The Oresteia: Agamemnon, the Libation-Bearers & the Furies (39 page)

102
Guilt: aitia,
moral responsibility, will turn from a burden to a challenge; see 198, 447f., 585;
A
n. 796,
LB
n. 100.

110ff
Libations,
etc. Sacrifices to the spirits of the underworld, always conducted at night, burned close to the earth in a low brazier, consisting of honey, milk and water. The image of the feast will grow horrific as the Furies threaten to banquet on Orestes (262ff.), then august and sacramental as they accept their cult in Athens and the land’s first fruits. The image may extend into the atmosphere of health, nurture and the assimilation of our powers that ends the trilogy; see
A
n. 138,
LB
n. 261. For the image of libations, see Introduction, p. 91;
A
n. 1391ff.,
LB
n. 17.

116
Your nets:
this dominant symbol turns from an implement of capture to a symbol of release, finally to an emblem of Athenian culture; see Introduction, pp. 90f. A related image, that of the hunt, is similarly transformed; see
A
n. 129,
LB
n. 335. That of the yoke dissolves, in effect, into the responsibilities we shoulder and enjoy, the ballast of our destiny; see
A
n. 49,
LB
n. 74.

150
Child of Zeus:
Apollo.

151
Ridden down:
imagery of athletics turns more towards riding and racing than the combat skills of archery and wrestling, but these references are less explicit than before, more inclusive of human ‘pursuits’ in general; see 249ff., 375ff., 414ff; A n. 169ff.,
LB
n. 165.

155
Guilt both ways,
etc. The grammar of impossible alternatives, the tragic choice of evils, expanded from
A
212 and
LB
342; see
E
495f.

178
This flying
viper: a striking metaphor for an arrow; it develops the recurrent snake symbolism and perhaps implies a kind of homeopathy - snake-arrow against snake-goddesses.

183ff
Where heads are severed,
etc. Apollo associates the Furies with the worst kinds of ‘official’ cruelty, the ugliest elements in despotic government, which were typical, as the Greeks saw it, of Oriental justice. It is Apollo, however, who has made ’Justice and bloody slaughter . . . the same’; the torture-chamber he describes recalls the house of Atreus, to which he condemned Cassandra (see
A
1088ff.) and dispatched Orestes for the murder of his mother.

210
One’s flesh and blood:
the leader argues that, since husband and wife are not blood relations, for one to kill the other is not an offence against the blood-bond. Apollo contends that since marriage is a ‘consummation’ (the Greek term telos also implies ’a rite, ceremony, established office’; see
A
n. 71f.) instituted by the King and Queen of Heaven, Zeus and Hera, it has a higher binding power than even ties of blood (as Christians might argue from its ‘sacramental’ aspects).

242
Perhaps it was here, if we may credit the ancient biography of Aeschylus on this point, that the Furies had such a disturbing effect upon the Athenian audience; see Introduction, pp. 88f.

249
The Furies are wingless (54f.), an anthropomorphic trait they share with Athena (415).

250
Outracing ships,
etc. Nautical imagery will take an auspicious course, once the storms of shipwreck are channelled into tides of joy, gentle winds and blessings by the shower. The man-of-war becomes the ship of state with Pallas at the helm; see
A
notes 185ff., 1004;
LB
n. 203.

270
Hades,
god of the dead, is regarded here as the recorder of human conduct or, literally, the public examiner of officials when their term of office has expired. The metaphor from a memorandum tablet resembles the ‘books of life’ which will be consulted on the Day of Judgement according to The Revelation of St John (Book XX, verse 11ff.).

275ff
Where to speak,
etc. Even the speech of the murderer who has not been purged might contaminate the listener. The fact that Orestes may go among men without harming them is proof that he has been decontaminated. The swine was used in rites of purgation, especially those of the Eleusinian Mysteries, because it was the preferred victim of the chthonic powers. Its blood was shed over the murderer’s head and was thought to absorb his blood-guilt as it flowed down his body.

289
The Argive people,
etc. Three years before the production of the
Oresteia
in 458 B.C., this city-state had made an alliance with Athens against Sparta. Possibly Aeschylus transferred Agamemnon’s capital from Mycenae (as it is in Homer) to Argos to please Athens’ new allies.

