Odyssey 1 Zeus speaking:

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Odyssey 1Zeus speaking 35 Even as now
Aegisthus, beyond what was ordained, took to
himself the wedded wife of the son of Atreus, and
slew him on his return, though well he knew of
sheer destruction, since we spoke to him before,
sending Hermes, the keen-sighted Argeiphontes,
that he should neither slay the man nor woo his
wife 40 for from Orestes shall come vengeance
(tisis) for the son of Atreus when once he has
come to manhood and longs for his own land. So
Hermes spoke, but for all his good intent he
prevailed not upon the heart of Aegisthus and
now he has paid the full price of all.
2
Odyssey 5 Aegisthus straightway planned a
treacherous device. 530 He chose out twenty
men, the best in the land, and set them to lie in
wait, but on the further side of the hall he bade
prepare a feast. Then he went with chariot and
horses to summon Agamemnon, shepherd of the
people, his mind pondering a dastardly deed. So
he brought him up all unaware of his doom, 535
and when he had feasted him he slew him, as one
slays an ox at the stall. And not one of the
comrades of the son of Atreus was left, of all
that followed him, nor one of the men of
Aegisthus, but they were all slain in the
halls.book 11 Aegisthus wrought for me death
and fate, 410 and slew me with the aid of my
accursed wife, when he had bidden me to his house
and made me a feast, even as one slays an ox at
the stall. So I died by a most pitiful death, and
round about me the rest of my comrades were slain
unceasingly like white-tusked swine, which are
slaughtered in the house of a rich man of great
might 415 at a marriage feast, or a joint meal,
or a rich drinking-bout.Menelaus Ag. 617,
Helen 687
3
Aristotles Poetics and Scapegoating René
GirardPlots (mythoi) in tragedyPoetics 13
1452b the structure of the best tragedy should
be not simple but complex and one that represents
incidents arousing fear and pity.. . pity for the
undeserved misfortune, fear for the man like
ourselves. Oedipus and hamartia Poetics 14
1453b-4a The worst of these is to intend the
action with full knowledge and not to perform it
that is offensive and is not tragic, for there is
no suffering. So nobody does that, except
occasionally, as, for instance, Haemon and Creon
in the Antigone. Next worst is the doing of the
deed. It is better to act in ignorance and
discover afterwards. It is not offensive and the
discovery is startling. Best of all is the
last in the Cresphontes, for instance, Merope
intends to kill her son and does not kill him but
discovers and in the Iphigenia the case of the
sister and brother
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Aeschylus Oresteia Agamemnon Choephoroi Eumenides
458 BC trilogymale-female11 Thus commands a
masculine-willed heart of a woman in strength of
purpose. 348 Such are the thoughts you hear
from me, a woman merely.351 My lady, no grave
man could speak with better grace.483 It is like
a woman to take the rapture before the fact has
shown true.592 How like a woman, for the heart
to lift so light. Men spoke like that.917 Do
not try in womans ways to make me delicate. 940
Surely this lust for conflict is not womanlike?
1231 This is daring when the female shall strike
down the male.1636 Clearly the deception was the
womans part.
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kingship-tyranny basileus-tyrannos19 I pity the
this house of ours, not worked for the best as in
days gone by.828 A wild and bloody lion swarmed
above the towers of Troy to glut its hunger
lapping at the blood of kings (tyrants).905 And
now, I pray you, my dear lord, dismount from your
car, but do not set on common earth the foot, my
King, that has trampled upon Ilium. 1355 Their
opening act marks a plan to set up a tyranny in
the State.1365 Death is a softer thing by far
than tyranny.The people astoi, politai, demos
458 Dangerous is a people's voice charged with
wrath it acts as a curse of publicly ratified
doom.809 you will learn in time which of your
citizens have been just in the citys sway, which
were reckless.844 Now in the business of the
city and the gods we must ordain full conclave of
citizens938 And yet a people's voice is a mighty
power.1639 with his gold I shall endeavor to
control the citizens.1408 you have taken upon
yourself this maddened rage and the loud curses
voiced by the public? 1410 You have cast him
off you have cut him off and out from the land
shall you be cast, a burden of hatred to your
people.
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the will of Zeuspathei mathos176 Zeus, who sets
mortals on the path to understanding, Zeus, who
has established as a fixed law that wisdom comes
by suffering . . . Against our pleasure we are
temperate from the gods who sit in grandeur
grace comes somehow violent. Robert
Kennedythe justice of Zeus dike 28 occurrences
in Ag. Justice vengeance1564 the doer must
suffer for it is law. 464-6 The black furies
stalking the man fortunate beyond all right
wrench back again the set of his life and drop
him into darkness. 250 Justice so moves that
those only learn who suffer
7
Hunting and Sacrifice48 Their cry of war went
shrill from the heart, as eagles stricken in
agony for young perished.114 Kings of birds to
the kings of the ships, one black, one blazed
with silver . . . Tore a hare, ripe, bursting
with young unborn yet.1395 Were it pious to pour
wine above the slain, this man deserved, more
than deserved, such sacrament.1417 he
slaughtered like a victim his own child.
