Vendetta Loses to Trial by Jury: The Oresteia

The history of Western drama begins in Athens in the sixth century B.C. Of the many plays performed in the annual competitions, the works of only three tragic dramatists survive – Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and only one trilogy remains, Aeschylus’s Oresteia. Significantly, among the ancient Greeks, competition among playwrights rivaled competition between athletes, and Aeschylus won the prize, an ivy wreath, for his work.

To understand a Greek play, a reader needs to be aware of certain key elements. First, these tragedies feature a chorus typically consisting of actors usually speaking in unison. They comment on or evoke emotion appropriate to the characters or action and thus develop themes. Second, the original audiences already knew the story of each play because Greek dramas were interpretations of mythology or history. While modern readers may not be as familiar with the stories and may experience some level of suspense, the first audiences appreciated the dramatist’s ability to build anticipation. Finally, the gory parts take place off stage, quite the opposite of today’s films’ depiction of violence.

The three plays of The Oresteia are Agamemnon (the name of its main character), The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides. They tell the story of Agamemnon’s homecoming from the Trojan War, his vengeful murder by the hand of his wife Clytemnestra against the historical backdrop of generations of familial murder, and the ultimate replacement of recurring vendetta by jury trial.

Agamemnon, opens with news that the Trojan War has ended in a Greek victory. Though the chorus of Argive elders doubt the news, a herald from Agamemnon arrives to confirm it. When Clytemnestra sends the herald back with the message to hurry home, the chorus recall Agamemnon’s having sacrificed their daughter, Iphigenia, to secure favorable winds for the Greek fleet when they had set out for Troy ten years earlier. This identifies the motive for the murder that is about to take place.

The dialogue and events of the play introduce the overarching theme of justice in ways that are in certain respects obvious and in others somewhat obscure to a modern reader. While a contemporary reader will not find it difficult to understand Clytemnestra’s feelings about the sacrifice of her daughter, they may not realize that Aeschylus is also dealing with the view that a woman killing a man for any reason was unnatural. Aeschylus’ assumptions may not coincide with those of the reader, but they encourage readers to think about the complexities of men’s and women’s roles in society. In tandem with both of these themes, the playwright also explores the pervasiveness of human suffering.

Agamemnon concludes with Clytemnestra murdering her husband with the help of Aegisthus, her lover and Agamemnon’s cousin. Both men are heirs of a curse, which began when their great-grandfather Tantalus served his own son as the main course at a banquet for the Olympian gods. Though Zeus restored that son, the family story became one of murder and incestuous adultery for generations. When Agamemnon’s father Atreus discovered that his brother Thyestes had committed adultery with his wife, he murdered two of Thyestes’ sons, his own nephews, and, recalling his grandfather, served them to Thyestes at a banquet. The surviving son, Aegisthus, now seeks revenge by becoming Clytemnestra’s lover and declaring, in the conclusion, his own shared triumph in murdering Agamemnon.

The Libation Bearers opens with another homecoming, that of Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Having heard of his father’s death, Orestes has returned to fulfill the Greek code of vendetta. After Orestes’ sister, Electra, recognizes a lock of his hair, they commiserate, sharing their love of their father and hatred of their mother. The chorus comments on the action and develops the emotional atmosphere, but in this play they also participate in the action, a departure for most Greek choruses. In fact, the play takes its title from the chorus. They are servants who carry the ritual libations to the grave of Agamemnon. Urging on the traditional vendetta, Apollo sets Orestes the mission of avenging his father’s death, thus setting up Orestes for the conflict inherent in killing one parent to avenge the other. Indeed, the central theme of The Libation Bearers is revenge. Revenge is blessed by Apollo and forbidden by the Erinyes, or Furies, who themselves take revenge on those who take a parent’s life. The chorus, who speaks with the voice of Greek tradition, also call for vengeance.

When Clytemnestra finally appears, she does not recognize the son she sent away in order to pursue her affair with Aegisthus. However, she has been afflicted by a dream of giving birth to a serpent. The dream moves her to send the libation bearers to appease Agamemnon’s spirit, but learning of the dream also spurs on Orestes to exact revenge, and in the end, he does take his mother’s life. He must then face the Erinyes. In this way, Aeschylus develops the themes of the never-ending cycle of revenge as well as the lack of moral clarity in such a situation.

As The Eumenides opens, the setting shifts to the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Apollo calls on Hermes to conduct the otherwise god-forsaken Orestes to Athens to seek Athena’s protection. In this final play, the chorus is composed of the Erinyes (the Furies) who fully participate in the action. Spurred on by Clytemnestra’s ghost, they follow Orestes to Athens where they demand his death. In order to hear both Orestes and his pursuers, Athena initiates a trial in the Areopagus, the eventual site of judicial hearings patterned after this one that Athena convenes.

As in modern American courts, both parties make opening statements. The prosecution speaks first, pointing to his confession that he killed his mother. In rebuttal, Orestes declares that he has undergone the cleansing ritual required by the gods but also that he acted under Apollo’s directive.

Athena then calls for a jury trial during which both sides make their arguments.

More than simply deciding Orestes’ fate, the trial plays out the conflict between the old ways, represented by the Erinyes, and the new, represented by Athena. Orestes is freed from the threat of further punishment when Athena casts the deciding vote after the jury splits evenly. More importantly, the decision results in a change of roles for the Erinyes who become the Eumenides (the Kindly Ones). She effectively ends the code of the vendetta, replacing it with trial by jury, a dawn of justice new to Greece.

Finally, the trial also resolves the curse on the House of Atreus. A cycle of persistent blood lust, initiated by an attempt to deceive and shame the gods, has played out over a multi-generational pursuit of vendetta. The Oresteia recounts the final murders in this cycle and the ending of that curse in the institution of a new way that substitutes reason for emotion. Trial overcomes vendetta. Justice supplants vengeance. Though mythological the trial of Orestes it confirmed for the Greeks a divine origin for a judicial system.

In The Oresteia the reader must grapple with the deep impulse in all people to seek vengeance. However, for the Christian, the play foreshadows the atoning reconciliation achieved by and in Christ. Moreover, the conclusion anticipates the ultimate resolution of blood guilt on the cross. While Athena casts the vote that exonerates Orestes and then tames the Furies, Christ pays the price of all sin and guilt in his voluntary sacrifice, thus ending the need for any other victim. As the West slips back into a culture of accusations and calls for vengeance in the guise of justice, The Oresteia reminds us that the cycle of retribution does not end. Through the cross, Christ establishes the new way by which retribution itself ends.