Oresteia as Foundation Myth: the Areopagus and 5^th-Century Athenian politics

To what end does Aeschylus engage the story of Orestes?

Robert Fagles: "Physically the two noblest monuments of the age [of Athenians' celebrating victory over Persians] were the Parthenon of Ictinus and Pheidias, and the Oresteian trilogy of Aeschylus. Paradoxically, when one considers the contrast between the durability of marble and fragility of papyrus, the Oresteia is better preserved by far. Both were expressions of optimism as well as of artistic genius. Out of the savagery of past wars and feuds a new harmony — religious, political, and personal — might be created." ("The Serpent and the Eagle" 13)

Lesky: “The Oresteia, whose action now has the very universe for its stage, finds room for a piece of contemporary history. Four years before the play was performed Ephialtes [in 462/1] had brought in a reform which stripped the Areopagus — traditionally dominated by aristocrats — of its political powers, leaving it only the right to try homicide and certain powers to supervise ceremonies. In the Eumenides Aeschylus avoids taking a side in the issue: through the mouth of Athene he only promises to the court those powers which the reform had left it. It is as the repository of the power to absolve from blood-guilt that the Areopagus is to remain in honour among a people who, in Athene’s impressive words, ‘loves neither license nor to hear a lord’s command’’ (v. 696).”

“Aeschylus’s dramatization of [Athena’s] victory [over the Erinyes] of persuasion over retribution, where eris [strife] (975) now signifies a rivalry in bestowing blessings and strife is banished from the community of philoi [friends], is particularly appropriate to the Oresteia’s production in 458 B.C.E. In the turbulent aftermath of the democratic reforms of the late 460s, which saw the dissolution of the Athenian alliance with Sparta, the ostracism of Cimon, and the murder of Ephialtes, a key democratic leader and the reformer of the Areopagus, civic strife was a vivid possibility for the Athenians. According to Antiphon (5.68), Ephialtes’ murderers went undiscovered and unpunished. … In these circumstances, recourse to violent retribution, particularly when democrats could (perhaps not unreasonably) complain that the city’s mechanisms of justice had failed them, might have exploded into stasis [factional strife]. Thus Athena’s restraint and, even more pointedly, the adoption of a similar restraint by the Erinyes, who are initially so aggrieved at the failure of the Areopagus to resolve their conflict with Apollo in their favor, might be seen as a plea for cooler heads to prevail. If even the Erinyes, goddesses of vindictive wrath, can learn self-restraint for the sake of a community in which they now have a stake, surely Athenian citizens can resolve even contentious political conflicts through persuasion instead of violence, so that they may avoid treating philoi [friends] as if they were echthroi [enemies] and thereby preserve the polis.” — N. Rynearson, “Courting the Erinyes: persuasion, sacrifice, and seduction in Aeschylus’s Eumenides,” TAPA 143 (2013) 20-21.

OCD, 3^rd. edition, s.v. “Areopagus,” (Cornell and Rhodes): “Ephialtes is said to have taken away the judicial powers which gave the Areopagus its guardianship of the state: these probably included the trial of eisangeliai (if they had been taken away earlier), and procedures which enabled it to control the magistrates... The Areopagus retained the right to try cases of homicide, wounding, and arson..., and also some religious cases. The reform was contentious — Cimon [who benefited by the reform] was ostracized, Ephialtes was murdered, the Areopagus as a homicide court was featured in Aeschylus’ Eumenides of 458— but it held, and for a time the council ceased to be a politically important body.”

Fagles (ad Eum. 696ff.): "Aeschylus' derivation of the Areopagus from the trial of Orestes reflects the poet's response to the democratic reforms which, during his lifetime, had curtailed the powers of the supreme court of Athens. The choice of judges, formerly a matter of aristocratic birth, had been 'democratized' by the introduction of the lot; the authority of the court as a king's council that oversaw the workings of the Constitution had been eliminated; and its jurisdiction had been reduced to cases of homicide. Aeschylus may seem to support the last reform by deriving the court from a case of homicide, but his warnings against innovations (706ff), his reference to the Areopagus as a bouleutêrion, a senate as a tribunal (696, 718), and the democratic cast which he imparts to the ancient institution at its inception may suggest that he wishes to preserve its broadest powers."

Fagles (ad Eum. 767): "What is crucial ... is that Athena conduct herself so judiciously throughout [Orestes'] trial that, throughout its aftermath which may be more important, she can mediate successfully between the Furies and the citizens of Athens. For beyond the question of the balloting and the number of the jurors [which are important during the trial itself], where internal evidence may be debated, and beyond the question of Athena's motives, where internal evidence would seem to be convincing, lies the clear, momentous result of the court proceeding in The Eumenides: namely, Athena's establishment of justice, not with the collaboration of her fellow Olympians — least of all with Apollo the God of Law — but with the rudimentary morality of the Furies and the indispensible, never-ending efforts of mankind."

Compare other versions for resolving Orestes' plight:

Simpson's notes ad Apollodorus Bibliotheca E6.14, 6.23-28 are excellent,

also Reid OGCMA p. 763.

Euripides' Orestes:

Orestes, driven nearly mad by the Furies, and Electra are sentenced by the Argives for killing Clytemnestra.

Menelaus, made regent of Argos, refuses to exonerate his kin

Pylades supports Electra and Orestes in their plot to murder Helen; but she is rescued by divine intervention.

Hermione is taken hostage and the House of Atreus set on fire; then Apollo appears ex machina.

Resolution: Orestes will be acquitted at Athens, becoming king of Argos and marrying Hermione, Electra Pylades.

Euripides' Iphigenia in Tauris:

Iphigenia was never slain, but whisked to the island of the Taurians

She presides over a murderous cult of Artemis there.

When Orestes comes to expiate his crime by stealing Artemis cult statue, he encounters his sister.

Hermione (daughter of Menelaus and Helen) is betrothed by Agamemnon to Orestes before the war.

Menelaus re-aligns with Neoptolemus after the war.

After returning from Tauris, Orestes slays Neoptolemus at Delphi and marries Hermione.

Orestes rules Argos for 70 years.