Justification of Orestes in The Libation Bearers
In the beginning of “The Libation Bearers,” Orestes, Pylades, Electra, and a chorus of slave women gather around Agamemnon’s grave. A long conversation ensues in which we learn that Orestes intends to murder Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus. The state of Argos and the treatment of Clytaemnestra’s children, along with the full details of the murder become apparent in this opening scene. Aeschylus uses this as an opportunity to justify Orestes avenging his father’s murder. Orestes mentions what a good father Agamemnon was in line 258 when he says “And what a father – / a priest at sacrifice, he showered you / with honors.” The idea that Agamemnon may have been a good father is not introduced until a good way through the second play. Agamemnon’s murder is explained in much more detail in “The Libation Bearers” than in the previous play. Orestes describes his father’s death in line 250: “He died in the coils, the viper’s dark embrace.” Comparing Clytaemnestra to a snake makes her seem more evil and less a mother grieving for a daughter. The chorus emphasizes the brutality of the murder in lines 428-430 when they say, “Butchered, I tell you – hands lopped, / strung to shackle his neck and arms! / So she worked, / she buried him, made your life a hell. / Your father mutilated – do you hear?” Electra and Orestes later talk of the murder to Agamemnon’s grave, mentioning the stripping away of his life in the bath, the “all-embracing net”, and the “chains of hate” (lines 477-440). These descriptions of Agamemnon’s murder makes Clytaemnestra appear like a crazed, evil, homicidal maniac.
In addition, Electra makes Clytaemnestra seem unable to love and care for anyone, especially her children. Electra says in line 90, “Shall I say I bring him love for love, a woman’s / love for a husband? My mother, love from her? / I’ve no taste for that, no words to say.” Clytaemnestra’s treatment of her children also becomes apparent in “The Libation Bearers.” Orestes has been exiled and Electra is being treated as a slave. In lines 137-140, Electra tells us that “We’re auctioned off, drift like vagrants now. / I go like a slave, / and Orestes driven from his estates.” Electra also says later, “She’d never cut it, / the murderess, my mother. She insults the name, / she and her godless spirit preying on her children.” These comments on Clytaemnestra’s harshness gives Orestes all the more reason to murder her in revenge for his father’s death. We also see mention of Clytaemnestra’s affair with Aegisthus which is barely mentioned in “Agamemnon” when Electra tells us how she and Orestes have been traded in for a new husband in line 138. Besides the fact that Clytaemnestra murdered her husband in cold blood and treated her children horribly, the god Apollo also gives Orestes permission to avenge Agamemnon’s death. Orestes tells Electra this in line 273 when he says, “Apollo will never fail me, no / his tremendous power, his oracle charges me / to see this trial through.” Later when Orestes is about to kill his mother, Pylades finally speaks. He reminds Orestes that Apollo himself has told him to seek revenge for the death of his father. With these new facts, audience members are supposed to wonder how he could possibly not kill his mother. He says in lines 887-888, “What of the future? What of the Prophet God Apollo, / the Delphic voice, the faith and oaths we swear? / Make all mankind your enemy, not the gods.” Since his one line is to reinforce one of the reasons that Orestes must kill his mother, the audience is supposed to view his cause as even more right and just.
Electra and the chorus serve to put Orestes in the right frame of mind for his upcoming crimes. As Orestes speaks about his father, the women are nearly dancing around chanting “kill, kill, kill.” In lines 163-166, the chorus says:
Dear god, let him come! Some man
With a strong spear, born to free the house,
With the torsion bow of Scythia bent for slaughter,
Splattering shafts like a god of war – sword in fist
For the slash-and-hack of battle!
The chorus instigates Orestes like this throughout the opening, telling him to take revenge for the brutish murder of Agamemnon. Electra tells Orestes of how horrible she is being treated and how much she mourned for her father when he was killed. She tells him in lines 434-436:
You tell him of father’s death, but I was an outcast,
Worthless, leashed like a vicious dog in dark cell.
I wept – laughter died that day . . .
I wept, pouring out the tears behind my veils.
Hear that, my brother, carve it on your heart.
Telling her brother to keep in mind the things she has suffered is a way to make sure he goes through with the murder of his mother.
By mentioning the facts of Agamemnon’s death, Orestes’ exile, Electra’s poor treatment, Clytaemnestra’s affair, and other reasons for Orestes to avenge his father’s death, the audience watching this play sympathizes with Orestes instead of Clytaemnestra. As Aeschylus featured certain events prominently in “Agamemnon” to make Clytaemnestra seem justified, he did the reverse by using different facts in “The Libation Bearers” to make the audience think that Orestes is justified in killing Clytaemnestra.
