Justice and Social Order in The Oresteia Essay -- Aeschylus Oresteia

Justice and Social Order in The Oresteia Democracy, emerging in the city-state of Athens, allowed unparalleled power to her citizens. Among these new powers was the ability to legislate. Yet, legislation was not without its problems. First the citizens must agree upon what is just and unjust, and then enforce the law by deliverance the unjust to reconcile their guilt with the public through trial, and finally make do the appropriate penalty. This evolution was not without concern. The Greeks were attempting to establish a governmental body which would span the middle ground between outlawry and despotism. By the crimes contend out in Aeschylus tragic trilogy The Oresteia, Aeschylus demonstrates the contrast between insubordination and despotism, and decide them both guilty. Indeed he shows, by the end of the play, that the only vogue man can be absolved of guilt is by connectedness leagues with the gods in a united effort to promote justice. His premise is support by sequ entially following the criminal legacy of the house of Atreus, and cover that the curse of continued injustice can only be end by the cooperative effort of man and god. Aeschylus draws his contrast between anarchy and despotism through the main characters in the play. First Atreus, the father of Agamemnon, though never appearing himself in the trilogy is a central figure and the vehicle by which the curse is introduced. His crime is that of anarchy. Second, Agamemnon returns from Troy with the blood guilt of despotism. Next, Clytemnestra, Agamemnons queen, represents a mixture of the two evils in that she portrays a self-serving ruler. Finally Orestes, intelligence of Agamemnon, is introduced as a pious man who allows his fate to be intractable by the gods in conjuncti... ... of the trilogy it was demonstrated the power that democracy wielded. It was able to give-up the ghost anarchy and despotism by the middle ground. Although this had previously been the role of the furiou sness (Eu., ln.526-30), they had through the play proven themselves unsuccessful. Thus at the end of the Eumenides, Aeschylus has the Furies turn governance of the city to the citizens, and bestow honor on the people (Eu., ln.1016-20). thereof Aeschylus demonstrated that democracy allowed for the union between man and gods that neither anarchy or despotism could achieve. Moreover, it was only through this union that justice could be served and the ancient laws and ways could be overturned. With this new social order, man historied unprecedented equality, honor and prosperity Works CitedAeschylus. Oresteia. Trans. Peter Meineck. Indianapolis Hackett, 1998.