Cycle Of Violence In The Oresteia
328 Words2 Pages
In Ancient Greece, if someone murdered a family member of yours, it was your duty to kill the murderer. This duty led to a cycle of violence between and within families, as shown in The Oresteia, written by Aeschylus. In his trilogy, many characters are in this cycle, but Orestes works through the justice system differently as he shows the movement from the cycle of violence to a more civilized form of a justice system, as demonstrated by the court system. Orestes is the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra and makes his first appearance in the trilogy’s The Libation Bearers where he is found by his sister Electra and the Chorus at his father’s grave. Here Orestes shares that Apollo told him that if he did not hunt down his father’s murderer,