Oresteia essay justice

What is original in this trilogy by Aeschylus is the concept of justice, where Orestes undergoes a trial and acquittal of the crime of matricide by an Athenian court. Aeschylus’ story of about justice founded in the Athenian court to try cases of homicide suggests the direction in which his version of the myth is headed.

In the old order of things, family is by blood only. A husband and wife have no blood relation, yet the son is of the same blood as his parents. The Furies right to vengeance cannot be dismissed. Clytaemnestra is one who upheld the laws of the Furies.

This too, is a terrible crime, seemingly of the same weight as Orestes’ act. Clytaemnestra believed she was justified in avenging her daughter, because her husband violated a sacred tenant of the old gods. “Here is Agamemnon, my husband made a corpse by this right hand-a masterpiece of justice.

Athena, however, initiates the idea that the law is concerned not only with the forms of justice, as the Furies are passionate about, but with justice itself. The jurors must ask themselves whether Orestes was justified in committing matricide. Circumstances, motives, and consequences must be taken into account at trial.