A review by nlwisz
The Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides by Aeschylus

5.0

Yikes, these families were completely ruthless! If you’ve read any Greek tragedies at all, you know you are in for plenty of violence, revenge, and power trips (pretty boilerplate stuff for mythology). Nevertheless, this was very well done. King Agamemnon has sacrificed his daughter in exchange for some good weather. He returns home following the Trojan War, only to be slain by his wife Clytemnestra. (I have to say, it was kind of funny when Clytemnestra gives this long monologue upon his return home about how the distance was so hard on her, and he basically tells her to shut up.) Anyway, the Queen kills him, and then (years later, in part 2 of the trilogy) their son Orestes travels to Argos to exact vengeance. He kills his mom (and her new boyfriend) because she killed Agamemnon. Sheesh. Lots of eye-for-an-eye going on. Orestes says that he was basically forced into it though, because Apollo (the prophecy god) told him to do it. But now, the Furies (a young trio of female gods) are ticked off at Orestes for committing matricide and they terrorize him. The trilogy comes to a close with a hung-jury trial (well really, it ends with the establishment of an organized litigation system, as Orestes’ case has been the guinea pig for this new system). Athena casts the tiebreaking vote and determines that Orestes will be spared; she also decrees that Athens need to start settling matters in court rather than personal vendettas/taking revenge into their own hands. The overarching themes focus on justice, the balance of power (as seen amongst mortals, gods, and males/females), and a need for intergenerational respect (as seen in both the family dynamic and the disagreements amongst the ‘old’ and ‘new’ gods).