Matricide In The Oresteia

The Furies are monstrous women that lived in the underworld and avenged murders. In Greek, they are typically known as Erinyes, which may have originated from the Arcadian word meaning to be angry. They are known to look like Gorgons of sorts, with their snaky hair. Eventually, they became known as fearsome creatures who loved to wreak havoc. Next, the Fates were three sisters, incarnations of destiny and life.

ustice, fairness, and decency, abstract concepts that are innate in society and human nature. However, despite their near universal status in humanities mid, they often have different meanings for individuals. Aeschylus uses The Oresteia in order to explore these issues as characters in the play try to determine what it means to be just, what ought a just actor do, and what is the best model for achieving justice. The characters discuss ideas such as vengeance, reciprocity, balance, moderation, and finally the end result of the implied debate leads to a jury system. In this paper I will go over two of the several different interpretations of justice used in the Oresteia and compare and contrast them in order to demonstrate which is the best

Considering that there is no set in stone evidence of perfect justice

Justice shifted from been a personal vendetta or responsibility to been the responsibility of the state set down by the laws of the state. These represented a more democratic society, which was more modern. Literature as a whole is a direct representation of human existence and the beauty of the Greek drama is that it is portrayed in front of an audience, and as the words are being spoken the audience can directly relate and comprehend the actions of the characters. Hence, the theme of exile of Orestes in the Eumenides in the third part of the Oresteia is a lot more than alienating him from the rest of the world - it becomes a stepping stone for him to break free from political and social strife, question laws and believes that have been set down for many years and, bestow a new power upon himself and his society under a new form of justice.

In contrast, in the Oresteia, the myth demonstrates an overwhelming theme of justice. Agamemnons’ death here shows the curse hunting his household from generation to generation, starting from Agamemnon’s father

I think that it shows the Greeks believe that pridefulness is wrong/punishable as well. Along with pride, I think that there were themes of piety, lies and deciet, and justice so I believe that the Greeks may have seen the Gods as a way to enforce good behavior/a moral code of good, although they show to be ignorant, act "bratty", and can be decietful which may be believed to cause humans to be bad. So it explains their bad behavior for them in a

So from Antigone’s perspective, it is a dishonor and indignity to the family. Trying to persuade Ismene and

The Importance of Family in Antigone Following one’s heart does not always mean following the law. Civil disobedience is justifiable when dealing with family. Devotion to family is significant, especially in Greek culture. The play Antigone by Sophocles, stresses the importance of family and how the disturbance of traditions may lead to conflict.

For example, the punishments depend on the crime. If a wife fights with her husband, leaves her husband, ruins her house, or neglects her husband, this woman shall be thrown into the river in the Hammurabi’s code. If someone murders someone in the modern law, they have a sentence in jail. Sentences in jail also depend on the crime and its severity. Another way that they are similar is the way that they both maintain order.

These gods are the personification of death in the play which is why the messenger hoped that “they might restrain their anger”; because death has the power to influence

In our country today we have a Judicial Court System in place, and a democratic government. The Judicial Court System is an adversarial system of justice; it interprets and enforces the federal laws of our country. In The Odyssey, Homer displayed that justice was ruthless and that the main gods assisted in carrying out the consequences of good and evil to those who deserved it. The Odyssey demonstrated that justice was cruel and that the main gods, such as Zeus, helped carry out the punishments to the bad and the rewards to the good by telling how Aegisthus was killed, what the Phaeacians and suitors consequences were, and Odysseus’ final destination.

The effect points out the wrong-doing that the King has done. In addition to pathos, logos is also used in paragraph 30, where they state “They are too deaf to hear the sounds of Justice and Consanguinity”

While Odysseus’ actions taken to punish the suitors may appear immoral in modern society, by considering the ways in which modern society differs from Homeric society, Odysseus’ actions are just in the context of the poem. As violence has an extremely negative connotation in modern society, the use of the death penalty is morally ambiguous, and is a highly debated topic; however, violence is far more legitimized in the society of the Odyssey, and therefore, death is a far more acceptable form of punishment. This idea is exemplified by the way in which violence is discussed between characters within the Odyssey. In particular, this general acceptance of violence is demonstrated through the fact that many of the characters within the Odyssey share an almost unanimous belief that the suitors should be put to death to pay for their crimes.

James Galetti Professor Russell Western Heritage 1 05 October 2016 Is Achilles’ rage justified? In the Iliad, the character of Achilles has numerous character flaws that cause him to have blinded judgement towards his actions as well as shutting out everyone around within the epic poem. Achilles’ rage keeps him from being the hero that we were supposed to see him as.

Finally, Socrates claims that the unjust man is ignorant, weak and bad. Socrates argument is effective in the way that he does not shatter Thrasymachus’ argument without reason, he is given many examples that change his way of thinking. Thrasymachus is told to put his ‘set in stone’ ideas under different situations, and once he does, he can clearly see that he should not have been so stubborn, as soon as he does so, he can see that his arguments aren’t suited to all situations. By the end of the argument, Thrasymachus isn’t so much debating the definition of justice, as he is defining the required traits to be a ruler of