Tuesday, March 4th, 2014
The Libation Bearers
“The Libation Bearers” is a play in “The Oresteia” by Aeschylus. It talks about king Agamemnon killed by his wife Clytamnestra and her lover Aigisthos. Apollo (god) asks Orestes return home and kills his mom and her lover. If Orestes does not agree to Apollo and he will be get horrible punishments and exile for the rest of his life. Electra (Orestes’s sister) and the chorus helped Orestes killed her mom and Aigithos. However, Orestes fall victim to the Furies’ retributive violence (blood always pay for blood).
In the play, Orestes got forced by Apollo to avenge his mom and her lover. On the other hand, if Orestes kills his mom and he will be fall victim to the Furies’ retributive violence. That tells us, sometimes you have two ways to go but you can only chose one way at the end. Life is unfair and sometimes you can’t do anything.
Question: When Orestes hesitates to kill his mom, Pylades reminds him of his duties to Apollo. And then Orestes forget everything that how his mom doing things for him and kills her. Is that saying vengeance is bigger than everything? What if you are Orestes, are you going to kill you mom for revenge? It’s either chose horrible punishment by Apollo or the Furies’ retributive violence. What do you think?