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Revenge In Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, And The Eumenides

705 Words3 Pages

Aeschylus (525-455 BC) retells a story first made popular by Homer. The plot of Oresteia’s three tragedies Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides could bear the subtitle Revenge! Faster, kill, kill! But behind all this, philosophical questions peek out. Beyond tragedies were topics of interest and dispute in the community. The Greeks did not believe in holy commandments to live by; indeed, they used the lives of their heroes as guidelines. Myths were stories that, depending on the storyteller, could have a different meaning. In his work Aeschylus had the genius of serving philosophy and psychology in a thrilling way. At the core, these three plays dwell on the problems of the cycle of violence and conflict resolution. 1. Conflict Brings Pain, …show more content…

But as the city rejoices, Furies, gods of vengeance and vendetta, hunt him. 3. People Can Not Survive Alone Finding Redemption. In the last play, The Eumenides, Argos is at last a free city; however, standing alone, awaiting its ruler. Orestes left home in search of salvation. Though Apollo protects him, he still pays for the murder committed. The Furies continuously hustle him. Contact with humans decreases his pain, but it cannot redeem him. Only the intervention of another higher authority, goddess Athena, will put an end to this conflict. Two parties exist, and Athena could take the side of either one. She could fight off the vengeance gods or rally with them. Instead of this traditional resolution of conflict, Athena calls on the Athenians to judge Orestes. They cannot decide if he was wrong or right, and they free him. Athena also convinces the Furies to change their ways and instead, protect the humans. They change into The Eumenides, spirits of reason and democracy. 4. The suggestion for Greek citizens was that they shouldn 't be Orestes, Clytemnestra, or Electra. They should not take justice into their own hands; instead, they should solve conflicts using law and

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