PREVIEW： Chronicles #13 ｜ The Libation Bearers
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Summary
In this episode of Chronicles, Stelios and Luca discuss the second part of Aeschylus's epic, The Oresteia, which tells the story of the death of King Agamemnon and the fall of Argos.
Transcript
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Hello, and welcome back to Chronicles, where this time we're going to be talking about
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Aeschylus's libation bearers, the second part of the Oresteia. And so naturally,
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I've roped Stelios in, brother Stelios again. Hello, brother Luca. I'm very pleased to be here
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with you. And I like how you pronounce Aeschylus. It sounded like Arnie. Aeschylus. How should it be?
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I mean, okay, we call him Aeschylus. It's fun sometimes, you know, when you hear foreign
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accents about it. Foreign northern accents trying to pronounce Greek words. That sounded a bit
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Austrian, to be honest. Oh, gosh. What Aeschylus. Well, and so just so I don't embarrass myself
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further, in the Greek, this is a, how do you pronounce it? Koifori. Koifori. Yes. Yes. So
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that's the Greek translation, title, if some people might know it as that. So let's begin talking about
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it. Because obviously, we sat down before, didn't we? And we covered the first part, part one,
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Agamemnon. A great play where, very simply just to run through the plot again, Agamemnon returns home
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after 10 years at war in Troy, and is swiftly killed by his wife, Clytemnestra, with the help of
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Aeschylus. A very womanly, skulking figure with nobody. Her lover. Yes. And her lover. And her lover.
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Yes. And so the whole Agamemnon's realm of Argos falls into tyranny. Agamemnon is killed. And part one
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ends with this foreboding of the fact that bad things are about to go down in Argos. And will a
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savior come? Yeah. And bring, restore justice and bring about peace. And yeah, I think it's good to
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give some extra content on this. So our audience remembers exactly what happened in one, in Agamemnon,
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but also the context there. Because the interesting thing about myth and the ancient tradition is that
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almost everyone was talking about the same stories, but in slightly different ways. Yes. And we have the
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same essential narrative, and everyone is giving their own little interpretation of it. And in some
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cases, we have completely different interpretations of narratives. Absolutely. Like for instance, with
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the myth of Prometheus, there are endless interpretations you can make of it. So what
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happened is that Agamemnon, the first part of the Oresteia, concerns the end of the Trojan War.
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And after the end of the Trojan War, that was essentially a decade of warfare. It's not just the
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events detailed in the Iliad. The Iliad is just 51 days towards the end of the war. Sure. It's like
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talking about D-Day and World War II. The Trojan War was the equivalent World War II. So when it ended,
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Agamemnon was in a way one of the lucky ones, but also in another one of the most unlucky ones. Yes.
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I think that the one who was, who overall had it best was Menelos. Yeah, definitely.
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Who, opposite to, contrary to how he's portrayed in the movie, he didn't die. He took Helen back. And Helen
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wanted to go back. They were stranded to Cyprus and Egypt for a bit, then they went back. So Agamemnon was
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one of those who had favourable wins at the time. But what is really important to understand about
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the context of it, because essentially we're talking about Agamemnon, who was the leader of the
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Greek kings, the leader of the leaders in that war, for instance, in the Trojan War. His main beef with
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his wife was that he had to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, for favourable wins so he could take the
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army, the fleet of the Achaeans to Troy. And the thing here is that in some cases, in some ways,
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the narrative is portrayed as he is a monster who was so much interested in glory that he would sacrifice
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his own daughter. But that's, I think, a bit easy. It's a bit pedantic, because essentially he had
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committed injustice against, I think it was Artemis, the goddess of hunting. She essentially told him to,
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you have to sacrifice your daughter in order for me to give you favourable wins. You have to pay for
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that injustice. Right. Which gives a bit of another spin in the story. Yes. But still, it's something
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that we, I think it's an absolutely abhorrent act. Oh, undoubtedly. And from our modern sensitivities,
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just, you know, you just don't do that. And Clytemnestra agrees with you. Yeah. And she,
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well, it's very interesting as well, of course, just to recount that after Clytemnestra does murder
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Agamemnon at the end of the first play. She's entirely unrepentant about it. Yeah. She,
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she speaks to the chorus. They call her a murderer. She says, no, I was merely an instrument of the
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gods. I was, I was the weapon of their divine justice. And, and actually her vendetta is entirely
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against Agamemnon. It's Agamemnon who has the, uh, just genuinely petty tyranny in him where he feels
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that no, now that I have, uh, taken on the role as like co ruler, along with Clytemnestra, uh,
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I'm just going to assert my arbitrary will over the people of Argos. And so that's how we find them
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at the beginning of act two, uh, act two, uh, this play, some time has gone, uh, some time has passed.
