“Eumenides”, the third and final piece in Aeschylus’s Oresteia trilogy, resumes the tale where “Choephoroe” left it as Orestes is pursued by the vengeful Erinyes. The primary plot point in “Eumenides” is the judgement Orestes undergoes for his act of matricide, and the conflicting ideas of justice provided by the various parties that are associated with it. Topic In “Eumenides”, the best idea of justice Argument is Athena’s Reason because her lack of a personal stake in the matter allows her to give a truly fair solution to the situation. (topic) The Erinyes do not have the best idea of justice because, as they have a personal stake in the matter, they twist their ideals to fit the situation and lean it in their favor. (point) Their manipulated …show more content…
(point) After the Erinyes state that Orestes is deserving of punishment for matricide because he killed a blood relative, Apollo twists logic to insist that a mother is not actually closely related to her child, demonstrating his prioritization of winning statements over honest ones. (evidence) "The mother is not the parent of the child, / Only the nurse of what she has conceived. / The parent is the father, who commits / His seed to her, a stranger, to be held / ...in safe keeping. In proof of this, / Father there might be and no mother: see / ...here, child of Olympian Zeus," (Aeschylus 361). (explanation 1) When Apollo utters these lines, he portrays that the father is the true parent of the child, who devotes his seed to a stranger so that the child may come to fruition while the mother is more akin to a nurse, and Athena is living and present proof of this phenomenon because she was born only to her father, Zeus. (ex 2) His manipulative nature comes to light as he challenges people’s basic beliefs for the purpose of winning his case, as none would have previously considered that a person’s father is their only true parent until then. (ex 3) His manipulation of these basic ideas in the name of personal benefit demonstrate that he believes in no set idea of justice, but rather adapts it to fit …show more content…
(point) When Orestes and the Erinyes cannot resolve their disagreements on their own, they turn to Athena, who chooses to establish a court of justice that will resolve the trial of bloodshed as well as provide protection in the future for her village, demonstrating the first and only sound idea of justice in the entire piece. (evidence)“People of Athens, hear my ordinance / At this first trial for bloodshed. Evermore / This great tribunal shall abide in power….I establish / This great tribunal to protect my people,” (Aeschylus 362). (explanation 1) In this statement, Athena officially declares the creation of a court of justice that will solve the current issue of bloodshed as well as abide in power from then on to protect her people. (ex 2)The creation of this court, which is not only created by a party impartial to the issue but also composed of neutral judges, is a solution equally fair to all parties, unlike those proposed by the Erinyes or Apollo. (ex 3) Thus, Athena is the only character who demonstrates a reasonable idea of justice, and it is consequentially the best idea of justice found in the piece. (transition) Thanks to this idea of justice, the issue was finally resolved and the piece was able to avoid a tragic
If you look at the CAF you already initiated (CAF#: QAFAP-2016-8P-W-UIC-CAF1) [attached], under “Problem/Finding Description in Section 1”, you pre-filled an “Opportunity for Improvement” that was reported in the Internal Audit Summary.
As proof of his theory, he points to Athena, the goddess who came to life from Zeus's forehead, living proof that" the father can father forth without a mother" (Furies, 673). Here, Apollo thoroughly follows the typical patriarchal strategy of denying women their rights and pushing them to the alienated boundaries of society by trying to make marriage more sanctified and unchanged than the parent-child relationship and in denying the mother's support in the offspring of a marriage. Athena, the reigning judge at the trial, is moved by a very different purpose, but she, also, supports the concept of male superiority like Apollo. It is true that her primary concern is for peace and an order of justice that will ensure peace. This implies that
In this play, there are many cases in which the word balance can be substituted for the word justice. The final play, The Eumenides, is significantly based on the idea of balance. Aeschylus puts it as “justice waits and turns the scales”(line 61), meaning that justice is purposeful, and is one of the components that forces the balance within the play. By analyzing the reference to the tipping of the scales, we can assume a reversal of fortune and what is fated to happen. With the trial being the main plotline of the last play, it reveals the scales tipping towards justice and leaves us with a sense of harmony. The two sides of justice are seen
In Plato’s Republic, Thrasymachus asserts that justice is the interest of the ruling part in a political community. This is proven wrong in many ways in Book II. Socrates disassembles this theory using undisputed definitions of wisdom and virtue. These definitions of wisdom and virtue are rendered by a ruler’s personal biases. A ruler has a natural internal motivation to gain undisputed expertise of their craft. A ruler of a political community does act through personal motivations, but by doing so inherently considers the interest of the entirety of the community, as the community’s level of justice will prove a ruler’s competency in their own craft.
