Polis: City/citizenship: In the 5th century BC, during which Aeschylus was writing, Athens’ political identity was in flux. Ancient commentators describe a series of violent shifts of constitution—between oligarchy (rule by a few), tyranny (rule by one man), and democracy (rule by the many).
The violent political upheavals of this period were accompanied by an intense, public and sophisticated debate about the processes and principles of change as they were taking place.
Indeed, the institution of tragedy and The Oresteia in particular…can be viewed first as part of this continuing public debate on internal political developments.
Citizenship implied first and foremost a duty and obligation to the polis. That a man should act to benefit his polis and that a polis benefited from a man’s individual success are repeatedly asserted ideals. In Athens, only adult males could be citizens.
Oikos: Household, implies the physical house, the idea of home, the household members. The oikos is the site of the private life of the citizen. The Oresteia, which starts in the home of one family and moves to the law-court of the city traverses the tensions produced by these two sites of authority in fifth-century culture, the oikos and the polis.
Dikē: Possesses a range of meanings, but can be defined generally as “justice.” It is a very important and pervasive word in 5thcentury Greece, and its meaning ranges from abstract ideas of justice or right, through retribution and punishment, to legal senses of law-court and law-case. This term is used throughout the Oresteia to gloss the narrative of revenge, and ultimately the three plays trace the movement from the Dikē as revenge to Dikē as legal justice.