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Iphigenia 135 For, in her pity, holy Artemis
is angry at the winged hounds of her father, for
they sacrifice a wretched timorous thing,
together with her young, before she has brought
them forth. An abomination to her is the eagles'
feast.For there abides wrath 155 terrible,
not to be suppressed, a treacherous guardian of
the home, a wrath that never forgets and that
exacts vengeance for a child.206 It is a hard
fate to refuse obedience, and hard, if I must
slay my child, the beauty of my home, and at the
altar-side stain 210 a father's hand with
streams of virgin's blood. Which of these
courses is not filled with evil? How can I
become a deserter to my fleet and fail my allies
in arms? 215 For that they should by anger
over-angrily crave a sacrifice to lull the winds
even a virgin's blood stands within their
right. May all be for the best.
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Clytemnnestra to Chorus Fire Signal
281-316Now if they keep clear of guilt towards
the gods of the town those of the conquered
land and towards their shrines, 340 the
captors shall not be made captives in their turn.
Only may no mad impulse first assail the army,
overmastered by greed, to pillage what they
should not! Then you had nothing to urge
against him that lies here. And yet he, 1415
valuing no more than if it had been a beast that
perished though sheep were plenty in his fleecy
folds he sacrificed his own child, she whom I
bore with dearest travail, to charm the gusts of
Thrace.1525 Yet, as he has suffered worthy
prize of worthy deed for what he did to my
sweet flower, shoot sprung from him, the
sore-wept Iphigenia.
10
fraternal rivalry between Atreus and Thyestes
For from this roof never departs a choir
chanting in unison, but singing no harmonious
tune for it tells not of good. And so, gorged
on human blood, so as to be the more emboldened,
a revel-rout of kindred Furies haunts the house,
1190 hard to be driven away. Lodged within its
halls they chant their chant, the primal sin
and, each in turn, they spurn with loathing a
brother's bed, for they bitterly spurn the one
who defiled it.1242 Chorus Thyestes' banquet
on his children's flesh I understood, and I
tremble.Chorus By force 1510 amid streams of
kindred blood black Havoc presses on to where he
shall grant vengeance for the gore of children
served for meat.AegisthusNow that, to my joy,
I behold this man lying here in a robe spun by
the Avenging Spirits and making full payment for
the deeds contrived in craft by his father's
hand. For Atreus, lord of this land, this man's
father, challenged in his sovereignty, drove
forth, from city and from home, Thyestes.
11
DeceptionGive this message to my husband 605
let him come with all speed, his country's fond
desire, come to find at home his wife faithful,
even as he left her, a watchdog of his house,
loyal to him, a foe to those who wish him ill
yes, for the rest, unchanged in every part 610
in all this length of time never having broken
any seal. Of pleasure from any other man or of
scandalous repute I know no more than of dyeing
bronze.855 Citizens of Argos, you Elders
present here, I shall not be ashamed to confess
in your presence my fondness for my husband
with time diffidence dies away in humans.
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The carpetI have assigned the task to strew with
tapestries the place where he shall go? 910
Quick! With purple let his path be strewn, that
Justice may usher him into a home he never hoped
to see. For the rest, pamper me not as a woman,
nor, as if I were some barbarian, 920 grovel
before me with wide-mouthed acclaim and do not
draw down envy upon my path by strewing it with
tapestries. It is the gods we must honor thus
but it is not possible for a mortal to tread upon
embroidered fineries without fear. 925 I tell
you to revere me not as a god, but as a man.
946 As I walk upon these purple vestments may I
not be struck from afar by any glance of the
gods' jealous eye.
13
CassandraClytemnaestra 1060 But if, failing
to understand, you do not catch my meaning, then,
instead of speech, make a sign with your
barbarian hand.Chorus I think that she is
about to prophesy about her own miseries. The
divine gift still abides even in the soul of one
enslaved.
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Cassandra The seer Apollo appointed me to this
office.Chorus 1204 Can it be that he, a
god, was smitten with desire?Cassandra Oh,
but he struggled to win me, breathing ardent love
for me.Chorus Did you in due course come to
the rite of marriage?Cassandra I consented to
Loxias but broke my word.Chorus 1210 Were
you already possessed by the art inspired of the
god?Cassandra Already I prophesied to my
countrymen all their disasters.Chorus How
came it then that you were unharmed by Loxias'
wrath?Cassandra Ever since that fault I could
persuade no one of anything.
