Justice and Gender in the Oresteia

Clytemnestra fits the character of one of the Argos’s contaminations because of her adulterous acts with Aegisthus and her psychotic murderous plans to kill her husband Agamemnon. In her point of view, justice will only be obtained of she avenges the death of her daughter Iphigenia by killing the one who murdered her, Agamemnon. Cassandra mentions this cycle of fertility and decay when she talks about “the babies wailing, skewered on the sword, their flesh charred, the father gorging on their parts” referring to Thyestes’ babies (A 1095-1097). More blood vengeance and violence only fuels what becomes a never ending cycle of death and decay within the House of Atreus. When Clytaemnestra finally kills Agamemnon she cries, “So he goes down, and the life is bursting out of him—great sprays of blood, and the murderous shower wounds me, dyes me black and I, I revel like the Earth when the spring rains come down, the blessed gifts of god, and the new green spear splits the sheath and rips to birth in glory!”, and she feels reborn from his death and even calls it a gift from the god (A 1410-1415). Not only does Clytaemnestra feel renewed from murdering Agamemnon, but she feels that it was the proper and just thing to do. Although the Furies don’t go after her since this is not a crime of matricide or patricide, killing her husband is unwise and unfair because in Agamemnon’s

Misogyny pervades the picture Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and Sophocles paint of Athenian society. In their literature, however, female characters catalyze plot by challenging this picture. Such characters--from Sophocles’ Antigone to Aristophanes’ Lysistrata--face grim consequences for acting independently. Clytemnestra and Cassandra from Aeschylus’s Agamemnon exemplify this archetype of autonomy and destruction. When they confront injustice, male characters perceive them as vindictive and hysterical. This paper will compare the standards of justice Aeschylus’s society imposes on men and women. I will argue that Clytemnestra and Cassandra are protectors of divine justice who reject subservience and thereby transcend the sexism of their society.

Women have been belittled by men since the beginning of time. This is demonstrated in the novels Oresteia by Aeschylus and Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud. Men have always held the upper hand in society, politics, and technological advancements. Women have been purely sentimental sexual objects. Freud is keen to state that a man’s wish to fulfill his sexual desires is crucial. Women are cast as purely sexual objects, and, furthermore, as entirely unreasonable and illogical. In the novel Oresteia, we learn how women are sensitive, emotional, and exceptionally incoherent to men in the play. However, throughout the play the women, such as Clytemnestra, the king’s wife, prove that women are not pieces of meat. She is a great leader who is a remarkably strong mentally, and who can easily outsmart a man. However, women like Clytemnestra are a minority in these works of literature. Most women are perceived in literature as domesticated creatures who are irrational and emotional. Freud maintains a condescending attitude toward women, seeing them as mere objects, while Aeschylus helps reinforce Freud’s attitudes. By enforcing the gender roles in Greek society it is easy to reflect powerful female character who carry the mentality of a man, portrayals of "wrong womanhood" and solely displaying women’s sexual and family interests.

Throughout The Oresteia, the themes of justice and revenge are often used as reasoning for certain events that take place. In many instances, the characters refer to certain events as revenge, while others see them as justice. For example, Clytemnestra kills her wife in pursuit of justice, and can be displayed as just due to her motives and reasoning. Orestes’ killing of Clytemnestra may be viewed as just in his eyes, but in reality, is revenge. In The Oresteia, revenge, often portrayed as a selfish act, regards experiencing a spiteful joy caused by retaliation, while justice is displayed primarily as a rational decision, rather than an emotional one.

