Vengeance in the Orestia

With all the murders in the House of Atreus, who was really righteous in their act? Well,

if you ask any of the killers, they all were. Clytemnesta claims that her murder of Agamemnon

is due justice for the killing of her daughter Iphigeneia by Agamemnon (Ag. 1431-1433) and

even gets angry at the Chorus for suggesting that she committed an act of evil and that

Agamemnon was righteous in his. Aegisthus proclaims that his part in the death of Agamemnon is justified by the act of Agamemnon father Atreus cooking and serving his brother’s, Aegisthus’ father Thyestes’, children to him (Ag. 1578-1582). Finally, in the Libation Bearers, Orestes tells his sister Electra that he has been given a divine order by Apollo to murder his mother for the death of their father, Agamemnon, o

. . .
So, what could Orestes do since it was his mother who murdered his father? Not sure of himself, Orestes seeks advice from the oracle of Apollo, which has ordered him to take vengeance upon his father’s murderer or suffer death and horrible disease brought about from Agamemnon’s blood (LB. This is why we still have a justice system based somewhat on the Athenian democracy: rule by the people, for the people under man-made laws. We actually see this same string of revenge and violence in modern action movies such as Die Hard or Death Wish. Again, this was not the end as soon after, the Furies came to torment Orestes for his supposedly unjust crime of matricide and he flees to the temple of Apollo to seek relief from the Furies (LB. In this, Orestes, like his father in the killing of Iphigeneia, was driven by divine order, which in itself should have given him relief from the torment of the Furies. The only thing these laws did was allow one crime to bring about a cycle of retaliation and death and bring the curses of older generations to the lives of their innocent youth with no way to bring a just end.

I would also contend that if not Orestes, then none was right in the vengeful murder of others if for no other reason than the systems of justice was flawed.

In summary, vengeance for bloodshed leads to nothing except for more bloodshed. 1676), but we know that this was not the end and they would pay for their crimes with their blood. So, from the eyes of each perpetrator, each was acting justly, but in my opinion, it was only Orestes who had acted righteously in murdering his mother. So, not even Orestes thinks his act is honorable or should be the way to end such a chain of death. In retrospect, in a way, it was Orestes’ act which finally ended the viscous cycle of slaughter by bringing down this old system of justice.

Common topics in this essay:
Aegisthus LB, Orestes Athena, Bearers Orestes, Pallas Athena, Atreus Ag, Death Wish, Agamemnon Ag, , Furies LB, House Atreus, system justice, house atreus, orestes act, act bring, death wish, die hard, revenge murder, viscous cycle, libation bearers, clytemnestra aegisthus,

Approximate Word count = 1051
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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