291ff
Libya . . . the Giants’ Plain:
an early legend localized Athena’s birth at Lake Tritonis in Libya. The reference here was probably prompted by the fact that in 460 B.C. the Athenians had sent a fleet to help a Libyan leader in a revolt against his Persian overlords. The Giants’ Plain is Phlegraea in north-eastern Greece, the scene of the battle between the Olympians and the Giants, in which the Olympians triumphed over their more primitive enemies.

306
Chains of song:
the chorus that follows is a kind of magical incantation intended to paralyse its victim. (A recurring refrain is typical of such spells; the anapaestic metre of the Greek implies that the chorus marched as it sang.) Such incantations are referred to elsewhere in Greek literature, but only here - apart from the non-literary spells of the magical papyri - do we find a full example of it. Like the witches’ chorus in
Macbeth
(first performed at a time when belief in black magic was strong in England), this evil spell of the Furies must have had a powerful effect on the fifth-century Athenians, who believed in many horrific demons and ghosts - a ‘shrivelling effect’, as it is called in the refrain. For the relationship between the Furies’ ‘chains’, thought by Pythagoreans to shackle impure souls in Hell, and the torments of Orestes in this world, see Introduction, p. 76.

308
Art:
crafts and arts, once images, are now performed before our eyes, and will change in force from destructivity to creativity, to become the arts of behaviour, justice, and society; see
A
n. 150,
LB
n. 233.

310
To steer the lives of men,
etc. The claim is ultimately acknowledged and enlarged by Athena (942f.).

322
Mother Night:
here Aeschylus substitutes Night for Earth (who according to another tradition was the mother of the Furies), perhaps because he had already mentioned Earth as the primeval deity of Delphi; see n. I. Images of parenthood and fertility, perverted in
A,
ambivalent in effect in
LB,
here expand into a preoccupation with evolution - the spiritual evolution of the gods, the cultural evolution of mankind. Everything, we may say, is traced back to its origins, and these, in Aeschylus’ hands, are not simply reclaimed, they are often challenged and revised, so that they may be more cherished and invigorate the poet’s vision of our future; see Introduction, pp. 21ff., 86ff.;
E
72n., 348ff., 430ff., 468ff., 666ff., 751ff.;
A
n. 265,
LB
n. 131ff.

330f
Frenzy striking frenzy,
etc. There are no verbs in this refrain, only participles which, while describing the Furies’ song, make them participate in its frenzy. As Rose explains, the Furies ‘are not ministers of vengeance but Vengeance itself, so their charm is not a cause of madness but madness embodied in words and actions’.
Ripping cross
the lyre: see
A
n. 995.

335
Spun . . . the Fates:
the three sisters whose threads ‘run through all things’;; as named by Hesiod
(Theogony
904ff.), they are
Klôthô,
who ‘spins’ the thread of life,
Lachesis,
who ‘allots’ each man and woman a certain measure of it, and
Atropos,
who ‘cannot be turned aside’ from cutting it at last - in Milton’s words, the Fate ‘with th’abhorred shears,/[who] slits the thin-spun life’; see notes 116, 972, 1055.

351
Pious white robes:
the gods’ attire for festal occasions.

354f
Reared like a tame beast,
etc. Like Helen in the parable from
A
(713-32).

360
Exempt:
perhaps a reference to the procedure by which a litigant was exempted from a legal burden he could not sustain.
No trial,
etc. The Furies would waive the
anakrisis,
the preliminary hearing.

409
Scamander:
chief river of the plain of Troy, near which the Athenians had a colony, Sigeion, in Aeschylus’ time. They claimed that it was allotted to them after the Greek victory in the Trojan war.

