#oresteia

Before:

Clytemnestra - You disgust me

After:

Orestes - You disgust me

Inspired by this video. Warning, the audio contains sudden loud screams.

References

"The person called the mother’s not the parent. She only nourishes the embryo planted by mounting her, and for a stranger she keeps the shoot alive—if no god blights it. And I can prove my claim: without a mother there can be fatherhood. For this we have proof here…the offspring of Olympian Zeus, not nurtured in the darkness of the womb: No goddess could give birth to such a child" - Line 658-665

Apollo says this after everything Leto went through for him and Artemis. And he's not fooling anyone that he's not a Mama's boy.

The opening of Eumenides deserves more credit for the way the Oracle of Delphi describes the succession of the prophetic seat:

"Earth I address, the primal seer, giving her precedence, then Themis, the successor to her mother in the seat of prophecy— tradition says. The third who got the place— willingly, by no violent overthrown— was also Earth's child and a female Titan, Phoebe. And as a birthday gift, she gave it to Phoebus, adding that name to others" - Line 1-8

What makes this excerpt so interesting is how it goes against two of the Oresteria's most important patterns.

The first is the trilogy's obsession with inherited violence between generations. For the gods, it's Uranus, Kronos, and Zeus. And for the House of Atreus, it's Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and Orestes.

And the second is the clash between older and younger gods. The Erinyes represent an ancient order of blood vengeance, while Athena and Apollo advocate for courts, trials, and civic justice.

But Delphi's succession offers a different mode. Instead of power being seized from older gods by newer gods through violence, it was inherited from a primordial to titanesses and finally an Olympian.

And interestingly enough, Apollo is Phoebe's grandson through Leto, so instead of it being framed as an Olympian taking control from a Titan, it is legacy being entrusted through family and trust.

It quietly foreshadowed the play's ending too. Athena doesn't undermine the Erinyes; she persuades and grants them a high position within the new order she made without erasing their identities.

Got this copy of Agamemnon from the library recently!! I’m only in Scene I lol but I can’t wait to read it :)