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And unlike in the first play where we begin with a very long part from both the watchman and then
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the chorus in this were immediately introduced to Arrestes. Yeah. The, the hero, the son of Agamemnon
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and the, I say hero, the hero of this play, but again, a lot like many of the figures,
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he's an incredibly morally complex character. He has to do a terrible thing.
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I mean, one of the interesting things with tragedy is that there are no clear answers.
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Aristotle was of the opinion that tragedy begins with a mistake in, in one's action or thinking.
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But, uh, some, some people, I think most scholars are saying that he's a bit,
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um, he's a bit hasty in interpreting tragedy and that tragedy is far more potent in showing
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you moral dilemmas as opposed to telling you that there are clear answers. Definitely. Definitely.
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This is one of the, you know, one of those debates that will never be resolved.
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Hmm. So Orestes has been in exile, uh, in, uh, focus with, uh, his friend, uh, Pilates. Um,
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I know I'm pronouncing all these wrong, but they, uh, they, uh, thank you. Uh, but they,
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they return to Argos, um, because as it is revealed later on, uh, Orestes has been charged
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charged by Apollo himself to kill his mother. So a lot like with Agamemnon, you can see the history
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repeating itself. Agamemnon was told by Artemis, uh, that you have to kill your own daughter.
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And now Orestes has been told by God, you have to kill your own mother, which puts him, of course,
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in an impossible position because to not carry out the murder, the matricide is to leave divine
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justice unsettled because that means that Clytemnestra basically gets away with the crime
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and there is no justice done for her murder of Agamemnon. However, it is also a crime, obviously,
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to kill one's own kin. And so Orestes is in this impossible position where he's damned either way,
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whatever he does. But what is interesting is that according to the play or according to the
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mentality of both Aeschylus and the ancient Greek mentality, he has to do something.
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He can't just sit there. Yes. He can't remain in exile. It's one of the most interesting things
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in tragedy because it's almost like saying that in life you have to actually do something.
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Even if you're in an impossible situation, you can't just stand by and let the clock burn down.
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And to speak of doing nothing and some more passive characters, characters in this play,
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we're also introduced to his sister for the first time, Elektra. Yes.
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And now, Elektra is a great example as a character of exactly what you were saying about
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different versions. It's played by Jennifer Gardner.
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Oh, yes. Yes, that one. I've not seen that actually, but I'm sure it has its advantages.
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The thing with Elektra goes back to what you were saying about different versions
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of the same story, because there are two Elektra plays where she is the main character,
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both by Sophocles and Euripides, written some 40, 50 years after Aeschylus has, of course,
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written his own version of it. And in Euripides' play, she's a much more active presence. And this
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won't be the last time I mentioned Euripides in this conversation, because he has a thing or two to
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critique in his own work. I'll just read the first thing that I've bookmarked, and we can begin to
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talk about some of the action. So Elektra is here with the chorus, right? And the chorus are the
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libation bearers. They have been ordered to come to Agamemnon's tomb by Clytemnestra herself to pour
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out these libations, these offerings, because Clytemnestra feels that Agamemnon's spirit
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is still restless. She had a nightmare about him. She did. And she thought that she had to do this.
