Grecian Ancient Law: Forgiveness And Peace

I will argue that the Grecian Ancient Law shape the audience’s values in favor of forgiveness and peace by giving the audience associations of destruction and anguish to avoid acting in revenge and instead giving grace and turning the other cheek. Upon Agamemnon’s return from the war, Clytemnestra his wife showers him with praise. Only lines later, she brutally murders him, and feels no guilt about it. She feels so justified in her actions, because Agamemnon sacrificed her daughter, and to her that was unforgivable (Aeschylus, Agamemnon). “He [Agamemnon] thought nothing more of it than killing a beast, and his flocks were rich, teeming in their fleece, but he sacrificed his own child, our daughter, the agony I labored into love to charm away the savage winds of Thrace.” (Aeschylus p. 163). Clytemnestra feels like Agamemnon gave no regard to their daughter’s life. The child that she raised and loved, was slaughtered without a second thought by her own father. Instead of turning the other cheek, trying to understand Agamemnon’s point of view, or forgiving her him, Clytemnestra decides to kill him. Clytemnestra has every right to be angry, to be hurt, and mad, and furious. But no punishment toward her husband can bring
her daughter back. After the murder of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra’s life did not get any better. It still was full of hurt. The description of the murder scene, full of blood and misery, gives bad vibes to the audience. It creates an aversion to revenge, and all that comes with it. In Joseph Laporte’s 2017 IDS 171 lecture, we discussed the ancient law in Greece, that the unspoken rule was ‘and eye for an eye’. Revenge was normal, if not expected. Clytemnestra according to law, essentially has every right to kill Agamemnon. But it did no good for her. That law caused a chain of destruction in this family, starting because Clytemnestra couldn’t find forgiveness. As the audience reads these plays they get a negative connotation with revenge, seeing that it brings nothing but pain. Clytemnestra’s lover, Aegisthus also had a hand in plotting Agamemnon’s death. However, his reasons being much different. Agamemnon’s father slaughtered Thyestes children. Thyestes was Aegisthus’s father as well as Agamemnon’s fathers brother. He then cooked them and fed them to Thyestes, unknown to him. Aegisthus wanted to avenge his siblings who were killed as well as his father (Aeschylus, Agamemnon). “Thyestes was the guest, and this man’s godless father- the zeal of the host outstripping a brother’s love, made my father a fest that seemed a feast for the gods, a love fest of his children’s flesh” (Aeschylus p168-9). Aegisthus is aching the loss of his siblings, and craves revenge for the hurt Agamemnon’s father caused. The only way Aegisthus can get this revenge, is to kill Agamemnon, his father’s only relative. Killing Agamemnon, who he himself had nothing to do with what happened to Thyestes, doesn’t settle the score, the man who was truly guilty never died of Aegisthus’s revenge. Aegisthus didn’t have it in his heart to move on with his life and forgive Agamemnon for the sins of his father, instead he held so tightly to his grudge. It wasn’t Aegisthus’s score to settle, it was his fathers. “Now I could die gladly, even I- now I see this monster in the nets of Justice” (Aeschylus 169). Aegisthus thinks that Agamemnon’s death can fix all the trouble his family has been through. The truth is, killing Agamemnon doesn’t bring his siblings back to life, or undo the pain and hurt he has been carrying around his whole life. Eye for an Eye murder doesn’t solve anything. It does not fix the situation it only makes it messier. Any audience of this play who has experienced their own hardships in life, can identify with how Aegisthus is feeling, but also can see that this murder did not fix the brokenness in him or undo his suffering, and it certainly will not allow him to die gladly.. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra’s son Orestes eventually returns from a nearby kingdom. Upon his return, “Orestes has received a charge from Apollo to kill his mother and her second husband, Aegisthus, or suffer lifelong grief.” (Gruenler, Summary of The Libation Bearers). His mother killed his father and Orestes feels the need to avenge his father’s death, and Apollo tells him that he should. Clytemnestra tries explain to Orestes that Agamemnon’s death was justified, but Orestes does not think so. “Though Orestes hesitates, his mother’s words finally convince him that his vengeance is just and willed by the gods. He kills her.” (Gruenler, Summary of The Liberation Bearers). Orestes struggles with the thought of killing his mother, but her description of why she killed his father pushes him over the edge. He thinks that his actions are justified by Apollo, so he is able to commit the murder of his mother. The trouble with the Ancient law is that who is the judge of what is justified? Who is to say that Orestes had the right to avenge his father, but Clytemnestra didn’t have the right to avenge her daughter? Why could Orestes not forgive his mother, or at least turn the other cheek? This cycle of murder is endless. Clytemnestra warns that “the hounds of a mother’s curse will hunt you down” (Aeschylus ln. 911). Even though Clytemnestra is dead, as the audience reads on we see that she finds a way to try and get revenge on her son. This shows the audience that this act of revenge did not settle the score, instead it added to pain and suffering of this family. This will not be the end, as Clytemnestra explains, no murder will undo what has been done to and by this family. Instead of forgiving her husband, or forgiving her son, Clytemnestra is determined that her justification for murder is right, but all others were wrong. If revenge is the goal, as the Ancient law says, then there will be no stop to suffering. The third and final play in The Oresteia is entitled The Eumenides. This play wraps up the long string of murders that had played out in the previous two plays. Each murder had a domino effect until only one man was left standing, Orestes. After Orestes had killed his mother and her lover, Clytemnestra comes back in spirit to send furies after Orestes to punish him for killing her. (LaPorte Syllabus Part B). This results in Athena calling a trial for Orestes innocence. After many killings justified by the Ancient Law, a trial to put this cycle to an end. The audience has read many pages filled with revenge and tragedy. This final play shows that true justice is much more peaceful than the alternative. After the vote is given Athena declares over Orestes that, “The man goes free, cleared of the charge of blood. The lots are equal” (Aeschylus, Eumendes p. 265). Athena sides with Orestes, and his justification in killing his mother, so she declares that he goes free. These simple two sentences represent the end of an era. The end of a cycle of hardship, discontent, slaughter, misery, and plunder. The audience see’s peace restored to this family. The unspoken law no longer justifies revenge, instead it represents suffering. Throughout the three plays of Oresteia the theme of revenge is the underlying story.
The Ancient Law of an ‘eye for an eye’ dictates the behavior of all the characters, and creates an endless cycle of revenge. This chain of events rooted in revenge destroys this family one by one, until eventually only Orestes is left. Eventually grace is given, and the cycle ends, thanks to justice and forgiveness. The audience’s values are shaped towards grace and forgiveness after reading the destruction that happens from revenge. The only option left after hearing the tragedy and hurt that revenge causes is grace. Grace and forgiveness ends tragedy. It doesn’t take away hurt, but it softens the sting and endless pain that revenge causes in reaction to
tragedy.