"Orestes defies God while discovering existential truths. Les Mouches was written during the Nazi occupation of France, but like Anouilh's Antigone, the occupiers did not realize that they were the subject of a dramatic critique. Zeus controls the city of Argos through fear, and the flies are his Furies. ... Zeus encourages fear, because that is the source of his power. Orestes returns to Argos and Zeus tries to dissuade Orestes from staying, but after he has seen his sister living in drudgery, he decides to fulfill the vengeance his sister prays for. ... His is the existential nightmare and glory of the soul that realizes it is free and human."
— M. McDonald, The Living Art of Greek Tragedy (UIndiana Press, 2003), 27.