Blood for blood – a life for a life: this is the form of justice that exists in Aeschylus’s 2500-year-old trilogy, The Oresteia. But there are many kinds of justice, and Aeschylus explores its many forms: Familial and ensconced in law, reciprocal and democratic. Our modern world has organised justice – we have law courts and jurors, murder as manslaughter, conspiracy, association and attempted but Aeschylus asks: can there be one right way to determine justice? This underlying theme along with the dualistic thoughts it presents, are astoundingly relevant today.
Iraq. Afghanistan. Libya. Darfur. Palestine. Syria. Myanmar. Somalia. Kashmir. Turkey. Israel. Yemen. Korea. Across the globe today, conflicts rage in endless cycles of violence – an eye for
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On the surface we see Clytemnestra as a strong feminist character, taking on male characteristics, shocking at the time, and acting with purpose and justification. However, then we see Clytemnestra as an individual woman’s rebellion punished by death, reflecting Athenian restrictions on the role of women and unfortunately - although not as literally, seen in many areas of our current world. Today in one half of civilisation we battle for equal representation in corporate boards, fight against objectification in the media, and argue for equal pay. In the other half we battle to not be controlled by men, fight for the chance to marry for love not for money or family ties at 15 years old, and argue that our bodies are not property to be sold or hurt but ours and ours alone. In The Oresteia, we see the defeat of the powerful, savage, unyielding Furies at the trial of Orestes. The fierce female earth gods are tamed and transformed into Eumenides (Kindly Ones), symbolising the triumph of male-identified Olympian gods as the guides into the reformed Athenian ways of