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AssassinationChorus 975 Why does this terror
so persistently hover standing before my
prophetic soul?Cassandra This two-footed
lioness, who mates with a wolf in the absence of
the noble lion, 1260 will slay me, miserable as
I am. Brewing as it were a drug, she vows that
with her wrath she will mix requital for me too,
while she whets her sword against her husband, to
take murderous vengeance for bringing me here.
Clytemnestra Fallen thus, he gasped away his
life, and as he breathed forth quick spurts of
blood, 1390 he struck me with dark drops of
gory dew while I rejoiced no less than the sown
earth is gladdened in heaven's refreshing rain at
the birth time of the flower buds.
16
OrestesOur boy, Orestes, does not stand here
beside me, as he should he in whom rest the
pledges of my love and yours. Nor should you
think this strange. 880 For he is in the
protecting care of our well-intentioned ally,
Strophius of Phocis, who warned me of trouble on
two scores your own peril beneath Ilium's
walls, and then the chance that the people in
clamorous revolt might overturn the Council, as
it is natural 885 for men to trample all the
more upon the fallen. Chorus 1665 It
would not be like men of Argos to cringe before a
man as low as you.Aegisthus Ha! I will visit
you with vengeance yet in days to come.Chorus
Not if fate shall guide Orestes to return home.
17
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18
David Cohen, The Theodicy of Aeschylus Justice
and Tyranny in the Oresteia, in I. McAuslan and
P. Walcot (eds), Greek Tragedy (Oxford 1993), pp.
45-57.p. 45 Aeschylus portrays a cosmic and
political order which is neither moral nor just,
but rather tyrannical, in the sense that its
ultimate foundations are force and fear.p. 47
rejection of the preconception that Aeschylus
must be pious and Zeus must be just. . . He
chose to emphasize so strongly the innocent
suffering which the justice of Zeus produces.
p. 54 justice as the right of the stronger, p.
55 persuasion and compulsion, backed by fear and
force.
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Prologos Pythia39 I saw on the center-stone a
man defiled in the eyes of the gods, occupying
the seat of suppliants. His hands were dripping
blood he held a sword just drawn and an
olive-branch, from the top of the tree,
decorously crowned with a large tuft of wool, a
shining fleece for as to this I can speak
clearly. Before this man an extraordinary band of
women slept, seated on thrones.Apollo71 They
were even born for evil, since they live in evil
gloom and in Tartarus under the earth, creatures
hateful to men and to the Olympian gods.78 When
you have come to Pallas' city, sit down and hold
in your arms her ancient image. And there, with
judges of your case and speeches of persuasive
charm, we shall find means to release you
completely from your labors. For I persuaded you
to take your mother's life.92 Zeus reveres this
reverence (sebas) of outlaws (eknomoi
wanderers). Clytaemestra 99 I tell you that I
have greatest guilt (aitia) under their view (the
dead). 101 No divine power is angry on my behalf,
slaughtered as I have been by the hands of a
matricide. 120 You are too drowsy and do not
pity my suffering.
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Parodos 143-178153-4 Although you are a god,
you have stolen away a man that killed his
mother. What is there here that anyone shall
call just?179-253 episode199 You are not
partially guilty (metaitios) of this deed you
alone have done it all, and are wholly guilty
(panaitios). Aitia cause 212 But what
about a wife who kills her husband? -That
would not be murder of a relative by blood.216
Marriage ordained by fate for a man and a woman
is greater than an oath and guarded by Justice.
224 The goddess Pallas will oversee the
pleadings (dikai) in this case.233 The wrath
of the one who seeks purification is terrible
among mortals and gods.
22
254-275 Epiparodos (in Athens) 259 His arms
twisted around the image of the immortal goddess,
he wishes to be tried for his debt. But that is
not possible a mother's blood upon the earth is
hard to recover alas, the liquid poured on the
ground is gone. But you must allow me in return
to suck the red blood from your living
limbs.280 The pollution of matricide is washed
away while it was still fresh, it was driven
away at the hearth of the god Phoebus by
purifying sacrifices of swine.303 You who are
fattened and consecrated to me, living, you will
provide my feast, not slain at an altar307-396
1st Stasimon 312 We claim to be directly just
(euthydikaioi). 315 Whoever sins, as this man
has, and hides his blood-stained hands, as
avengers of bloodshed we appear against him to
the end, presenting ourselves as upright
witnesses (martures) for the dead. 359 We are
eager to remove from everyone these concerns, and
by our responsibilities to establish exemption
(ateleia) for the gods, and not to go to trial
(anakrisis).389 What mortal, then, does not
stand in awe and fear of this, when he hears from
me an institution (thesmos) established by fate,
given fulfilled (teleios) by the gods?
