Justice in Aeschylus's Oresteia
Justice in Oresteia is a play that was written by Aeschylus during the period after the end of war in Persia that also includes the plays of Agamemnon. Justice was the responsibility of embodied in the law of the state representing the whole community and it was not meted to the family vendetta blood. Democracy made the rule and law in the socio-political which this rule and law were meant to an institutionalization of justice. It was a step forward of directing community of Oresteia in orderly coexistence and in a peaceful way. The institutionalization of justice was a step forward dominance of male institutionalization as well it stand rule of male over women. These regulations were not meant to overthrow of women in the society but they were for beginning with the emergence of legal order in Oresteia. The institutionalization of justice in the society was to help the family to shift their power to the polis and the organization into multifaceted assuming authority will set down the rules by governing the society hence supposing the marginalization of women was complete. The arguments is set forth in the by the reveling of truth in the play of Aeschylus’s Orestia (Aeschylus 119).
Justice as well as righteousness is a confusing tragic in the majority society such in Oresteia. The city put a play on the stage of a man needed justice in order to pose the elaboration of justice in the society. The catastrophic champion neither a despicable or an innocent man was intended to be good with good action but the rule of the governing lead him to a harsh fate. This was a curious position of being blameworthy or not blameworthy to the catastrophic champion for being under responsible of judgment and falling as a victim beyond his control and circumstances. This tragedy of this man is anxious about justice for it concerned with precisely and interrogation of the law of demographic in the community (Belfiore, 6). This shows the best way community to do is to shift the case to the governing polis so as the man to get his justice peacefully and in a right way. Finally, the play tragedy posed on the problem that law goes through and the question of what is justice and how to solve the problems efficiently.
However, according to Belfiore 281, the equation of gender became evident as the order of justice in Oresteia as the parallel transformation so as the trilogy to progress. In the Agamemnon play, Agamemnon was murder by Clytaemnestra so as to avenge the sacrifice of Iphigeneia in accordance with the ethic of revenge. The killing of Agamemnon showed a brutal code of revenge and the person’s murder the close blood relative was the one to take revenge. Clytaemnestra was killed by Orestes so as to take revenge on the murdered of Agamemnon that was on the second play. The play goes on and the revenge was taking place as in the third play Apollo step on the stage to argue in defense of Orestes in order not to be murder by Athena as revenge to Clytaemnestra. The revenge by killing finally ends and the new order of justice was introduced basing on laws of the polis.
Polis was more concerned with redefining its citizen after tragic contest functioned as a microcosm of deliberative process hence reducing the noble of families’ power in the society through eroding importance of social signifiers. In the fifth and sixth century, Solon and Pericles oversaw the changes that were occurring in funeral practices by passing laws that are limited to the public funerals of decreeing as well as nobility that they confined privately which was only celebrated by the close family of the departed. The polis was insulated by a sphere of the quarantine of aristocratic grief which has destructive in infective of wild displays. Funerals had several members to attend as it was compared to another occasion of wealth where a large number of people attended to proof the generosity to the public. Polis remarks this and they provide the opportunities for the rival aristocratic kin group so as to make public interest and emotion in every occasion happen in the society (Belfiore 22).
Justice is changed in the status of women and the legitimizing is redefined correlated closely as patriarchy. The reason for the curse old revenge in the society was to defend the filial bond and sanctity clearly as it was stated by Furies as Orestes catch up in the shrine of Athena. The revenge shows love and the pain of the family who lost the loved ones and they have to revenge so as to sustain their feelings. Murder would not destroy the one’s flesh but also invite the wrath and pain for the killing to the side that is mostly affected. In the case of Apollo argument, he defense Orestes from being murdered by introducing polis in the case of justice. The justification of Clytaemnestra’s murder has many inconsistencies for a reason given that Clytaemnestra abused Furies for his despicable blood-thirsty ethnic hence the endless revenge cycle set in motion. This made Apollo seek for justice and replace the sanctity filial bond of marriage right by as the new justice principle in the society. Justice principle helped in the marriage of man and woman to fate itself with strong oaths as the guards of marriage in their entire life. The principle of justice brings some arguments in the society because it was against mother’s rights (Conacher 14).
Agamemnon was identified as the tragic hero by the critics because of cursing his family as it was shown in the first play of Aeschylus. The curse of Agamemnon causes death, strictly speaking, and diseases which were successive from generation to generations. This shows that justice was needed in the family so as to solve the problem and prevent curse by asking grace that came from gods. This part in the play was well referred to a chorus of invokes the daimon of the house of Atreus a curse that goes back goes back to its foundation and it stops generating from generation to the other. Daimon indentified that those disrespect the law and violate them are directly across with divine justice (Belfiore 1338-1340).
The proof of justice principle was proved in the case of Athena and Zeus whereby Athena sprang life of Zeus in goodness by bringing forehead living a proof that father can father forth without a mother. The mother is denied stake offspring of marriage in this case as it is indicated that marriage is more sacred and inviolate than parent’s relationship with the child. Systematically, women in the society were denied their rights and they were pushed to the margin which shows Apollo follows the typical patriarchal strategy of injustice in the society (Lloyd-Jones 79-103).
Athena presides the trial of the judge by motivating different purpose as she supports the concepts of male superiority. The truth is that primary concern is for peace and order of justice that ensure peace in the society. This implies that Greeks killing Greeks caught up in civil strife and unnecessary blood was shed because of lack of justice of the democratic hence seething against themselves. With the time casting her crucial, she decided on the vote so as to vindicate Orestes with the justification without considering the rights of a mother (Loraux 281).
Through the Peitho’s seductive reasoning, the foundation of the law in the society is dramatized by rhetoric explicitly of the Atredae as he embedded in the law. On the other hand, Orestes argue his case in either side of law or side of kingship to be never simultaneously and the justice he chooses, in any case, must extend to his mother in her own defense. For this case, Clytaemnestra is mute waiting for her death which can be either by homicide or matricide. The scene of assessment exemplifies Orestes to choose or to make his decision in kingship without contradicting itself or represent to his mother (Loraux 9-12).
To sum up, this content shows that human beings think about justice as a rational concept, institutionalization in their society without thinking how hurtful revenge is when it comes to murder. Revenge is the most powerful that hurt and makes people continue with revenging from generation to generation. By the mean of revenge, the society is seeking of justice in order to stop the murderer in the society and create peace. Since revenge and losing of loved one is the most powerful feeling in the Aeschylus play finally it end and the member of society seek for justice by stopping the cycle of retributive killing and over-killing in the society.
Works cited page
Aeschylus. The Oresteia. Trans. Hugh Lloyd-Jones. Berkeley: University of California Press,
Belfiore, Elizabeth. Murder Among Friends: Violation of Philia in Greek Tragedy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print
Lloyd-Jones, Hugh. “Presocratic Thinkers: Aeschylus.” The Justice of Zeus. 2nd ed. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1983. 79-103. Print
Loraux, Nicole. Mothers in Mourning. Trans. Corinne Pache. Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
Conacher, D.J. Aeschylus’ Oresteia: A Literary Commentary. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987. Print
