The Oresteia
The Oresteia was a trilogy of stories written by Aeschylus written in 458 for an April Greek festival. It was a mix of a civic event as well as a festival to honour the gods. The Oresteia explores the extent to what is in the laps of the Gods and what responsibility should an individual take.
The story is taken from Homer's Odyssey. In the first play Agamemnon comes home to Argosand is killed by Klytemnesta. Earlier Agamemnon has sacrificed his daughter Iphigeneia and it is believed has not been atoned for. He also has brought home a daughter of Priam, Kassandra (She is cursed by Apollo as one who is never believed).
Klytemnestra is having an affair with Aegisthus
In the second play (The Libation Bearers) Orestes. He is caught between a rock and a hard place. He has to avenge his father (as directed by Apollo) but this also means killing his mother. Orestes meets with Electra where they discuss how they have been usurped by their mother.
Orestes kills Aegisthus and then turns on his mother and there is much pleading from Klytemnestra for her life saying that she nursed him. But we see she has been lying as the nurse maid has come on the stage earlier and makes it clear that she brought up Orestes. He has a moment of doubt but Pylades who comes from close to the Delphic Oracle says you must. The play explores the dilemma of whether he should or should not kill his mother - he giving reasons why he is should and her giving reasons why she should not. He puts the sword to he neck and she bares her breast. She says Pity the breast. Pylades says Count all men your enemies rather than the gods As he kills her Orestes says You did what you ought not so now suffer what you ought not
The Orestia has been taken by feminists as a play that slams the door on women in Western culture, literature and art as an aetiogical text that imposes a patriarchy on the culture.
In the third play, The Eumenides, Orestes is driven mad by the furies. He goes to Delphi to seek purification but the ghost of Klytemnestra summons the furies to suck his blood. Orestes, Apollo, and the Erinyes go before Athena and eleven other judges chosen by her from the Athenian citizenry at the Areopagus (Rock of Ares, a flat rocky hill by the Athenian agora where the homicide court of Athens later held its sessions), to decide whether Orestes' killing of his mother, klytemnestra, makes him guilty of the crime of murder.
Athena votes last and casts her vote for acquittal; after being counted, the votes on each side are equal, thus acquitting Orestes as Athena had earlier announced that this would be the result of a tie. She then persuades the Erinyes to accept the verdict, and they eventually submit. Athena then leads a procession accompanying them to their new abode and the escort now addresses them as "Semnai" (Venerable Ones), as they will now be honored by the citizens of Athens and ensure the city's prosperity. Athena also declares that henceforth tied juries will result in the defendant being acquitted, as mercy should always take precedence over harshness.
