Vengeance In Aeschylus's Oresteia

Since the beginning of time, vengeance or retribution has been part of the human condition. This is chiefly true in Aeschylus's trilogy the Oresteia. One of the underlying themes in these works is the concept of “an eye for an eye” (Hammurabi). Atreus and Thyestes start the blood feud of retribution when Atreus tricks Thyestes into consuming the cooked flesh of his own children. It is then that Agamemnon, son of Atreus, and Aegisthus, the only surviving son of Thyestes, open up this series of misfortunate events as seen in the trilogy. The series of events takes on a heightened role when Agamemnon sacrifices his own daughter in order to fight in the Trojan War. After winning the Trojan War when Agamemnon returns and is brutally killed by his

Agamemnon’s duty is to reach Troy as expediently as possible in order to bring Helen (his brother’s bride) back to Sparta and to avenge the disgrace done by Paris (the Trojan prince), on their family in particular and the Greeks in general. However, the Greek fleet can not proceed to Troy because of winds incurred by the goddess Artemis, forcing Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia to get the winds blowing again. Agamemnon’s goal isn’t to mercilessly commit an atrocity against his own daughter, but rather to maintain the honor of his family and to ensure the security of his people. This duty was also assigned by the gods and Agamemnon’s disobedience would lead to the gods abandoning him. Without the gods protection, Agamemnon would inevitably fail. Agamemnon demonstrates how hard sacrificing his own daughter is when he says, “An unbearable fate will fall on me if I disobey but how can i bear to slaughter my own daughter, the glory of my house? How can I stain my hands, the hands of a father, with this young girl’s blood, as it drenches the alter?” (Aeschylus 11). The act of sacrificing one’s kin for the sake of the state can indeed be deemed as a righteous act when viewed along the lines of individual worth being trumped by the importance of the greater good of society in general. Therefore, Agamemnon’s decision to sacrifice his daughter can be deemed a logical decision, especially since the

After Agamemnon is killed by Clytemnestra, Orestes is called by the gods to avenge his father through the murder of his mother. Though Orestes seeks retribution for his father’s death, he is anxious, believing that by killing his mother and committing an atrocity against his own blood, he might suffer relentless consequences at the hands of the gods. However afraid of godly punishment he is, Orestes isn’t very morally opposed to killing his mother, especially when he remembers some bitter moments he shared with his mother as he says, "You bore me and threw me away, to a hard life” (Aeschylus 106). When Orestes is about to kill his mom, Clytemnestra's plea for her life doesn’t stir any filial devotion or empathy in him, but rather just reminds him of the punishment that the gods could incur on him for killing her. This is affirmed by Pylades’ oral support to Orestes. Instead of assuaging his concerns about how she was a bad mother or how she deserved to die because she killed Agamemnon, he instead reassures Orestes that the gods won't punish him by saying, "What then becomes thereafter of the oracles declared by Loxias at Pytho? Count all men hateful to you rather than the gods” (Aeschylus 105 ). In other words, Orestes has no quarrel with killing his mother as long as he was assured that no repercussions would befall him. And thus, he commits matricide. It is true that Orestes never had the comfort