The Oresteia: Agamemnon, the Libation-Bearers & the Furies

by Aeschylus

  The growing unity of the celebrants is embodied in this structure. It describes not only a single triad but repeated triads, and each grows tighter, more interlocking as the sense of crisis gathers head. In IA the women act as midwives, instilling energy into the children’s unrealistic dreams of glory. In IB they merely reflect the children’s changing moods, as Electra asserts her leadership and invokes her mother’s force. But in the second, central section Orestes is surrounded by excruciating pressures. The women break into an agony of mourning in response to the agony of Electra, helpless during her father’s murder but incensed; while her account of his maimed rites, in turn, provokes the women’s urging of Orestes. The stanzas in this section develop a double motion. Taken in responsion, the stanzas surround him, tearing him between his father’s and his mother’s claims; taken in order, the stanzas thrust him on to action. He emerges as the leader, and Electra and the women consolidate behind him in the third, final movement, until the women recoil and leave the children to their coda, their antiphonal fury of revenge.

  320 The one who acts must suffer: the maxim expounded by the chorus in A that every deed brings its retribution; see A 1592 and n. The maxim leads the law of Zeus - that we must suffer into truth - into its negative, punitive extreme, the lex talionis; but it will become a law of compensation - that we may suffer into self-fulfilment and social justice; see E n. 877.

  321 Three generations: refers in a general sense to venerable antiquity. It may also recall the motif of the three generations of conflict referred to in A, here with special reference to the house of Atreus; see A 169ff. and n.

  330 The fire: the funeral pyre.

  335 Hunt, etc. The image returns to hunt the hunters down; it will be turned against Orestes too (911, 1054f.), but not before it acquires more personal, creative senses - the search for vital recognitions, like Electra’s ‘tracking’ of her brother (206ff.) and, in effect, the pursuit of one’s destiny; see A n. 129, E n. 116.

  342 And the pain is equal, whose is worse? The construction, like the tragic choice itself, echoes through the Oresteia; see A 212, E n. 155.

  343 Third last fall: see A n. 169ff.

  350 The Lycians were Anatolian allies of the Trojans.

  359 The giant kings who judge, etc. Minos, Rhadamanthos, Aiakos.

  371 The Blest, etc. The Hyperboreans, a legendary people who worshipped Apollo and were believed by the ancient Greeks to inhabit an earthly paradise in the far north of Europe.

  373 The double lash: perhaps a reference to the positive and negative reasons for revenge that follow here - the death of Agamemnon, the brutality of Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra; or the double lamentation of Orestes and Electra that will lash their father back to life and lash themselves to fury. In A the pattern of ‘doubling’ suggests retaliation; here it adds a sense of recrimination and perhaps of future restoration, too; see n. 61, 925f., 964.

  382 For parents of revenge revenge be done: this difficult line, as Anne Lebeck observes, ‘applies to both parents: fulfilment of revenge for the father, for the mother penalty paid in full. And this is the dilemma of Orestes. The task of avenging his father entails wronging his mother, he cannot do one without the other.’ His reluctance to name his mother as his victim (425ff.) will continue until he drops his disguise and faces Clytaemnestra as her son (886).

  383 Cries of triumph: Clytaemnestra’s former exultation turns against her; see 929; A n. 30, E n. 1053.

  384f The man and the woman here are Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra.

  413ff Persian professional mourners were renowned for the violence of their lamentations. The women here accomplish the rites which were denied the king at the time of his death.

  428f Hands lopped, etc. A reference to the practice of mutilation - cutting off the hands and feet of a dead enemy and tying them on a rope around his neck and under his armpits, to prevent his ghost from pursuing the killer.

  443ff I am calling you, my father: this and the following lines have the force of an evocation to raise the ghost of a dead person from his tomb as in the evocation of Darius in Persians, 640ff. (where Darius’ ghost actually appears on the scene).

  461 Their bloody strife: an echo of the war at Troy (A 697) that magnifies the internecine war in Argos and the heroism of Orestes; see notes 884f., 951; E n. 771.

  470 The sacred feast: offered to the earth and providing a kind of sustenance to the dead.

  474 My bridal wine: presumably Electra was forbidden to marry, lest she bear a son who might avenge her father.

  477 Persephone: daughter of Demeter and wife of Pluto, ruler of Hades; perhaps because she returns to life each spring, she may be invoked as a source of power from the dead; see Introduction, p. 71.

