Tuesday, March 4th, 2014...7:03 pm
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?
10 Comments
March 5th, 2014 at 12:42 pm
The Libetion Bearers, as all the other similar Greek drama, play on the idea of free will versus destiny. I think the author is trying to show that Orestes has a choice but the Gods are the one to narrow his choices so somehow the choices are directed by the Gods. The meaning is that we have to fulfill our destiny.
Arsi Agolli
March 5th, 2014 at 1:52 pm
This is definitely a tough decision that Orestes has to make. Essentially there is no winning choice for him. I think Orestes weighed the fact that Cly killed his father as an extremely terrible, and it was. He thought this choice by her was enough to kill her for revenge even though she did give him life. Undoubtedly though, killing your mother no matter what she did will still lead to agony and “Furies.” Now the fate of Orestes is unknown.
-Kyle Wechsler
March 5th, 2014 at 1:59 pm
I don’t think that vengeance is bigger than everything and I don’t necessarily think that was what the play was trying to convey. I just think in this particular case, Orestes had a skewed prospective. Throughout the book, he is being egged on by the chorus, the gods, and his sister. Also, the book makes no mention of Orestes being aware of the crimes his father committed so from his and Electra’s prospective, their father is a great hero and their mother is horrible for ending Agamemnon’s life.
– Kimberley Squillante
March 5th, 2014 at 5:39 pm
Vengeance isn’t bigger than everything, but if I was Orestes I would have killed my mother because its either I get punished or do what Apollo said. Also she killed her own husband.
March 5th, 2014 at 9:39 pm
I don’t think that vengeance is a legitimate reason to kill your mother. However if I was being pressured into killing my mother by Pylades, the Furies’, Apollo then i would definitely be more inclined to kill her. Murder by any means will never be justified even in the context of this play. I think Greek plays touch on ideas that really doesnt have a strict answer. Many disputes are left for the reader to decide. Personally i dont think i would kill my mother regardless of what she has done. However maybe after the punishment i receive from Apollo i would then carry on with the murdering just because my life would pretty much be dissolved into nothing. Kill order, Aigisthos—>Clytamnestra—>Apollo (if at all possible)—>me (Orestes).
March 6th, 2014 at 5:05 pm
Despite the many torments brought about through the hands of his mother, as well as the prospect of a horrible fate due to Apollo blackmailing him, I don’t believe Orestes’s killing of Clytaemnestra was the proper solution.
As somebody mentioned in class, “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” It wasn’t going to bring his father back to life, and did not even provide the closure he was seeking.
His hesitancy was the product of his moral conscience; unfortunately, he chose to ignore it. He felt it was his fate to exact his revenge. Furthermore, there was the constant pressuring by the chorus, and his sister Electra.
In line with Orestes fulfilling his fate, it would seem like he had to kill Clytaemnestra. He was a product of both his parents, inheriting their sense of duty (Agamemnon, who sacrificed his daughter to go to battle) and strong will (Clytaemnestra, who chose to forgo the traditional role of women and take matters into her own hands).
Thus, it was a kind of power struggle between the two – they couldn’t both exist simultaneously. The murder, however, winds up creating a power vacuum, setting the stage for some other figure to take over rule and continue the cycle of killings.
On a side note, the character of Electra is a notable contrast to the women we’ve seen earlier (Cassandra, Clytaemnestra), who were strong and went against the grain of society at the time. She is weak in mind and power, guided only by emotions. She cared for her brother
and respects the patriarchal tradition. A person of such nature should never be one to hold power, much less kill someone else.
March 9th, 2014 at 1:40 pm
One thing that interested me was the fact that Apollo was the one who put Orestes in this predicament. This brought up the question of fairness amongst the gods because aren’t the gods supposed to be fair and just towards everyone? So why would Apollo tell Orestes to do this. I can see the similarities this story has to the book of job as far as theme is concerned. The discussion was entertaining and I liked hearing everyone’s point of view on this. Great job.
March 9th, 2014 at 11:54 pm
It’s hard to make a decision. If I were Orestes, i would have killed Aegisthus, but i would never kill my mother.I believe vengeance is never bigger than everything. It’s going to be a vicious circle, and it leads more hatred.
—xianhui xu
March 10th, 2014 at 12:47 am
I agree with Arsi’s comment. I think what really drove Orestes to kill Clytamnestra was Apollo’s threats. It was his destiny to kill his own mother. Therefore, I don’t think it’s “vengeance” that’s bigger than everything, but destiny is– the god’s wishes. What fueled Orestes in doing such killings, was Apollo’s commands and threats, I wouldn’t really say it was his anger, because he did hesitated upon seeing Clytamnestra plead with her baring breast.
March 12th, 2014 at 12:53 pm
I dont think that Orestes would have killed his mother, in the end I feel that Apollo constantly threatening him pushed him to do it. He killed his mother and Aegisthus, as a act of revenge for his father. He however did not even know what his father has done that has gotten him killed in the first place. Everyone just sort of pushed the idea to kill Clytamenestra into his mind, the people didnt want a woman as a ruler that disobeyed the law by killing her husband, and Oreste’s sister didnt have any love for her mother and wanted her dead.
-Alicia Ng