The Orestei Transformation Of Justice Based On Law

The female characters portrayed in Aeschylus and Sophocles’ works have considerably different personalities and roles, yet those females all have the common weaknesses of being short-sighted and stubborn. They intensify the conflicts within their families while being inconsiderate of the impacts that they may bring to their nations and societies, which leads to consequences that they are incapable of taking responsibilities for. Clytemnestra and Antigone, two major characters in their respective author’s works, possess different motivations for their deeds in the stories. While Clytemnestra is driven by the desire of revenge to murder her husband Agamemnon, Antigone acts against Creon’s will and strives to properly bury her brother. Despite having different motivations and personalities, Clytemnestra and Antigone both commit

In the Oresteia, revenge drives the characters to act. Although they call it justice, it is not. Aeschylus uses net imagery to symbolize faith and destiny. When Clytemnestra murders Agamemnon and Cassandra, the net imagery acts as a symbol of terrible fate. However, then fate reverse. Now, Orestes is caught in Apollo’s net and kills his own mother. Lastly, Athene changes the meaning of the net from one of chaos to that of order and justice. These uses of the net imagery help the reader focus on a crucial theme in the play: the superiority of a formal justice system to one based on the individual quest for revenge by progressively altering the nets meaning and its affect on those around it.

The play “The Furies” shows that law is better than revenge because all facts of a case must be examined before a decision can be made on punishment for crimes committed. The furies wanted to kill Orestes mainly because he killed his own mother and that kind of crime could only be paid with blood, but

This essay compares the Ancient Greek speech "Against the Stepmother" and an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit entitled "Legitimate Rape", with the purpose to display the ways the court cases depicted in both the speech and television episode are both similar and different. "Against the Stepmother" consists of a young man accusing his stepmother for killing his father and was written in Athens between 420 to 411 BC. The Law and Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Legitimate Rape" was aired on March 27, 2013, and depicts a court case dealing with a woman named Avery accusing her co-worker, Purcell, of rape and stalking. Despite the temporal and cultural differences, there are significant similarities in regards to the use of rhetoric and evidence. Yet, there are immense differences between these two such as the use of lawyers and police in modern cases and the need to appeal to Gods in Ancient Greek times which vastly segregates the two cases.

“Justice is served” is the cliché line heard in courtrooms throughout the world of fantasy. How to define justice proves to be more difficult. Many definitions state it as an action that is the result or punishment for a negative action. The trouble lies in what defines what is just, the law, society or morality. Plato’s use of Socrates in “Crito” argues that justice is defined as the laws of a city or state as well as what a person’s own perception of justice is.

Athenians saw homicide as pollution because it effects the families of both the victim and the perpetrator. However, they had certain cases that stated murder as acceptable. For example, in the case presented by Lysias. This was a case where Euphiletos murdered Eratosthenes for seducing Euphiletos’s wife. In Athenian law it is acceptable to murder someone for sleeping with your wife, because they felt like it could ruin the power of a household. If a woman were to have a child there would be no way to determine whether the child was from the husband or the seducer. Euphiletos presents himself in a firm and confident way as well as a victim. In a way he is the victim due to the fact that Eratosthenes had an affair with his wife. He portrays

The second play, The Libation Bearers, lays the foundation for Orestes to murder his mother, which is directly related to her hatred of men and her only son. Due to her hatred of men, such as her husband Agamemnon, Clytemnestra forgets that Orestes is also her son. In The Libation Bearers, Orestes confronts his mother about her selfish will to love another man and control the kingdom after the death of Agamemnon: “Clytemnestra: Thou growest fain to slay thy mother, child/Orestes: Nay, ‘tis thyself wilt slay thyself, not I” (Aeschylus, 1996, p.104). This dialogue defines the hateful and venomous self-centered of Clytemnestra, which Orestes countermands by making her take responsibility for her own murderous actions. In this way, Orestes may be the individual that kills his mother, but he more focused on the danger that poses to himself and other family members that defy her will. This form of abandonment is why Clytemnestra is such a monstrous smother, since she is only

Under this new era of justice Orestes was found free of blame and pardoned for his crime against mother. The Apollonian concept of justice became the new Athena judicial system. It established a new method of prosecution for offenders like Clytaemestra. This system led people away from blood-for-blood, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth form of justice to a more ethical manner of modern day

“Incorrect,” they will say, “Electra’s value of justice is simply differing from yours.” Can I deny the fact that my opinion of justice greatly contrasts Electra’s? No. It is true that our ideas of what justice is different, however, Electra has her own definition of what justice is and of morality. But, when it comes to the topic of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra it is pure loathing and selfishness that drives her goal of them dead by her or her brother’s hand. When Orestes finds Clytemnestra and begins to murder her for killing his father, Electra cheers him on. “Oimoi! You have struck me!” “Strike again, if you are strong enough!” (McDonald, Electra, 2004, p. 61) In making this comment, Electra’s personal need to see her mother dead is very

