by Aeschylus
200–263 / 179–234 First episode.
202 / 181 a flying snake Apollo’s arrow is given an image used of the Erinyes themselves, and of the trilogy’s chief murderers (see note on 141).
207 / 186 your jurisdiction Apollo describes a set of customs involving mutilation, torture, and killing, all of which would be regarded by Greeks as abhorrent cruelties practiced by barbarians. Almost all can be paralleled by descriptions of Persian customs in Herodotus’ Histories. The one exception is stoning, which was used by Greeks as a form of execution in which a whole community could participate, and was therefore reserved for those who had injured the whole community. Public stoning is the punishment foretold by the Chorus of Agamemnon for Aegisthus (1864–65 / 1615–16). Perhaps it is included here simply as an example of mob violence.
217 / 194 blood-lapping lions The lion has appeared in the trilogy as a symbol of fierce strength, as a ruthless killer, and even (in Cassandra’s sardonic description of Aegisthus, Agamemnon, 1399 / 1224) as a coward skulking in the bedroom. In its final appearance, the lion is reduced to a monstrous creature, dwelling in darkness like the Erinyes—who will make the imagery of bloodsucking their own at 300–4 / 264–66.
221 / 197 No god Somewhat hyperbolic, since this “herd” is itself divine, but Apollo is clearly talking about respectable Olympians, like himself. See further on 413–15 / 350–52.
222 / 198 It’s your turn to listen Thus, appropriately, begins a debate that suggests how disputes can be pursued without bloodshed. The Chorus accuses Apollo of responsibility both for Orestes’ crime and of shielding him from punishment (223–28 / 199–204). Apollo challenges the Chorus members’ exclusive concern for mother-killers, which he regards as doing dishonor to Hera, Aphrodite, and the bonds of marriage (234–42 / 210–16). Although the debate unsurprisingly leads to no agreement, Apollo sets out the means, if not the content, of a peaceful settlement: Athena will “oversee the issue of this case” (253 / 224; in Greek, Apollo uses a plural form of dikê, dikas, which can mean “legal proceedings”).
230 / 206 And you malign us for serving as his escort? The irony of this defense lies in the use of a word (propompoi) that suggests a ceremonial procession—the Chorus uses it of “marching” to Agamemnon’s grave (Libation Bearers, 27 / 23)—or a guard of honor—the Athenian citizens who escort the Erinyes-Eumenides to their new home are called propompoi in a scholion (later annotation included in our manuscript tradition)—rather than the pursuit of fleeing prey by relentless hunters.
235–36 / 211–12 Apollo’s question is reminiscent of Clytemnestra’s objection at Agamemnon, 1612–21 / 1412–18 that the Elders should have condemned Agamemnon for his slaughter of Iphigenia. Orestes will raise Apollo’s question again, and receive the same answer, at 702–3 / 604–5. Here, Apollo accuses the Erinyes of insufficient regard for another sacred bond, the sexual union of a man and a woman. There, he will intervene to argue the case that mother and son are not in fact related by blood at all.
238 / 214 the solemn vows of Hera the fulfiller Marriage vows (pistomata, pledges of trust) sacred to Hera teleia, who both alone and in the company of her consort Zeus teleios is the patron deity of marriage. This cult name derives from the use of telos to designate religious rites in general, and Zeus teleios is “the fulfiller” in a broader sense as well (see note on Agamemnon 1115–18).
243–49 / 217–21 Apollo emphasizes the sacredness of marriage and its claim on justice to show the injustice of the Erinyes’ pursuit only of killers within the bloodline.
24 / 218 greater than any oath An oath would ordinarily be the strongest form of pledge or promise, but Apollo argues that marriage vows are even stronger. He will later say the same thing of the will of Zeus (722 / 621), which perhaps suggests how bold Apollo’s claim here is. Apollo makes his case for the special sacrality of marriage in part simply by calling it “a thing of destiny,” which does not imply what we mean by “a match made in heaven” (Agamemnon’s and Clytemnestra’s clearly was not), but rather that it is the allotted portion of men and women to unite in marriage.
