Aeschylus " a great 5th century playright "

In a futher spell wrinkle, she is aided by Aegisthus, son of Atreus' brother Thyestes, who has the double causation of avenging Atreus' murder of his two brothers, (whom he subsequently fed to Thyestes) and prehension the kingdom of Argos for himself.

The theme of the "Libation Be bers" recounts the consequences of the oracle's decree that Orestes, the young son of Agamemnon, strike back his father's death by killing his own mother, Clytemnestra. After an absence of some years he returns and finds his sister Electra praying to the gods for some star to penalise her father. "Raise up your avengers, into the light, my father- kill the killers in return with jurist"(183). Guided by Apollo Orestes plans the murder of Clytemnestra. "Oh she'll pay, she'll pay, by the gods and these bare hands- just let me take her life and die" (196).

But in a perfect illustration of the defects of the Greek concept of justice, when Orestes carries aside what he sees as his moral duty by murdering his mother, the original goddesses known as the Furies are unleashed to relentlessly plague him. They are sent by Clytemnestra's ghost, as she had warned him: "Watch out- the hounds of a mother's swan will hunt you down" (218). After his bloody dress he remembers her curse: "No dreams, these torments, not to me, they're clear, real- the hounds of mother's hate"(225). It seems that a reconciliation/mediation hearing at night court of justice might have been a more

Bound and gagged, Iphigenia communicates only through her piercing and " low" glance. Although she writes that this interpretation is "controversial" Fletcher goes on to note that the dye of saffron may be interpreted as the marriage blot out of Iphigenia, who was lured to Aulis on the pretext that she was to marry Achilles. Instead him unveiling her as her fond lover, she ironically and bitterly dashes the dye of saffron on the ground, in a macabre parody of a wedding custom.

Haynes, Holly. Escape and constraint: Female desire and narrative chains in Aeschylus' Oresteia and Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover. Intertexts; 3/22/2000.

of import to the "Oresteia" is the Greek concept of justice. How should crime be punished?

only when by socially sanctioned retaliatory murder? In terms of this story, whose right of revenge is paramount, Clytemnestra's or Orestes'?

Fletcher, Judith. Exchanging Glances: Vision and type in Aeschylus' Agamemnon. Helios; 3/22/1999.

system of justice tries harder than anything else to attain

sensible approach to the problem, but that unfortunately was not yet on the horizon.

Part of the genius of Aeschylus is in showing how each character's interests or emotional state prevent them from seeing the legitimacy of their antagonist's denominate of view. Neither Orestes nor his sister Electra can appreciate the depth of offense aroused in their mother Clytemnestra by their father's sacrifice of Iphigenia. In their blindness to her feelings they see no justification for her murder of their father. In a mirror image, the Furies cannot imagine a justification for Orestes' matricide. indeed each act of justice (revenge) calls for a new one in response, with never an end in sight.

In the third gear and final play of the trilogy, "The Eumenides", the curse is finally raise when Orestes is absolved by a trial at the Areopagus, establish on the interpretation (however sexist) that his father is the most important
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