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The Curse on the House of
Atreus
The story of the House of Atreus,
and particularly Orestes' and Electra's revenge for their father's murder,
is one of the most popular and enduring of all Greek legends. This is a
summary of the legend as it bears upon the Oresteia.
The wealthy city of Argos was
ruled by two feuding brothers, Atreus and Thyestes. Atreus, the senior and
more powerful of the two, married and had two sons, Agamemnon and
Menelaus. Thyestes had three sons and a daughter. Thyestes had an affair
with Atreus' wife, and was banished from Argos by his brother. However, he
petitioned to be allowed to return. Atreus, apparently wishing to
reconcile, not only agreed, but prepared a huge banquet to celebrate the
end of their feud.
At the banquet, however, Atreus
served Thyestes the broiled flesh of Thyestes' two elder sons. Thyestes
ate the food, and only then was informed of what he had done. Overcome
with horror, Thyestes cursed the family of Atreus and fled Argos with his
daughter and youngest son, Aegisthus.
At the death of Atreus his sons
Agamemnon and Menelaus ruled Argos together. They married twin sisters,
Clytemnestra and Helen. The wives were not identical twins.
Clytemnestra had a human father; whereas, the beautiful Helen was a
daughter of Zeus. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had three children,
Iphigeneia, Orestes, and Electra.
When Menelaus' wife Helen eloped
to Troy with Paris, Menalaus and Agamemnon organized and led the Greek
forces against the Trojans. The army assembled at Aulis, but the fleet
could not sail because of contrary winds sent by the goddess Artemis, who
Agamemnon had long ago offended. Agamemnon had to sacrifice his daughter
Iphigeneia in order to placate the goddess. Knowing that Clytemnestra
would never agree to the sacrifice of her daughter, Agamemnon sent for
Iphigeneia on a pretext.
When the truth came out,
Clytemnestra vowed revenge. With Agamemnon and Menelaus off in Troy, she
took a lover —
Aegisthus, Theystes’ surviving son. The queen and her paramour sent her
son Orestes into exile, and humiliated Electra, Agamemnon's remaining
daughter, by forcing her to marry a humble farmer. That is how matters
stood when the Greeks at last defeated Troy after a decade-long siege. It
is at this point that Aeschylus begins The Oresteia.
The Trilogy
Agamemnon.
Argos learns that the Greeks are victorious over the Trojans. Agamemnon
returns with his captive, Cassandra, one of Priam’s daughters.
Clytemnestra murders Agamemnon and Cassandra with the help of Aegisthus,
and establishes tyranical rule over the Argives.
The
Libation Bearers.
Years later, Agamemnon’s exiled son Orestes returns to Argos. Apollo’s
oracle at Delphi has instructed him to avenge his father’s murder. After
revealing himself to his enslaved sister Electra, Orestes kills
Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. Then, pursued by Furies, demons who avenge the muder of blood relations, flees to Delphi.
The Eumenides.
The Furies follow Orestes to Delphi, where Apollo orders the youth to
Athens. There, on the Hill of Ares, Athena presides over a trial, with
Apollo as defense and the Furies as prosecution. The trial's outcome not
only ends the curse on Atreus' descendants, but changes the nature of
human and divine justice forever.
When The Oresteia was first
produced in 458 B.C., Athens was in full flush of the exuberant energy
that was driving it to greatness. Starting from well-known stories about
the Trojan War and the House of Atreus, as well as legends about the
establishment of the Athenian legal courts, Aeschylus shaped his material
into three dramas that depict the movement from primitive personal
vengeance to civilized justice. In doing so, he created an enduring
dramatic representation of the human and supra-human elements that must be
held in carefully tuned and sometimes precarious balance to ensure a just
civic order.
* * *
For full script, click here.
For more on the Trojan War,
click here.
For more on the Oresteia,
click
here. |