258–63 / 229–34 The Chorus Leader and Apollo cap the scene with three lines each in which they state the equally intransigent positions from which the trial will begin. The effect is clearest if the Chorus departs immediately as soon as its Leader has spoken, and Apollo, who cannot stop the Chorus but is resolved to defeat its plans, delivers his lines after the Chorus leaves the orchestra.
260 / 230–31 get our justice The Erinyes use the same word, dikas, that Apollo used at 253 / 224 to indicate that Athena would oversee Orestes’ trial. In their mouths, however, dikas still means the old retributive justice of blood for blood.
262–63 / 233 a dreadful thing for gods / and men alike This is one of several passages in Eumenides that suggest the gods’ respect for mortals and sense of responsibility to them (see notes on 882–84, 1169). There is also the implication here that the gods seek to avoid the anger or displeasure of mortals by shirking their responsibilities (see further on 558–61 / 470–72).
264–352 / 235–306 Second episode No choral ode separates the second episode from the first. None is possible because the Chorus has left the orchestra, which makes possible the change of scene that now occurs. Instead of an act-dividing stasimon, there is a momentary pause before Orestes enters, alone. There need be little change to the playing space—simply the removal of props (if there were any) that identified the setting as Delphi and their replacement by a wooden statue of Athena (cf. note on 95, and see 290–92 / 258–59). From Orestes’ first words we understand that he has reached Athens, as Apollo ordered. This sort of change of scene is rare in Greek drama. (The closest parallel, Sophocles’ Ajax, 815, also involves the Chorus disappearing from view.) The Erinyes reappear, apparently again by ones and twos, miming bloodhounds following a scent, and sing what is usually referred to as an “epiparodos,” or second entry song (285–318 / 254–75). The remainder of the episode is a pair of speeches (not an exchange—see 349 / 303; Orestes will not address the Erinyes until his trial) for Orestes and the Chorus Leader.
266 / 237 but one no longer stained Orestes has been purified from blood-guilt and his hands are no longer stained. In this passage, the cleansing appears to have happened in the course of his journey, but at 326–27 / 282–83, Orestes explicitly states that he was purified by Apollo at Delphi; apparently we are to understand that both the Delphic rite and the trials of his wanderings were necessary for his cleansing. Orestes mentions multiple purifications again at 535–37 / 451–52. Most important, however, although Orestes repeatedly insists that his formal purity has freed him to have normal contact with others (268–69 / 238–39, 329–30 / 285, 528–30 / 445–46), it does nothing to placate the Erinyes or make them abandon their pursuit.
273 / 243 waiting for justice to be fulfilled literally, “guarding the final outcome of justice.” Two of the trilogy’s most powerful words, telos (finality, fulfillment) and dikê (justice, judgment) are combined in this phrase. Orestes is praying for Athena’s intervention, but it will not come until after the Erinyes have found him and we have witnessed their attempt to get him in their power.
275 / 245 the voiceless snitch a riddle in the form of a kenning, whose answer is given as “blood drops” at 278 / 247.
284 / 253 the warm smile of an old friend In Greek, the verb prosgelai,“smiles on,” can simply mean “greets me,” but the Erinyes’ delight in blood gives the image its grotesque charge.
285–318 / 254–75 Epiparodos (second entry song) The Erinyes sing and mime their hound-like pursuit of Orestes and threaten terrible violence, their own and that in the world below. This passage is in lyric verse reminiscent of the Chorus’ first entry song (parodos, 158–99 / 143–78), but without the usual strophic responsion, presumably indicating a freer and perhaps less elaborate choreography.
290–91 / 258 once again / protected As at Delphi, so in Athena’s shrine, Orestes is safe in the deity for protection. The Erin
yes can threaten, but they cannot attack.
296 / 262 it can’t return again, not ever This phrase resonates with a series of statements and images throughout the trilogy, in some of which the blood disappears (e.g., Agamemnon 1160–62 / 1017–21), and in others remains as a source of disease and suffering (e.g., Libation Bearers 54–55 / 48 and 76–79 / 66–67). Here, the emphasis is on the debt of blood that Orestes owes for the mother’s blood he has shed, but Apollo will later use the same argument in defense of Orestes’ actions (756–58 / 647–48), and the Erinyes-Eumenides will repeat it in a political context in their prayer against violent civil strife (1143–45 / 979–80).