Horwitz, in The Transformation of American Law: 1780-1860, argues that a commercial elite class worked with judges during the antebellum period to shift American law doctrine from anti-commercial to pro-commercial doctrines. These new doctrines benefitted the commercial elites and forced America to adopt capitalism over the original moral economy that was in place prior to the beginning shift in American law in the 1780’s. Horwitz breaks the book up into eight distinct chapters, focusing on the changing conception of law, a new conception of property, creating economic growth through the legal system itself, competition and economic development, the relationship between the bar and commercial interests, the emergence of contracts, the development of commercial law, and the rise of legal formalism.

In this, the Chorus is shocked that a woman could have carried out such a terrifying act as Clytemnestra did in murdering Agamemnon, and in response, Clytemnestra says she does not want to be looked or treated as a woman. Other actions by Clytemnestra that completely defy the sub- ordinate position of women in Athenian society include running Athens itself! Imagine a society in which women are looked down upon yet have a woman leading them- that is Clytemnestra’s Athens. Aeschylus’ representation of Clytemnestra can be seen as both negative and positive, an example being that she seeks justice for her daughter but at the same time is unapologetic for committing the murder.  It is through defying traditional gender roles and adopting masculine

There are two aspects that I want to say about Orestes being innocent of murder, as he did in fact kill Clytemnestra. In comparison with the Code of Hammurabi, where the consequence of almost doing any harm to someone is: death. With that being said, it is interesting to see the difference in the consequences of laws in each society. Of course there are reasons why a court was made, however it should seem that a murderer should always be punished even with reasons to commit a murder. Does revenge justify murder?

In the following plays, the wheel comes full circle as Agamemnon’s son comes home to avenge his death, by killing his mother Clytemnestra. Under the system in which they have labored to this point, her death should beget the death of her son and so one SP. However, having been killed by her son, in retribution for killing her husband, Clytemnestra’s death cannot be avenged. There is no one left to claim that responsibility. Aeschylus’s gods step in and create a newer, better system of justice to put an end to the vicious cycle. Justice is an imperfect proposition until a higher power steps in and sets it right. Aeschylus uses several literary devices to portray the imperfection of the old system.

The Oresteia is a book of plays written by Aeschylus that centers around the myth of the polis. In each story, the theme of the polis is different. They each want to get revenge or avenge someone that did wrong to someone that they love or loved. The in this story the polis poses questions as what is the nature of justice and what are the methods of establishing and maintaining justice on earth. This story uses the legend of the family Atreus and how he took revenge on his brother, Thyestes, for seducing his wife. Atreus killed two of Thyestes sons and fed them to him to avenge the seducing of his wife. This started the chain of events that led to the family thinking that an eye for an eye is the only way to settle things. It first started off with Agamemnon’s father Atreus and his brother Thyestes who is the father of Aegisthus. During those times, they were contended for the throne of Argos, but during this time Thyestes seduced his brother’s wife and was driven out of Argos. When he came back Atreus had established himself as the sole king. Thyestes begged his brother for forgiveness and Atreus pretended to forgive him. Atreus was still upset that his brother seduced his wife and was plotted to avenge that so he killed Thyestes two younger sons, cooked them, and served them to Thyestes to eat. When Thyestes found out he was disgusted and horrified so he took only son that he had left and fled from Argos. This is what started the polis in this story of The Oresteia. To

The play Oresteia, is a play based on tragedies, violence, sufferings and lessons. It was originally written around 452 BC by Aeschylus, a tragedian Greek writer. It was re-written by David Icke recently. This paper is based upon the re-written version. Here is a  little back story on the play. Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Orestes, Iphigenia and Menelaus are all members of The House of Atreus. Agamemnon was the king of The Greeks, a father and a general. Menelaus, his brother. Clytemnestra, his wife. Orestes and Iphigenia are his children.  The Greeks were at war with The Trojans and things were tough on Agamemnon. At a point, the pressure was too much to handle, so Agamemnon seeks help from an Oracle. The Oracle gives him a prophecy stating “ By his hands alone. The child is the price. Fair winds.” Obviously, he was to kill his little daughter, Iphigenia, to win the war and to save a lot of lives in the process. This was not an easy decision for Agamemnon but due to strong persuasion from his brother- Menelaus, he killed his own daughter, his own flesh. Turning point, Clytemnestra found out about the prophecy and definitely