Creation Myth In Oresteia

A creation myth is an illustrative description of how society began and how the people treat it. Aeschylus created a Greek Trilogy that ties into everyday life situations; for example, revenge, family, death, gender, and justice. Plato’s The Republic also has themes like justice, morality, education, and wisdom. These two texts have helped define people and how they will act towards one another in their community. Gender is a big theme in Oresteia. Aeschylus has shown that his view of society is having men in charge. When the play was first written in 458 B.C. it was a time where the male was shown as the superior role over females. Even though they are portrayed as the better gender in this play, the women make it interesting and are shown to have more intelligence. Clytemnestra is very interesting in the trilogy; she wants to avenge the loss of Iphigenia. The daughter of Agamemnon was lost due to the King trying to please Artemis so him and his troops can pass to Troy. She later kills Agamemnon for this by strategically murdering him. The Queen also has an affair with the King’s brother, Aegisthus, which was condemned by the Chorus because she

Aeschylus has brought in the goddess Athena who came in to state that the male dominance is important. “I was born of no mother and I defer to the male, in all things with all my heart, except for marriage, as I will always be the child of my father (736-738, The Eumenides).” Athena shows that she only knows how to think like a man, since she was born from the head of Zeus. She plays a more traditional female role in the trilogy. The gender differences in the play show how Aeschylus was trying to portray his society to be very male dominated when really the females were the foundation of all three plays. If the woman's parts in the play were not as strong, the entire trilogy would have lacked