Revenge and justice are powerful motives when it comes to people basing actions from emotional distress. When referring to revenge, people tend to feel no remorse once they have been wronged by someone especially someone they love. Throughout the three different stories told in Aeschylus’s Oresteia, the reader can learn how each person seeking revenge ends up as the victim due to their actions taken as personal gain of power. Agamemnon is the first example of personal gain of winning a war through sacrifice of his daughter. This sacrifice would later turn his wife, Clytemnestra, against him, hunting him down for slaughter for justice and revenge just as he did his daughter (Aesch. Ag.). In the story of Choephoroi, that follows years after the death of Agamemnon continues the theme when the son Orestes returns from exile due to Apollo’s quest for justice and revenge against the murders. This story then turns the hunter Clytemnestra and his lover into the new prey as the children seek this …show more content…
These acts of revenge and justice each lead to the downfall of themselves. This endless cycle of violence does not end by one person choosing to be above getting revenge but a goddess breaking the cycle by the end with trial. When seeking the destruction of their enemy, each person did not think about the consequences of their actions or how they would impact others in a negative way. This is what directly led to the endless cycle of revenge. By breaking the cycle at the end of Eumenides, Aeschylus proves that anyone break the cycle of eternal vengeance when discussing between many different people if the actions were justified or not. Revenge and justice truly are used as powerful motives; however, when stopping to think about actions while excluding emotional involvement, the cycle can always be