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Aeschylus I Oresteia
Paperback
Published January 1, 1953
About the author
Richmond Lattimore
130 books66 followersRichmond Lattimore graduated from Dartmouth in 1926 and received an A.B. from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar at Christ Church in 1932. He took his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1934.
He was an American poet and classicist known for his translations of the Greek classics, especially his versions of the Iliad and Odyssey, which are generally considered as among the best English translations available
He was an American poet and classicist known for his translations of the Greek classics, especially his versions of the Iliad and Odyssey, which are generally considered as among the best English translations available
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August 12, 2025
Thoughts on Oresteia
The theme of moral guilt and acting in the pursuit of justice in Oresteia. Helen kidnapped to Troy as the inciting event of the Trojan war is followed by Agamemnon sacrificing Iphigenia, to Clytemnestra killing Agamemnon, to Oreste’s killing Clytemnestra. This is just a single sequence Aeschylus focuses on. Making reference to the web of myth, drama, history, and symbolism surrounding the Trojan war and the combatants’ respective cultures creates a tangled mess of offense and retribution as the characters look to specific events in attempting to balance the moral scales. Meanwhile their victim refers to another, earlier moment, and fortify their spirit with balance seeking quests of their own. The viewer sees how tragically cyclical it all is.
The trouble arises from a mistake in the character’s thinking about moral blame and the interconnectedness of all things. By fixating on moments that can be rectified by appropriate revenge, our characters believe they can extract a point from the web of reality and disregard the rest of the tapestry. It is as if they saw a photograph and mistook its representation for a small bit of reality. It is a false, simplified understanding of the situation and its place in the world. No wonder then that Sartre, a man interested in deconstructing our experience of ideological structures as part of the realization of freedom would take an interest in such a morally knotted story for his own 20th century plays. What do we do when, in the course of obeying the rules of our moral games, we notice that we’ve all acquired the corruption of guilt?
We let go of the illusion of retribution.
The theme of moral guilt and acting in the pursuit of justice in Oresteia. Helen kidnapped to Troy as the inciting event of the Trojan war is followed by Agamemnon sacrificing Iphigenia, to Clytemnestra killing Agamemnon, to Oreste’s killing Clytemnestra. This is just a single sequence Aeschylus focuses on. Making reference to the web of myth, drama, history, and symbolism surrounding the Trojan war and the combatants’ respective cultures creates a tangled mess of offense and retribution as the characters look to specific events in attempting to balance the moral scales. Meanwhile their victim refers to another, earlier moment, and fortify their spirit with balance seeking quests of their own. The viewer sees how tragically cyclical it all is.
The trouble arises from a mistake in the character’s thinking about moral blame and the interconnectedness of all things. By fixating on moments that can be rectified by appropriate revenge, our characters believe they can extract a point from the web of reality and disregard the rest of the tapestry. It is as if they saw a photograph and mistook its representation for a small bit of reality. It is a false, simplified understanding of the situation and its place in the world. No wonder then that Sartre, a man interested in deconstructing our experience of ideological structures as part of the realization of freedom would take an interest in such a morally knotted story for his own 20th century plays. What do we do when, in the course of obeying the rules of our moral games, we notice that we’ve all acquired the corruption of guilt?
We let go of the illusion of retribution.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review