Ms. Hickey, Latin
4-20-18
2nd Hour, Latin II
The oresteia and the Athenian legal system The Oresteia, an Ancient Greek manuscript, is a follow up of the book “The Iphigenia” and follows his wife, Queen Clytemnestra’s, murder of Agamemnon after the Trojan war. The story of the Oresteia is a long Greek play made to explain the new Athenian legal system supposedly made by the goddess Athena in the third act of the play. The main idea of the Oresteia is that injustice and morality, as the blood must be eliminated if society is ever to attain to a high level of social organization. This can only be done by the introduction of a civic legal processes. Oresteia is a trilogy of tragic dramas by the ancient Greek dramatist …show more content…
The Athenian legal system is presented in the play when Agamemnon's son Orestes murders his mother queen Clytemnestra and her husband Aegisthus. Once the murder is over orestes begins having vivid solutions of multiple furies attacking and touching him for the death of his mother. Orestes starts sprinting off to the unknown away from the attack that nobody else can see, after many hours of running Orestes rests in a temple near athens; once day breaks a local farmer walks in to see Orestes asleep surrounded by the furies, frantically the farmer wakes Orestes up and tells him the way to athens. He soon starts running and gets to athens and sends a prayer to Athena quickly before the furies catch up to him. Athena soon takes the furies off of Orestes and begins a trial for his supposed crime. And the court session begins. Apollo places himself as the defendant of Orestes and athena places herself as the Judge, she takes from Athenian citizens as the jury and beings. Orestes quickly confesses about the murder for his mother and stepfather. Anthena before the jury begins to decide to place her vote on Orestes side; the jury soon begins to vote, and the votes are tied but since antennas tie breaking vote Orestes is free to go on with his …show more content…
His first occupation was in a vineyard, and his reverence for the god of the vine inspired him to follow the bent of his genius and contribute to the spectacles then newly established in honor of Dionysus. In his own words, as related to Pausanias, while still a stripling he was set to watch grapes in the country, and there fell asleep. In his slumbers Dionysus appeared to him and bade him turn his attention to the tragic art. When he awoke he made the attempt, and thus discovered his facility for dramatic composition. His earliest tragedy, composed when he was twenty-six years of age, failed to win the prize, and it was not until fifteen years later that he gained his first tragic victory. Meanwhile he had fought at Marathon, where he had gained some distinction, later taking part in the battles of Artemisium, Salamis and Platæa. As appears from his epitaph, written by himself and inscribed on his monument by the citizens of Gela, Sicily, where he died, he prided himself more on his military services than on his dramatic art.”