Oresteia Morality Essay In Aeschylus’ Agamemnon and Libation Bearers he uses morally ambiguous characters such as Orestes and Clytaemnestra to challenge the reader to ponder the fine or nonexistent line between right and wrong. Both Orestes and Clytaemnestra have done things to hint at them being solely evil or good‚ however many of their character traits and less significant actions lead to the reader being incapable of categorizing them as simply good or bad. By making these characters morally
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Orestes: An Innocent Hero Throughout time there has been a universal question that does not yet yield a universal answer. All people have a different view on whether or not it is right to avenge the killing of another‚ through the death of the killers. In America during this day and age‚ it is the obligation of the court system to decide whether or not a murderer should be put to death. Most of the time‚ the criminal is sentenced to a prison term‚ but when a judge decides to issue the death
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vengeance. The plays in the trilogy are Agamemnon‚ The Libation Bearers‚ and Eumenides‚ the first two have the theme of blood vengeance running through them. This is played out beginning with Agamemnon being forced to kill one of his children‚ one life in return for many. He is later murdered for killing his child by his wife. This is a perfect illustration of how you can be driven to rage in order to avenge the death of a loved one. In The Libation Bearers Agamemnon’s other children are hurt and angered
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Clytaemnestra’s Composure and Orestes’ Regrets The justification scenes in Agamemnon and the Libation Bearers show that both Clytaemnestra and Orestes are able admit their decision of committing murder‚ but‚ while Clytaemnestra is able to maintain her composure‚ Orestes worries himself to the point of insanity‚ and he ends up regretting the whole thing. Clytaemnestra plans to kill Agamemnon from the moment he returns home. When he arrives‚ she treats him like a king‚ but‚ when he is not on his
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Muhammad Zaid Prof. Dr. Asim Karim 28 January 2013 FREE WILL IN GREEK TRAGEDIES ABSTRACT There are many occasions in the Greek tragedies where the characters are making decisions according to their own free will. They are not merely the puppets in the hands of fate and gods but their own motives surpass over all other influences. if they are performing any action or making any decision by following the gods even at that time their inner feelings and desires are there that compel them to act
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The dramatic presentations of ancient Greece developed out of religious rites performed to honor gods or to mark the coming of spring. Playwrights such as Aeschylus‚ Sophocles‚ and Euripides composed plays to be performed and judged at competitions held during the yearly Dionysian festivals. Those plays were chosen by a selection board and evaluated by a panel of judges. To compete in the contest‚ Greek playwrights had to submit three tragedies‚ which could be either based on a common theme or unrelated
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word for religion. They did believe in gods‚ but there was no word for religion; it was just their way of life. One of these civilizations was the Sumerians. At the museum I saw a stone with a picture of a worshiper pouring a libation before a seated god. A libation is a drink poured out as an offering to a deity. The Sumerians were polytheistic‚ and there gods were invisible‚ however‚ they were in human
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Violence and death are a persistent and dominant theme in the Aeneid and Oresteia. In both plays‚ violence and death are justified as an act of vengeance and response to injustice. Though Virgil and Aeschylus justify violence‚ they both differ in two aspects. One takes away the power of the protagonists to choose and the other allows the protagonists to make their own decisions. The house curse influences Clytaemnestra to kill Agamemnon and Apollo commands Orestes to kill Clytaemnestra‚ his mother
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For example‚ in the Libation Bearers‚ the 2nd trilogy written by Aeschylus‚ when Orestes comes to avenge the death of his father Agamemnon‚ Electra‚ his sister recognizes him by a series of tokens: a lock of his hair and a footprint he leaves at Agamemnon’s grave. Upon his return
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Expanded course description and learning objectives The mythical narratives of the ancient Greeks and the Romans constitute a continuous tradition that extends from before the reach of history to the present day. Myths survive in literary texts and visual art because their narratives have continued to prove compelling and fascinating in different languages‚ historical eras‚ and social contexts (the myths of Odysseus‚ Heracles‚ and Oedipus are just a few examples). Literature and art of all kinds
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