  493 Corks to the net: this dominant symbol begins to emerge in a more optimistic light; see Introduction, p. 68.

  510f Some terror . . . groping through the night: the rare Greek word ‘night-wandering’ (or ‘causing wanderings in the night’) is repeated from the opening scene of A (15); now Clytaemnestra feels the fear she had induced, and the torches must be lit to give her comfort.

  514 A snake: the symbol begins to dominate the play. In general the serpent was an emblem of relentless, silent power coming from under the ground, often sinister and harmful, but sometimes, as in its association with the god of healing, Asclepios, it served beneficial purposes. In LB it will be associated equally with the Furies and Orestes, vengeance and regeneration, a blend of powers that Aeschylus begins to develop within the dream of Clytaemnestra. In the earlier, lyric account of Stesichorus, she dreams simply that she saw a snake and from its bloodstained head appeared a king of the line of Pleisthenes. Here she bears the snake that is her son, her progeny and her death in one. Like the female viper, according to Greek belief, she kills her mate and then is murdered by their offspring in revenge; see 987ff.

  550f Speak Parnassian . . . the native tones of Delphi: actually Phokis in Greek, the district in which Delphi lies. Although it is unlikely that Orestes adopts a dialect, much of what he will say at the gates is Delphic indeed - cryptic, charged with moral resonance; see Introduction, pp. 60ff., and notes to lines 657 through 687f.

  553 Ridden by a curse: and so, like a man possessed, either not capable of courtesy or wary of any visitation. Orestes’ ruse of waiting at the doors may help him to determine Aegisthus’ whereabouts or rally indignant citizens to his side, but the plan is far-fetched and rendered worthless in the sequel.

  565 Our third libation poured to Saving Zeus: third after Thyestes’ feast and Agamemnon’s assassination (1064ff.), or third after Agamemnon’s murder of Iphigeneia and Clytaemnestra’s murder of the king. That a murder should be a libation is a savage irony, of course, though like a third libation poured to Zeus, it will ultimately mitigate the sufferings of the house.

  572ff Marvels, the earth breeds many marvels: In all three plays of the Oresteia the central chorus involves the relationship between the Furies and the justice of the gods, yet their relationship is slowly changing from one of antagonism to one of mutual dependence. The chorus that ushered home Agamemnon (A 977-1003) conscripted justice beneath the Furies, and the Furies killed the king. The present chorus, that ushers home his son, makes justice depend upon the Furies for success. See E 506-71, and Introduction, p. 59.

  576 Torches: such abnormal and ominous lights in the sky as meteors and comets.

  587 Althaia: daughter of Thestios and Eurythemis, was a notorious example of an unloving mother: in anger at the death of one of her brothers she caused the death of her son Meleager by burning a log on which his life was magically dependent.

  597 Scylla of Megara (not the monster with the same name in the Odyssey) betrayed her father, Nisos (whose life depended on a magical lock of hair on his head), to Minos, king of Crete, when he was besieging their city. Her motive was love, according to legend, and her crime betrayed her people. Aeschylus, however, makes Scylla the object of a bribe, and her crime remains quite private, in contrast to
Clytaemnestra’s greater guilt and destructiveness that follow.

  614 Lemnos: as a third example of feminine ruthlessness and treachery, the chorus cites the abominable massacre of husbands by the women of Lemnos.

  645 Whoever rules the house: Orestes’ preference will recoil; the woman, not the man, will appear first and she will be the master.

  649 Electra’s presence here is arbitrary, though it may lend ironic point to Clytaemnestra’s command (702) and fulfil Orestes’ wishes (566f.). There is no stronger evidence for her remaining, however, and her likely disappearance from the action may represent a lapse on Aeschylus’ part. Unless, of course, it is suggestive in itself - as if Electra might serve to summon Clytaemnestra to the stage, and then must leave Orestes to his mother for maturing. See Introduction, p. 68.

  652 We have warm baths, etc. Clytaemnestra corrects the porter’s manners; she attends to the strangers’ needs before determining who they are. The queen may recall the pleasures extended to Odysseus by Alcinous, king of Phaeacia - ‘changes of dress, warm baths, and downy beds’ (Odyssey, Book VIII, line 249, trs. Fitzgerald), though such comforts were simply customary. Clearly Clytaemnestra recalls her lethal welcome of Agamemnon and Cassandra in A.

  656 I will stir them on: Clytaemnestra’s verb can mean to share, or to make common, defile, commit adultery; she repeats it (703).