305–6 / 267 drag you, still alive / into the underworld The Chorus has already said that Orestes’ punishment will continue among the dead (195–99 / 175–8); now, the terrible threat to suck his blood and shrivel him (300–305 / 264–67) is figured as a preliminary for the tortures of the underworld. The repeated notion of payment (300 / 264, 307 / 268), however, reminds us that this is also the Erinyes’ exaction of justice for Orestes’ murder of his mother (see note on 313).
311–12 / 270–71 honor owed to gods, guests, / or loving parents This corresponds to the three “ordinances of Justice” set out in Aeschylus’ Suppliants 701–9 and expresses basic precepts of Greek popular morality. The Erinyes do not here claim that they themselves enforce all three, and elsewhere theysystematically ignore the claims of Orestes’ other parent and of Apollo, but traditionally Erinyes are associated with punishing infractions on all these counts. The Erinyes’ recognition here of the larger values of which they see their own “appointed task” (232 / 208) in part prepares for the new role they agree to undertake at the end of the play. See also note on 639–41.
313 / 272 you’ll see them get the justice they deserve The Chorus in effect answers Apollo’s proposal of a court overseen by Athena (252–53 / 224) with just punishment meted out in a strict accounting by Hades himself.
320 / 277 the many ways of being purged Cf. note on 266.
327 / 283 by sacrificing swine This was a standard form of purification, involving a kind of homeopathy or sympathetic magic. A young pig’s throat was cut over the head of the person to be purified, so that its blood flowed down his body and carried off blood-guilt with it. Swine were sacrificed particularly to chthonic powers, and there is evidence of swine-purification at the great sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis, the Attic deme that was home to Aeschylus’ family.
336 / 291 as her true allies The offer of an alliance with Athena in return for his safety (for this kind of bargain with the gods, see note on Libation Bearers, 290) is in effect an offer of alliance between his city, Argos, and hers, Athens. This is the first of three references to such a pact, reflecting one recently concluded between the two cities: see 782–87 / 669–73 and 885–98 / 762–74 (with note).
337 / 292 wherever she is This is a standard prayer formula, no doubt reflecting the widespread influence of the divinity, but, more important, assuring that the prayer will reach the right destination. In this case, Aeschylus is also preparing us for the lack of an immediate response that permits the Erinyes’ attempt to get Orestes in their power. We learn at 480–81 / 397–98 that Athena was at Troy when she heard Orestes’ prayer, thus confirming Orestes’ belief that “a god can hear even from far away” (342 / 297).
Libya A natural place to mention in this context because of the tradition of Athena’s birth there, but perhaps made more pointed because of an Athenian military expedition still ongoing in Libya at the time the Oresteia was produced. Thucydides reports in his History of the Peloponnesian War, 1, 104, that the Athenians had, a year or two before Aeschylus wrote the trilogy, sent an expedition of some two hundred ships to Egypt to help King Inarus of Libya free Egypt from Persian domination. This expedition eventually met with disaster, but only several years later. An Athenian audience in 458, hearing of Athena in Libya “on the march to help her friends,” would surely think of this ambitious and dangerous undertaking.
341 / 295 the Phlegrean plain The site of the great battle between the Olympian gods and the giants, in which Athena played a major part. There does not seem to be a contemporary allusion in this reference, but it is appropriate in a number of other ways: it expresses the wide extent of Athena’s influence, taking her far to the north as Libya took her far to the south. It shows her once again in her military aspect, aiding her allies in struggle. And this battle between Olympians and dangerous and primitive children of Earth is emblematic in much Greek art and literature for the struggle between the forces of civilization and those of brutality and barbarity.
350–51 / 304–5 A shocking perversion of sacrificial rite. Orestes is a choice animal, fattened for sacrifice, who will be eaten before the sacrifice can take place.
352 / 306 the spell we sing to bind you fast Orestes has just asked Athena to set him free. The Chorus Leader replies that, on the contrary, the Erinyes will cast a spell over him to hold him fast. The choral song that follows, then, is more closely integrated than usual into the action of the drama. Binding spells were part of ancient magical practice, and a large number of these have been found, inscribed for the most part on lead curse tablets. Chrisopher A. Faraone, “Aeschylus’ Hymnos Desmios (Eum. 306) and Attic Judicial Curse Tablets,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 105 (1985), 150–54, suggests that the Erinyes’ song shares some motifs with a class of such tablets designed to provide magical superiority over one’s opponent in a trial.
