The Eumenides Essay, Research Paper

Throughout the ages, there have been many different Torahs and penalties used to convey order to societies. In America today we use a system of justness, which we modeled after the Grecian provinces of 1000s of old ages ago. In Aeschylus & # 8217 ; The Eumenides, we see the birth of the civil justness system as we use it today. Before Athens became a great power the people relied on retribution as justness, which the Greeks described as the supernatural existences of the Furies. In The Eumenides Aeschylus introduces a new type of order, civil justness, through the Gods Apollo and Athena. The Gods are no longer caught in the center of human personal businesss with desperate consequences.

Before Athena introduced the jury system into Grecian society, the people relied on the Gods to demand retribution. & # 8220 ; Show us the guilty? and up from the outraged dead we rise, / informant edge to revenge their blood/ we rise in fires against him to the terminal! & # 8221 ; ( Eumenides, lines 316-320 ) Many of them carried out retribution themselves, and said the Gods had declared justness. A great illustration of how the early Greeks relied on the Gods for penalty was the house of Atreus, as described in Aeschylus & # 8217 ; The Oresteia. A expletive ran through the household for coevalss, and would hold continued had Athena non intervened and created a jury system. Agamemnon sacrificed his girl for favourable air currents and Clytaemnestra murdered him in portion because of this. Orestes so avenged his male parent by killing Clytaemnestra, his female parent. The Furies, who wanted to kill him for his matricide, so chased Orestes. Had they succeeded, his kids and kids & # 8217 ; s kids would likely hold carried on the tradition of slaying and devastation.

Like Clytaemnestra, Orestes believed he had a merely motivation for slaying. When Clytaemnestra murdered her hubby, she did non inquire the Supreme beings if she was transporting out justness. She sought and carried out her ain justness, which was truly revenge. Before Orestes murdered his female parent, he was hesitating about the title and went to Apollo & # 8217 ; s prophet to seek his advice. Apollo told him to kill his female parent to revenge his male parent, and he complied. After his female parent had expired, the Furies chased him while he purged himself of his title at Apollo & # 8217 ; s shrine and supplicated himself at Athena & # 8217 ; s shrine. Because he had the God & # 8217 ; s blessing before he did the title and had purged himself of his female parent & # 8217 ; s blood, he believed that the expletive should stop at that place. But what of Clytaemnestra & # 8217 ; s retribution against Orestes?

Before this whole episode, the penalties for a offense would be carried out by the Gods, in this instance the Furies. Since Apollo intervened, nevertheless, he could non allow Orestes be punished for something he sanctioned. A new signifier of Justice had to be put in usage. With Athena & # 8217 ; s new system of 10 citizens judging the felon, the jury had to make up one’s mind whether or non his offense was justified. No longer was penalty an oculus for an oculus as The Furies practiced. & # 8220 ; You & # 8217 ; ll give me blood for blood, you must? each receives the hurting his strivings exact & # 8221 ; ( Eumenides, lines 263 & A ; 269 ) . When Apollo was speaking to the Furies, he said, & # 8220 ; Go where caputs are severed, eyes gouged out, / where Justice and bloody slaughter are the same & # 8221 ; ( Eumenides, lines 183-184 ) .

This is where the thought of existent justness comes through, non retribution. No longer was the jurisprudence black and white, but everything was taken into history. The Furies believed that Agamemnon should hold been murdered because he killed his girl, he murdered one of his ain blood. They did non care that Clytaemnestra killed her hubby, because there was no blood relation between them. The rages were upset with Orestes because he killed his ain female parent, the 1 who brought him into the universe. Apollo did non hold with their logic, so argued with them. & # 8220 ; Marriage of adult male and married woman is Fate itself, / stronger than curses, and Justice guards its life./ But if one destroys the other and you relent-/ no retaliation, non a glimpse in choler & # 8211 ; then/ I say your manhunt of Orestes is unfair & # 8221 ; ( Eumenides, lines 215-219 ) . Apollo believed Thursday

at blood relation should non be taken into history when make up one’s minding penalties. He believed that matrimony is stronger than anything because it is sanctioned through the celestial spheres.

