Aeschylus

Aeschylus was a writer of tragedies. His Oresteia, a set of three connected plays, won first prize at the festival of Dionysus in Athens in 458 BC. The plays are Agamemnon, Libation Bearers and Eumenides. In them, a chain of blood revenge ends in a trial before Athenian citizens. Orestes is acquitted, and the Erinyes accept honours and a home in the city.

In short

Aeschylus was a writer of tragedies whose Oresteia won first prize at the festival of Dionysus in Athens in 458 BC.
The three surviving plays of the Oresteia are Agamemnon, Libation Bearers and Eumenides.
In Aeschylus’s Eumenides, the priestess at Delphi names Earth, Themis, Phoebe and Apollo as its holders in turn. Themis gives way to Phoebe willingly, and Phoebe gives the seat to Apollo.
In Eumenides, Athena appoints Athenian citizens to judge Orestes and sets up the court for bloodshed on the Hill of Ares.
The jurors’ votes are equal, so Athena declares Orestes acquitted. She then persuades the angry Erinyes to accept honours and a home in Athens.
Pausanias reports Aeschylus’s own claim that Dionysus appeared to him in a dream and told him to write tragedy. This is how Aeschylus presented himself, not checked biography.

A playwright of Athens

Aeschylus wrote tragedies, serious plays performed in competition before an Athenian audience. His best-known work is the Oresteia, a set of three connected plays. It was staged at the festival of Dionysus in Athens in 458 BC and won first prize. The three surviving plays are Agamemnon, Libation Bearers and Eumenides.

The contest took place in the Theatre of Dionysus. It stands above the sanctuary, or holy ground, of Dionysus Eleuthereus on the south slope of the Acropolis.

These facts also explain what kind of evidence his plays give us. They keep staged versions of myth. Aeschylus chooses one account, puts it in the mouths of his characters, and lets its results carry on from one play to the next.

Pausanias, who wrote a description of Greece, keeps a short story about how Aeschylus began. Aeschylus said that as a youth he was watching grapes when he fell asleep and saw the god Dionysus in a dream. The god told him to write tragedy. This is how Aeschylus presented himself, not biography that anyone has checked. Still, it shows a poet who placed the start of his work under Dionysus. Pausanias also saw a portrait statue of him in the Athenian theatre, made after his death.

How the trilogy carries the story

Because the three plays are connected, each act of blood revenge stays alive in the next play. Nothing is closed off when a play ends.

Eumenides, the last play, takes Orestes from Delphi to Athens while the earlier killings are still unresolved. Delphi was the seat of Apollo’s oracle, a place where the god answered questions through his priestess. The action moves from Apollo’s holy ground to a hearing in the city. Blood revenge becomes a case put before citizens.

The opening at Delphi

Eumenides opens with the Pythian priestess, the woman who spoke for Apollo at Delphi. Before she enters Apollo’s temple, she names each power that has held Delphi. The goddess Earth came first, then her daughter Themis. Themis gave way willingly to Phoebe, and Phoebe gave the seat of the oracle to her grandson Apollo as a birth gift. The play also links Apollo’s title Phoebus to her name.

The order of the names is already part of the play’s argument. Power passes from an older god to a younger one without seizure or destruction. Before Orestes’s case reaches Athens, the play has shown that an ancient office can change hands by consent.

This exact order is one playwright’s version, not something all Greeks agreed on. Pausanias later records a different account of who held Delphi. Earth, Themis, Phoebe and Apollo are the order Aeschylus gives, spoken by his priestess at the start of this one play. The entries on Themis and Phoebe depend on what Aeschylus makes her say.

From revenge to a trial by citizens

In Athens, the goddess Athena appoints citizens to judge Orestes. She sets up the first court for bloodshed on the Hill of Ares, the Areopagus. In the play’s version of the myth, this is how that court begins. Athens joins the action and gives the court its authority.

The jurors’ votes come out equal. Athena announces that an equal vote acquits Orestes, and the hearing releases him from the case.

The verdict does not settle what the Erinyes will do. They are the spirits who stand for the claim of blood revenge, and that claim is what brought the case to court. After the acquittal they threaten the land itself.

The connected plays keep both results in view. Orestes is acquitted under the rule Athena declares. The Erinyes still have the power to harm Athens. The citizens’ court has decided the fate of the accused, but the older claim needs a second settlement.

Where the Erinyes stay

Athena answers their threat by persuading the Erinyes to accept a place and honours in Athens. Their anger turns into a bond with the city that judged against them. At the close of the play they bless the land they had threatened. Then they are led in procession to their new home.

Within the trilogy, this outcome is final. Orestes leaves acquitted. The court stays on the Hill of Ares. The Erinyes stay too, and the last thing the audience sees is their procession into an Athenian home.

Places to visit

Athens

Cities

The Oresteia won first prize at the festival of Dionysus in Athens in 458 BC. In Eumenides, Athena appoints Athenian citizens to judge Orestes on the Hill of Ares, sets up the court for bloodshed and gives the Erinyes honours and a home in the city.
Athens