Eumenides describes the trial regarding the fate of Orestes for killing, Clytemnestra, his mother. The furies are acting as the prosecutor and Apollo is defending Orestes for matricide, which literally means “the murder of one’s mother.”
Apollo presents his argument on behalf of Orestes in order to justify the murder:
“Eumenides” Lines 665-668
“Here is the truth, I tell you-see how right I am
The woman you call the mother of a child
Is not the parent, just a nurse to a seed
The new-sown seed that grows and swells inside her.
The man is source of life-the one who mounts
She, like a stranger for stranger, keeps
The shoot alive unless god hurts the roots
I give you proof that all I say is true.
That a father can father forth without a mother
Here she stands, our living witness. Look-
Child sprung full-blown from Olympian Zeus
Never bred in the darkness of the womb
But such a stock no goddess can conceive!”
Explanation:
Apollo’s argument is that the paternal rights to have children are one of the fathers’ who plant the seed. The women is not so much the child’s mother and parent, as she is the nurse to a seed implanted by the male who is the true source of life. He further states that a man can have a child without a mother, and there is living proof in this very room. Apollo is referring to Athena, the goddess of wisdom and the daughter of Zeus, who was born from her father’s skull and not her mother’s womb. This argument is given to support that Orestes did not commit matricide because Clytemnestra did not act as his true mother. So when Orestes killed Clytemnestra, he was protecting the guardian of his household, and the true giver of life Agamemnon.
Based on the details of the play do you think that by killing Clytemnestra that Orestes was in fact committing matricide?
Additionally, regardless of what you “call” the crime do you think Orestes was justified in the killing of Clytemnestra?
Lastly, the theme of revenge is pertinent throughout the entire play, how does this trial affect the way the reader sees the evolution of the Greeks society? Is their a greater sense of maturity seen when the murder ends?