  657 Daulis, etc. A precinct in Phokis on the road from Thebes to Delphi. Verrall has made the intriguing suggestion that Orestes met the stranger where Oedipus met his father. So another parent’s destiny is sealed, another son’s as well, but here the son will suffer and succeed.

  661f Strophios, a Phocian: ‘the man of turns’ has returned, no longer the queen’s ally but an accomplice in her death; see A n. 869ff.

  668f An alien, etc. Orestes may stress the pains of exile to indict his mother more severely.

  671 The man’s been mourned, etc. By Argos since his father’s death, by his sister and the chorus at the outset of this play, now perhaps by himself as he sees what he must do.

  674 A parent ought to know: a challenge - the parent worth her salt would recognize her son - that conveys a sense of hurt as well: she might even show concern. She answers him in kind; see Introduction, pp. 60ff.

  687f Known, etc. Gnôtos can mean either known or kindred.

  714 Persuasion: Peitho in her aspect of cunning deception, here employed in a righteous cause; see A n. 378ff., E n. 893.

  762 Rejoicing all the way! There is an ambiguity in the syntax here; it implies that both the nurse and Aegisthus are to feel joy at the message. Then Aegisthus’ joy should make him come unattended by his bodyguard, eager to hear further details of the good news (cf. A 320f.), and the nurse’s joy will give verisimilitude to the message (763). At 764 the nurse naturally expresses surprise that the chorus-leader should tell her to rejoice in reporting Orestes’ death, but is reassured, without further explanation, at 767.

  798 Cavern: the temple of Apollo at Delphi, in particular the chasm in the ground over which his sacred tripod stood, drawing up prophetic vapours from the earth; see E n. 29.

  803 Hermes: here the god of stratagems, especially deceptive messages.

  818 Perseus: according to tradition, the grandson of an earlier, pre-Pelopid king of Argos. He killed the Gorgon, Medusa, whose serpentine hair and lethal glance could petrify a man, by shielding his eyes and using Athena’s help. His country, his enemy, his patron goddess, and his role as a liberator all suggest a parallel with Orestes; see note 1047.

  824 I have my summons: Aegisthus plays with legal terminology that undoes him.

  853 The last man on the bench: probably the third wrestler, who, ironically, takes on both contestants here, not simply the winner in the match that went before.

  859 Stand back - : When Aegisthus’ servant rushes in, the women scatter; they want to be counted ‘clean of the dreadful business’, and from now on they are removed from the violence of the action and its meaning. And they are not alone. The servant struggles with Clytaemnestra’s doors but cannot wrench them open. She is beyond the reach of all but one, her son Orestes. See Introduction, pp. 62ff.

  863 A third, last salute: traditionally raised for the dead. There is no speaker indicated in the manuscript for these two lines, however, and if three cries of agony were given by Aegisthus they would form another ‘triad’ like the three blows delivered to Agamemnon.

  884f Similarly Hecuba exposes her breast to Hector (Iliad, Book XXII, line 80) to persuade him not to fight Achilles.

  886 For an excellent discussion of Orestes’ hesitation and its consequences for the entire Oresteia, see William Arrowsmith, ‘The Criticism of Greek Tragedy’, Tulane Drama Review, iii (1959), 31-57.

  902 Sold me: in a manner of speaking, no doubt, but Orestes regards his forced exile as the worst disgrace a freeborn man could suffer.

  904 I am ashamed to mention it in public: by sending him away from Argos his mother could indulge her adulterous love for Aegisthus. In reply she refers to Agamemnon’s adulteries with captive women at Troy, especially Cassandra.

  912 A father’s [curse]: the Furies are regarded not simply as avengers of the mother-right in Aeschylus; they can expand their targets, as they have done in A and will do in E.

  913 I must be spilling live tears on a tomb of stone: Clytaemnestra’s tears, in effect, are the last libation poured on Agamemnon’s tomb and its extension, the hardening resolution of Orestes. Her dream united her husband and her son in mutual purpose; now her recognition gives their union life. See Introduction, pp. 63ff.

  915 I gave you life: Clytaemnestra comes full circle (895), back to the life that only she can give, but her final words are fraught with tragic awareness and power.

  918 The victims’ double fates: probably Clytaemnestra and Agamemnon or Aegisthus, rather than the queen and Orestes, since the women have a limited understanding of his future.

  921 The bright eye: a traditional metaphor for the perception, hope and light which a leader offers his society.

  925 Double lion: Orestes and Pylades.

  936f God’s true daughter . . . Right we call her: a nomen-omen deriving Dikê (justice) from Dios kora, daughter of god; see A n. 688ff.