In Aeschylus’s trilogy, Oresteia, the tragic manifesto paints a bloody chain of murder, adultery, betrayal, and kinslaying, in which DIKE (justice) and the relation of women to social and family structure serve as central themes. The Greeks were a misogynistic culture, in which women were relegated to an inferior status in society. Women were only given a limited voice because the family was the sovereign unit of society. The rule of justice stood for patriarchy. Cassandra’s importance is merely in the first play but her prophetic visions and declarations about the House of Atreus peal through the entire trilogy. She’s presented as a true inferior female to male superiority with little to no voice. Contrastingly, the female character,

Homer’s Odyssey is an epic tale set in the world of ancient Greece - a world dominated by men. Admirable men such as Odysseus, the story’s protagonist, are strong, cunning, and wise; they have control over their lives and the people within them. In The Odyssey, the quintessential man is characterized by his authority, including control of the women who surround him. As is suggested throughout the novel, the patriarchal world would fall into disarray without the force of intrinsic male authority. Odysseus’s struggles with his wife, his son’s search for manhood, and the wiles of cunning women like Clytemnestra and Calypso highlight the disordering powers of women. These disordering powers justify, to the men within this world, the necessity

In ancient Greece law of retaliation was similar to the eye for an eye concept. Because Clytemnestra killed their father, it was only fair for Orestes to kill her. This is idea is imposed in the final play of the trilogy

Greek society is highly stratified, one where the distinctions between Nobles, peasants, and slaves are explicit. While many people consider women oppressed in the ancient hierarchy, this notion is somewhat contradicted in the Odyssey, where many women act as powerful figures. Penelope separates herself from the suitors that plague her palace, who are relentless in their pursuit for her hand in marriage. Circe has the capability to seduce an entire unit of Odysseus’ men and turn them into pigs. Athena benevolently guides Telemachus over the many obstacles he faces on his quest to seek out his father. Helen defects from Sparta, rallying all of Troy for her cause. Clytemnestra deceitfully plans Agamemnon's death for her new love interest, Aegisthus. Women in the Odyssey show that through seduction, trickery, and wisdom, women of Ancient Greece are able to obtain significant power.

Clytaemestra, whose infidelity and Agamemnon`s murder create a domino effect, which in turn brings a reign of chaos and killing begins as conspiracies and family secrets are reveled. Clytaemestra can be viewed as the unethical, evil character, nevertheless, her independed will and ability to murder, translate into strength and intellect. Clytaemestra drives the plot into "the complicated" which forms the majority of the tragedy itself.

The patriarchal nature of ancient Greece, especially in The Odyssey, is talked about by scholars globally. Despite this prejudice, reading The Odyssey, multiple strong women are revealed, both antagonists to the hero Odysseus and his helpers, sometimes both in one.

In Athena’s courtroom, justice was not unseeing. There is an apparent bigotry for life, and there were repercussions for the wrong verdict. For example, the life of Clytemnestra is seemingly less cherished than the life of King Agamemnon, who as a ruler is “honored with the king’s staff given by the hand of god” (Line 626). Moreover, the life of Iphigenia was even less valuable since her death is not even mentioned in the trial.

As a result of possible female contradictions of the patriarchal order, the men of Athens and the woods need to have strict rules. After Egeus finds his daughter in the woods with Lysandre, he becomes very upset and requests that the law punish them: “–My lord, you have enough. I beg the law, the law upon his head” (4.1.160-61). Egeus is so upset at his daughter’s disobedience and the fact that Lysandre went along with it, that he requests Theseus to have Lysandre killed. His harsh reaction, however, is irrational and was only made out of anger for his daughter’s defiance and the awkwardness of the situation at hand. Coupled with the law of Athens, the men also assert their dominance by choosing who their daughters can or cannot marry: Egeus

When Agamemnon comes back home with his concubine and slave, Cassandra, he still chooses to trust his wife, and is elated by her apparent enthusiasm to see him after he sacrificed her daughter, Iphigenia. Also, he agrees to walk on the red carpet, despite having previously claimed that it is an honour only meant for the Gods. All of these demonstrations of haughty behavior are indicative of Agamemnon’s arrogance, which eventually leads to his murder in the hands of his own wife, Clytemnestra.

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)

The play termed the Oresteia is actually a trilogy that is built around the family of Agamemnon. Traditionally, one of the primary themes of the three plays is a movement from a traditional belief in revenge for wrongs to one of justice and the rule of law. The purpose of this paper is to discuss all three of the plays and look at how justice is conceived in each.