In order to question and reassess Thrasymachus’ view of justice, in this essay, I will first bring up cases for Thrasymachus being accused of being contradictory and inconsistent in his view for justice. For the second part of the essay, I will provide a counterargument in order to prove Thrasymachus’ consistency followed by a discussion on Socrates’ own contradiction in regards to his account of the city.
Justice in the Oresteia Justice is often taken for granted in the world we live in today with a judicial system that gives fair punishment for most crimes. In the Oresteia justice works much differently, where there are no judges or a court system to resolve disputes, instead there is revenge. Revenge is very messy because somebody will and has to get hurt first to desire revenge, and it leads to a cycle that cannot and will not end until everybody is dead. Justice does not and cannot only be revenge because in the end nobody would be left in that system. Aeschylus' Oresteia focuses on revenge as justice, with the old system that no longer works and that someone must fix, and a new system that has
Athena herself participates in the judgement not as an unbiased arbiter of justice, but as a participant in the conflict who compromises and gains advantage from the consequences of her judgment just as Apollo, Orestes, and the Erinyes did. Athena judges with the interest of Athens, her city, in mind. When her judgment releases Orestes, he promises that "if they [his descendants] always honor this city of Pallas with the spear of allies,
The concept of justice is manifested through the three plays of Aeschylus' Oresteia. The old tradition of justice, the private blood feud, caused an ungoverned succession of violent acts that spiralled uncontrollably. Aegisthus, Clytemnestra's lover, is introduced in Agamemnon; he desires vengeance for the plot contrived by Agamemnon's father (Ag: 1605-1611).1 Neither Agamemnon nor Aegisthus took part in this "plot" and yet as the chorus explains (Ag: 755-6)
Justice is essential, for with a lack of justice, chaos would be brought about in society. In The Eumenides, the Furies value justice without truly being just. Throughout the play, the Furies, protectors of the law, pursue Orestes because of the crime he has committed. They yearn to "trace him by his
Justice and gender are put into relation with each other in Aeschylus’ Oresteia. In this trilogy, Greek society is characterized as a patriarch, where the oldest male assumes the highest role of the oikos (household). The household consists of a twofold where the father is the head, and the wife and children are the extended family. The head of the oikos is the only one who possesses the authority to seek justice. This is because the father acquires the authority through the inheritance law or male lineage. On the contrary, Greek society seems to transform to a matriarch when Clytemnestra solely murders Agamemnon because she, like primitive males, exercises destructive justice and enters the cycle
“If you want peace, work for justice.” – Pope Paul VI. The Oresteia trilogy, which contains the plays Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Furies, uses justice as its dominant theme. Aeschylus wrote these plays sometime after the end of the Persian wars, around 449 BC, when the star of Athens was on its superiority. It was the commencement of a new era, marked by the establishment of a new social and political order built on democracy and the rule of law. The rule of law designed the institutionalization of justice. Justice was not a personal responsibility to be handed out according to the rule of family dispute of blood for blood anymore. It was now a state responsibility representing the community as a whole that the law was set down. It was an advancement in the direction of realizing a more peaceful and orderly existence. Though, this institutionalization of justice was also an advancement in the
Apollo sends Orestes to visit the goddess Athena for judgment in the case of him murdering his mother because the furies continue to
This essay is about an accident that happened to me last year, and how did it changed my entire life.
The position Thrasymachus takes on the definition of justice, as well as its importance in society, is one far differing from the opinions of the other interlocutors in the first book of Plato’s Republic. Embracing his role as a Sophist in Athenian society, Thrasymachus sets out to aggressively dispute Socrates’ opinion that justice is a beneficial and valuable aspect of life and the ideal society. Throughout the course of the dialogue, Thrasymachus formulates three major assertions regarding justice. These claims include his opinion that “justice is nothing other than the advantage of the stronger,” “it is just to obey the rulers,” and “justice is really the good of another […] and harmful to the one who obeys and serves.” Socrates
Athena brought in a new trial system, the introduction of jury, although she still respected that the male should be honored above all else for the sake of that she was born from Zeus’s thigh without any women’s distribution. Athena respects men above all else and so supports Orestes. We can have a look at texts below