  950 Look, the light is breaking: LB may be seen as a tragic parody of the Mysteries of Eleusis. The imagery which has compared Orestes to an athlete struggling for victory - a wrestler, more particularly a charioteer (501) - may be drawn from descriptions of the candidate for initiation who struggles to escape this mortal coil and achieve a spiritual victory of blessings and repose. Orestes the wrestler is about to be cast down, however, the charioteer about to be ridden off the track (1019ff.); the light invoked by the chorus, and the torch ignited by the liberator will illuminate a vision of despair; see Introduction, pp. 64ff.; LB n. 137; A notes, 1, 25, 109; E notes 7,13.

  951 The huge chain that curbed, etc. The weight of continuous ill fortune that has oppressed the Atreidae - the same metaphor that had described the effect of the Greek army on the Trojans (A 133f).

  959 The aliens, etc. Metics; the chorus is probably referring to the usurpers, unaware that Orestes and Pylades must now be treated as aliens too; see A n. 63, E n. 1021.

  977 The Sun: it was customary to call on this all-seeing deity to witness acts of justice or injustice when the doer or sufferer was certain of being in the right, as Cassandra did before her death in A.

  982 The adulterer dies: such a killing was allowed, as a crime of passion, by Attic law.

  992 The bath of death: Orestes’ word for bath can mean coffin as well. His mind has begun to leap in free association reminiscent of Cassandra when she is frenzied by Clytaemnestra and her nets; see A 1116ff., 1241ff.

  1006 Aegisthus’ blade: this seems to imply that Clytaemnestra used the sword of Aegisthus to kill Agamemnon, despite the fact that Clytaemnestra’s preferred weapon was a battle-axe (876). Seneca in his Agamemnon (890ff.) represents Aegisthus as using his sword and Clytaemnestra as using a dou
ble axe, but Aeschylus does not say that Aegisthus took part in the murder.

  1041 Menelaus: according to Homeric tradition, Menelaus would arrive in a day or so, too late to be of help.

  1043 A name for - : the chorus cuts him short, in effect, before he can utter ill-omened words about his exile and his death.

  1047 Lopped the heads of these two serpents: as if he were a victorious Hercules or Perseus, though such praises only evoke the Furies in Orestes’ mind. Aeschylus was the first Greek writer to describe them as having snakes in their hair (like Gorgons).

  1050 Cannot stay: the phrase overturns Orestes’ declarations at the outset, ‘I have come home . . . the exile home at last.’

  THE EUMENIDES

  1 Mother Earth: man first worships Earth, his source of food, ‘but before long,’ as Jane Harrison writes in the Introduction to Themis, ‘he notices that Sky as well as Earth influences his food supply. At first he notes the “weather,” rain and wind and storm. Next he finds out that the Moon measures seasons, and to her he attributes all growth, all waxing and waning. Then his goddess is Phoebe. When later he discovers that the Sun really dominates his food supply, Phoebe gives place to Phoebus, the Moon to the Sun. The shift of attention, of religious focus, from Earth to Sky, tended to remove the gods from man; they were purged but at the price of remoteness.’ That is the price of Delphi, as Aeschylus portrays it; for the humanism of Athens and her gods, see Introduction, pp. 85ff.

  3 Tradition: literally Themis, the Titaness whose province is established law and custom.

  4 Third by the lots of destiny: perhaps in the third generation of the gods, as apportioned by Zeus before the birth of Apollo. In E the ‘triad’ motif recurs less in explicit statement than as a kind of structural obsession, an idée fixe that turns destruction into joy. The Furies’ refrains, painfully repeated (e.g. 329-34, 342-7), resolve into a third, harmonious song (1004-11, 1023-30). The entire trilogy, as others have observed, recalls the ’triad’ of stanzas found in choral lyric poetry, like the opening ‘triad’ in A (112-60); the turn and counter-turn resolved in a final stand that unifies the partners as a priest presides at a marriage. The basic ’triad’ of the trilogy itself makes the third play a metaphor for the Mean; The Eumenides reconciles the opposites within the Oresteia to produce a state of equilibrium; see Introduction, pp. 91ff.; E 772ff., 1004ff.; A n. 245, LB n. 61; C. John Herington, ‘Aeschylus: The Last Phase’, Arion, iv (1965), 387-403; and Diskin Clay, ‘Aeschylus’ Trigeron Mythos’, Hermes, xv (1969), 1-9.