The ancient goddesses believe that vengeance is a part of justice. The Furies want to punish Orestes by whatever means necessary. On the other hand, Athena does not want to solve the dispute by revenge. Athena tries to devise a new conept of justice. Under Athena’s judicial system, Orestes needs to be tried by a jury, not by revenge. Justice can be achieved through the courts, not through personal vengeance.
One thought on “What kind of commentary on justice does the trilogy (especially the third play) contain?”
Comments are closed.
The last tragedy indeed shows a shift from these murderous revengeful killings to a peaceful, civil hearing. The Athenian court which we see in the last tragedy is one of the first examples of a justice system in history. Without a court and justice system in our country or any country the world would become chaos like in the first two tragedies. People would be murdering each other without any consequences.