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Now, what is interesting is that libations weren't offered only to gods. They were also offered to
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heroes. And in some cases, you know, figures like Agamemnon. I don't know if we would call Agamemnon a hero.
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Some people may call him a hero, but you would have libations to Heracles, for instance.
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So they are essentially giving their offerings to Agamemnon. And as you
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Okay. Can I say something interesting about Aegisthus? Because it's one of those names that people
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completely forget. But his example was essentially very symbolic. And you hear about Aegisthus also in
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the Odyssey, because he's a symbol of injustice. Because one of the main ways in which
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justice is being... is manifesting is in goodwill. And goodwill, especially in the context of,
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let's say, of kingdoms, has to do with guests and hosts. When you're a king,
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you are the host of your... the host of many guests.
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Did you say an Englishman's home is his castle?
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So it's an instance of goodwill, and it manifests in hospitality in this case.
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And one of the first scenes of the Odyssey is when Telemachus walks into the hall of the...
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of his house. And there are all the suitors there. And there's a bard playing a song about
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Orestes and Electra slaying Aegisthus, which sets the tone that Telemachus in the Odyssey
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has to become a man. And that means that he has to become like Orestes and slay
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the equivalent Aegisthus. So Aegisthus in Orestia is what the suitors are in the Odyssey.
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I see. Excellent. Right. So the chorus are there with Electra, and Electra begins to speak and say,
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O Hermes, messenger of the gods, pathfinder and guide of the underworld, great go between above
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and below, help me, speak for me, awaken the powers of the dark earth, protectors of this house,
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command them to hear me, and call to the earth herself, call to our great mother, gravid with all
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life, mother of everything, nurse of every plant and creature, great womb quickened by mankind's
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offerings, beg her to hear me. And she goes on to say that, and I call on his spirit, father,
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pity your children, pity me, pity Orestes, pity your son Orestes and your daughter. We are disinherited
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and homeless, bartered by our own mother, sold off in exchange for Aegisthus, supplanted by your
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killer. I live among slaves. I live the life of a slave. Orestes is banished. How shall we
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get our home back? Aegisthus and your queen Clytemnestra glitter among the luxury of your treasures,
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like two serpents coiled together in a gorgid sleep. Father, where is Orestes? Guide him home.
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Hear my prayer and answer it. And of course, Orestes is already there. He's come independently of that.
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But you see, just within this speech by Electra, you see that she is in some ways very much the
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opposite of her mother. Unlike Clytemnestra, who took justice, shall we say, into her own hands, and
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personally murdered Agamemnon. Electra is much more of a passive character, certainly in this play. She
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prays for other people to do things for her. She prays for Orestes, the man, to come and restore
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justice. And it's obvious also from much of the dialogue that she has a genuinely strong bond with
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her brother as well. There is a great amount of familial love between the two of them. And they
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both obviously feel like they were their father's children. Yes. More than their mother. They don't
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seem to have particular affinity towards their mother. No. And also, Orestes was not, he didn't, he
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didn't raise, he wasn't raised in Argus. That's why he comes back to Argus. Yes, he's raised in Thocus.
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But he wasn't raised in Argus. And when he, in the first scene where he is talking to Clytemnestra,
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which I'm sure we'll talk about, she doesn't recognize him. You don't sense her,
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you know, you don't sense there to be any sort of connection between them.
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Hmm. On the point of what you were saying about recognition. Yeah. That leads into quite a humorous,
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it's quite very much satirized and joked about. But the fact of how Orestes and Electra
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come to recognize one another. Because before, when Orestes first arrives on stage, he lays a lock of his
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hair at the Agamemnon's tomb. Yes. And then he goes away. And Electra spots his hair. Yes. And she's like,
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my gosh, it's like, it's the same hair as mine. It could only belong to my brother.