353–479 / 307–96 First stasimon, The Erinyes’ “Binding Song” The Chorus sings and dances, hoping to bind and madden Orestes in its spell. He continues to clasp the image of Athena and remain impassive (as he evidently did at 349 / 303), knowing as he does when silence is proper (321 / 277–78). The earlier choruses of this play began unconventionally with the Chorus entering in small groups, miming their pursuit of Orestes. This song, on the other hand, displays a high level of formality within which to display its images of horror and madness. As at Agamemnon, 407–22 / 355–66, there is a chanted prologue (353–74 / 307–20) in marching anapests (see note on Agamemnon, 48–123), even though the Chorus is already in the orchestra. The ode that follows uses repeated refrains, a formal feature that befits its ritual character. The manuscript tradition repeats only the first of these refrains (385–92 = 404–11 / 328–33 = 341–46), but we have followed many editors in repeating the two other nonresponding stanzas (416–24 = 429–37 / 354–59 and 442–49 = 454–56 / 372–76).
370–73 / 318–20 The language here uses terms familiar from the Athenian judicial system to describe the Erinyes’ pre-legal justice. They invoke the notion of finality, associated elsewhere in the trilogy with the dispensation of Zeus, by appropriating the adverb teleôs (here rendered by the adjectives “last” and “final”) to describe their authority. For the Erinyes’ further appropriation of this language, see note on 463.
374 / 321 Mother, O mother Night These enforcers of a mother’s rights begin their song with the invocation of their own mother, and will refer to her again several strategic points in the course of the play (499 / 416, 865 / 745, 921 / 791–92 = 956 / 821–22, 983 / 844–45 = 1021 / 876–77; and cf. 1123 / 962 and 1207–9 / 1033). They never mention their father, given by Sophocles as Skotos (Darkness), and elsewhere as Cronus or Acheron, a river of the underworld. In this sense, they are the complete opposite of Athena, who has a father, but no mother (see note on 855).
382 / 325–26 this trembling hare The memorable image of the trembling victim from the omen at Aulis (“her father’s flying blood- / hounds eating in sacrifice / the trembling hare,” Agamemnon, 154–56 / 136–37) now attaches itself to Orestes.
390 / 332–33 the lyre-shunning song See note on Agamemnon, 735.
393 / 335 Fate Once again, the notion of a fixed dispensation (moira) that gives the Erinyes their function is combined with a personification of their half-sisters by mother Night, the Moirai (see note on 192).
413–15 / 350–52 The Eri
nyes express the mutual aversion between them and the Olympian gods (see also 427–28 / 365–66, and cf. the scorn expressed by Apollo at 221 / 197). Black is the color of the gods whose home below ground, white that of the gods of Olympus (see note on 66.
418–19 / 355–56 the spirit of Ares, reared / … in the home The war god’s name can be used to refer to violence even if it is not military. The image of violence “reared / … in the home” recalls the story of the lion cub that was raised as a pet but grew up to reveal its true nature (Agamemnon, 818–43 / 717–36).
438 / 368 self-preening conceits Literally, “awesome (self-) regard,” a phrase made almost sarcastic by the transfer of the Erinyes’ Attic cult name Semnai, “the Awesome Ones,” to mortals who feel that they can escape punishment for their transgressions. The Erinyes will shortly reclaim their title by describing themselves as “awful (semnai) to men” (465 / 383).
441 / 370–71 the quick kicks of our raging dance This phrase and the following stanza, which has been read as a grim perversion of normal dance patterns, may give some clue to the wildness of the choreography here.
463 / 382 unmatched In the Greek, the Erinyes call themselves teleioi (370–73 / 318–20), fully accomplished, but also accomplishers of finality, of the definitive requiting of wrongs. The epithet picks up the assertion of authority in teleôs (“last … final”) at 372 / 320 and looks forward to the assertion of power that “the gods made final (teleon),” 474 / 393.