Athena argued that the male should be honored above all else. She was born from Zeus & # 8217 ; s thigh without any documentation from a adult female. Athena respects work forces above all else and so supports Orestes. & # 8220 ; No female parent gave me birth./ I honour the male, in all things but marriage./ Yes, with all my bosom I am my Father & # 8217 ; s child./ I can non put more shop by the adult female & # 8217 ; s death-/ she killed her hubby, defender of their house./ Even if the ballot is equal, Orestes wins & # 8221 ; ( Eumenides, lines 751-756 ) .

The go oning rhythm of force in the old system forced the Gods to make a new signifier of justness, one in which the moral struggles had to be resolved. The Gods themselves could non judge instances, or else the universe would be caught in the crossfire of the Gods as it had during the Trojan War. The rages believed that they should be the Judgess. & # 8220 ; Strike the balance all in all and Gods will give you power ; / the Torahs of God may swerve from north to south-/ we Furies plead for Measure & # 8221 ; ( Eumenides, lines 539-541 ) . Zeus and the rages were all portion of the ancient order of Gods who believed in retribution as justness. Apollo and Athena realized that nil could be accomplished with that signifier of justness. The rages and Zeus supported Clytaemnestra while Apollo and Athena supported Orestes. A new signifier of justness had to be created non merely to settle the earthly jobs, but rift in the celestial spheres as good.

Athena herself believed that she could non make up one’s mind Oreste & # 8217 ; s destiny. & # 8220 ; Not even I should decide/ a instance of slaying & # 8211 ; slaying whets the passions. & # 8221 ; ( Eumenides, lines 486-487 ) If she had judged the instance, the Furies would hold avenged themselves by destructing the metropolis of Athens and the expletive would hold continued, but even more destructive than earlier. & # 8220 ; Beware. Our united force can interrupt your land./ Never wound our pride, I tell you, ne’er & # 8221 ; ( Eumenides, lines 726-727 ) . When Athena refused to judge Oreste & # 8217 ; s destiny, she declared that it would be safer if the Gods stayed out of the whole matter. & # 8220 ; And now/ if you would hear my jurisprudence, you work forces of Greece, / you who will judge the first test of bloodshed./ Now and everlastingly more, for Aegeus & # 8217 ; people/ this will be the tribunal where Judgess reign & # 8221 ; ( Eumenides, lines 692-696 ) . This determination starts the alteration from retribution as justness to a moral justness system.

To accommodate the Furies, and therefore to stop the expletive, Athena invited the Furies into Zeus & # 8217 ; s new order. Athena had won her instance with the rages and Zeus through her logic and persuasion. Zeus now supported his kids and the rages gave up their chase of retribution for the more practical signifier of justness. Even though Clytaemnestra & # 8217 ; s decease was non avenged, justness still prevailed in the terminal.

In The Eumenides, Aeschylus shows us both the old manner of justness and the new court. When he wrote these dramas, there was much societal agitation within Athens. The Pelopenesian War was ramping and the really foundation of authorities in Athens was challenged. As we can state from his dramas, Aeschylus believed in democracy and a democratic authorities. Not merely did he alter the stoping of the old Atreus myth, but he besides stated that the Gods themselves introduced the democratic system! Aeschylus was clearly saying that the democratic system was the best, and who would oppugn the Gods?

In the old justness system, Zeus and the rages were in agreement with each other but at odds with the other Gods. When Oreste & # 8217 ; s instance came up, Athena persuaded both Zeus and the rages that the old retribution system would non work as justness any longer. She came up with a new signifier, jury tests with persons as the Judgess. No longer would the Gods pay war with each other and the mortal universe. It is dry that the goddess of war would happen a new justness system that would assist convey peace between the celestial spheres and Earth. After the new justness system was put into usage, the universe of work forces and Gods became peaceable.