413
Theseus:
the great national hero of Athens. His legends are numerous; those that inform the
Oresteia
tend to make him a contemporary figure, part myth, part fifth-century hero. His past achievements and the current aspirations of his people are joined in the historical present of the play. He too repelled the barbarian invader, he established a democratic federation and, according to Plutarch, instituted the splendid festivals - the Panathenaia and the Festival of Migration for the Metics - that consecrate the city of Athens to Athena. Aeschylus creates an analogue for each event. Theseus’ ideal of democracy, recorded by Thucydides, as a society strong in individuality and order is celebrated in
E.
His invitation to all nations, also recorded by Plutarch, to participate in the benefits of democracy - ‘Come hither, all ye people’ - may echo in the closing chorus. For the Athenians’ imitation of Theseus and his achievements, see W. Robert Connor, ‘Theseus in Classical Athens’, in
The Quest for Theseus,
ed. Anne G. Ward (London: Pall Mall Press, 1970), pp. 143-74.

415
Cape:
the
aigis,
a magical mantle (originally a breastplate) which was part of Athena’s battle-dress.

441
The oath:
as Headlam explains, ‘Either party might either offer himself to take a solemn oath or ask his opponent to do so: the oath would be to the truth of the essential facts on which the pleadings were based: if both parties agreed to have the matter decided in this way, then this was a final decision.’ Orestes will not take the oath because the facts are not at issue - he admits he killed his mother; the question is whether or not his action was justifiable. That is the thrust of Athena’s position here, and it prepares us for one of the major themes in the play: the evolution of oaths from their ritualistic power to exonerate the criminal to their power to sanctify the evidence, hence to ensure a valid trial. Perjury becomes a crime, in short, and the Furies will have jurisdiction over it; see n. 946.

455
Ixion:
traditionally the first Greek to slay a kinsman, the equivalent of Cain in Genesis. He was granted purification by Zeus; see n. 726ff.

486f
Not
even I should decide a case of murder: perhaps it is simply not her province, or too emotional an issue, as she suggests; but it is strange, after she had killed so many men at Troy, that she should hesitate to learn what murder means. This is Athena’s education in the post-war years, and she does not hesitate for long.

494
Blights our land,
etc. As if reflecting the influence of the Mysteries on
E,
images of agriculture, perhaps more than any other pattern in the play, will grow from a negative to a positive extreme. Athena transforms the Furies’ power to destroy the earth into their power to promote its harvest. She herself will cultivate the Athenians ‘as a gardener loves his plants’ (921) and guard the fruits of culture; see 792 to the conclusion;
A
n. 517,
LB
n. 205.

514ff
We are the Furies,
etc. They had been discriminating avengers; an age of lawlessness would force them to loose an indiscriminate tide of vengeance.

528
The house of Justice falls:
in the binding-song the Furies sought the overthrow of lawless houses; now they lament the overthrow of their own house, the house of law where victims once appealed for justice.

529
Terror helps:
the doctrine that fear of punishment (implied in the word ‘deterrent’, originally ‘terrifying away from’) was necessary for the maintenance of law and order was widely held in antiquity.

531
Suffer into truth: see A
179.

539
Strike the balance:
the metaphor of the balance scales of justice now will yield to a celebration of the balance of the Mean as seen in legal equity, social equality, and an equilibrium that extends from the psyche to the cosmos; see
A
n. 436,
LB
n. 61.

542
Violence is Impiety’s child,
etc. The genealogy of
hubris
that Agamemnon fatally embodied will be succeeded by legitimate prosperity; see A 744-60, and Introduction, p. 78.

573
Etruscan battle-trumpet:
Etruria in Italy manufactured a celebrated kind of trumpet in the fifth century B.C. It was thought to be Athena’s special instrument.

588ff
The trial begins:
for some of Aeschylus’ adaptations of fifth-century legal procedure, see Introduction, pp. 78ff. The Furies’ first two questions are formulaic -
quid, quomodo:
Did you kill your mother? Yes. How? I cut her throat, Orestes answers staunchly. But the third -
quibus auxiliis:
With whose help? - reveals that Apollo has brought him to this pass, yet left him quite defenceless. He must rely on his father, though the Furies remind him Agamemnon is as dead as the mother Orestes murdered. She had to die, she killed two men at once - father and husband both - he protests ingeniously; but die she did, absolved, in effect, while he lives on for trial. The Furies’ logic is ruthless. Orestes asks why they never pursued his mother. They only punish kindred murder, they say, contradicting themselves perhaps, but leading him to his most contradictory defence.