23
397-489 interview by Athena421 We drive
murderers from their homes. - And where is
the end of flight (phugê) for the killer? Where
grace (charis) is nowhere the custom
(nomos).428 Two parties are present only half
the case is heard. -But he will not receive
an oath nor does he want to give one. You
want to be called just rather than to act
justly.433 Well then, test him, and try a
straight judgment. Then would you turn over the
completion (telos) of the charge (aitia) to
me?436 What do you want to respond to this,
stranger? After you name your country and
family and fortunes, defend yourself against this
complaint if indeed, relying on the justice of
your case, you sit clinging to my image near my
hearth, as a sacred suppliant, like Ixion. To
all this give me a plain answer.463 I killed
the woman who gave birth to me, I will not deny
it, as the penalty in return for the murder of
my dearly-loved father. With me Loxias is
co-cause of this deed, because he threatened me
with pains.468 You, make trial of justice
whether I (killed) justly or not.
24
It is not lawful even for me to discern cases of
murder, which involves quick anger.474 I
respect (aidoumai) you, since you do not bring
harm to my city.483 I will select judges of
homicide bound by oath, and I will establish
this ordinance for all time. Summon your
witnesses and proofs, sworn safeguards to
support your case and I will return when I have
chosen the best of my citizens, for them to
decide this matter truly, after they take an
oath that they will pronounce no judgment
contrary to justice. 2nd Stasimon 490-565 494
His deed will accustom all men to capriciousness
(eucheriai).522 Who, if he did not train his
heart in fear, either city or mortal, would
still revere justice in the same way?534
Hybris is child of irreverence.566-777
Athena569 While this council-hall is filling,
it is good to be silent, and for my ordinances
to be learned, by the whole city for everlasting
time, and by these also, so that their case may
be decided well.
25
I have come both to bear witness, for this man
was a lawful suppliant and a guest of my
sanctuary, and I am his purifier from bloodshed,
and to be his co-pleader myself. I have
responsibility (aitia) for the murder of his
mother. Introduce the case, and, in accordance
with your wisdom, have charge of it.586 Answer
our questions, one by one. Say first if you
killed your mother. -Of the three falls that win
the wrestling match, this one is already
ours. -You must, however, say how you killed
her. -By whom were you persuaded and on whose
advice?600 She was twice afflicted with
pollution. How so? Teach the judges this.
By murdering her husband, she killed my
father.619 Learn how strong this plea of
justice is and I tell you to obey the will of my
father for an oath is not more powerful than
Zeus. 652 See how you advocate the defense
(pheugein) for this man! After he has poured out
his mother's blood on the ground, shall he then
live in his father's house in Argos? Which of
the public altars shall he use? What
purification rite of the brotherhoods
(phratriai) will receive him?
26
For my part, Pallas, as in all other matters, as
I know how, I will make your city and people
great and I have sent this man as a suppliant to
your sanctuary so that he may be faithful for
all time, and that you, goddess, might win him
and those to come after him as a new ally 675
Shall I now command these jurors to cast a vote
according to their just decision (gnome) ?
681 Hear now my ordinance, people of Attica,
as you try the first case for bloodshed. In the
future, even as now, this council of judges will
always exist for the band of Aegeus. . . . 688
Here reverence of the people and inborn fear
will hold day and night so long as the citizens
themselves do not change the laws. . . . 699 For
who among mortals, if he fears nothing, is
righteous? Stand in just awe of such reverence,
and you will have a defense for your land and
salvation of your city, such as no man has,
either among the Scythians or in Pelops' realm.
I establish this tribunal, untouched by greed,
worthy of reverence, sharp in spirit, awake on
behalf of those who sleep, a guardian of the
land. I have prolonged this advice to my
citizens for the future but now you must rise
and take a ballot, and decide the case under the
sacred obligation of your oath. My word has been
spoken.
27
It is my duty to give the final judgment and I
shall cast my vote for Orestes.740 Orestes
wins, even if the vote comes out equal. Cast the
ballots out of the urns, as quickly as possible,
you jurors who have been assigned this task.
3d Stasimon 778-880 900 It seems you will win
me by your spells I am letting go my anger.
Choral Exodos 916-end984 But may they return
joy for joy in a spirit of common love, and may
they hate with one mind for this is the cure of
many an evil in the world.
28
Response to CohenJustice of Zeus violent grace
(biaios charis), collective punishment, privilege
of the male, priority of legitimate rule, triumph
of Athens/Greece, democratic process, resolution
of anger, alliance with Argos fiat iustitia
ruat caelum