in the following strophe (943–45 / 821–24). The imagery surrounding Hermes in this stanza, however, is largely associated with darkness. Hermes does his work in the dark, through trickery, and Orestes must do the same. This emphasis on darkness has an ominous ring, particularly after the prayer in the preceding stanza that Orestes be allowed to bring light from darkness.