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Only other person on the planet with that, with that hair type. Yes. And then also, what's more,
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you see the footprints from where Orestes has been walking with Pylades. And Electra says,
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oh, and we have the same foot shape. It's the same foot as well. So, yes, this nan has the exact same
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foot as I, this woman. And then what's more, when Orestes finally reveals... They have the same number of
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Timberland boots. Yeah. And when Orestes does turn up and he says, oh, it's me. Don't you recognize me?
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He says here, look, this is of the same fabric. Don't you recognize this weave? You, you weave this
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for me many, many years ago. Like, well, how's it still fit? You know, like there's this. And this is
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so absurd that it was mocked by Euripides in his version of Electra. And he just goes through all these
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things saying, look, none of this makes sense. Which is just a sort of a pernicious humor you'd
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expect from Euripides, who was a very biting man. But nonetheless, the two come together. And then,
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now that Electra sees that here is her brother and her instrument for divine retribution
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against their mother, they can begin to hatch the plan to kill her. So I'll read from this part here
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as well, because this is where Orestes begins to talk about the actual charge that Apollo gave him.
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And he goes on to say, Apollo's command is like fate. No man can refuse it. The voice of Apollo,
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relentless, directs my feet, my mind, my hands, towards this collision of killer with killer.
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The voice of Apollo freezes my body to a lump of ice recounting the horrors waiting for me if I fail,
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or if I flinch, or dodge off sideways. From this task, blood for blood, your face fixed like bronze.
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Their debt cannot be weighted out in gold. And if I fail, I pay for failure with my own life.
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Apollo told me what rights men must perform to appease angered spirits of the earth. He told me
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what their unappeased anger spills into men's homes. The ulcers that gnaw the human shape to an oozing
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stump. The white fungus that flowers on the ulcers. Then he told me what the unavenged blood of a murdered
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father presents to the eyes of a neglected son. The Furies, forcing their way out of the thick
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darkness. Drunk with the fumes of that blood. Their arrows flying in the darkness. Insanity flung like
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a net. Their night horrors dragging the sleeper awake. Hunting him from collapse to deeper collapse.
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Lashing him from city to city. With whips of bronze wire. Befouled in blood and suppuration.
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Loathed and shunned as if leprous. Banished alike from the banquet. And from the sacred precinct.
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Right. So I think that's a beautiful passage. I have two things to say here and I think they're really
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important. And they tie in, they tie really well with what we said in the beginning about Agamemnon.
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Now, when we talk about these stories, one of the first things that, you know, people ask is,
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you know, is there a third option? Is there something else we could do? So for instance,
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we can definitely see people saying, well, Clit of Nistra had a point. Why didn't Agamemnon insist
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to Artemis that he dies instead of Iphigenia? I mean, I think that's a very plausible way of,
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very plausible question. But what we need to remember, which is very often forgotten,
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and a lot of scholars are responsible for this because they give a completely,
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you know, fragmentary view of the, what is called the heroic landscape or the heroic
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mindset or the heroic virtue list. The first, when the gods tell you to do something, you do it.
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That's the first and core virtue of the Homeric paradigm. The Iliad is about Achilles's wrath.
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Achilles wants to slay Agamemnon. He doesn't do it because Athena tells him not to.
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So it's not just being a Luke smaxer, Chad, who's going to just slay everyone. It's
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first and foremost reverence that you owe to gods. That's the core virtue. Yes.
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So if the gods ask you to do something, you have to do it in that framework, in this world.
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The same thing applies for Agamemnon. The same thing applies now for Orestes because Apollo orders him.
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There's no leeway. There's no leeway. No, none whatsoever. There's no bartering with Apollo saying,
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do you want me to, do you want me to give you more, maybe give you some money?
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Or there's no bartering. He's not a merchant. No, right. No, there's no haggling involved with Apollo.
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No, absolutely not. And what's more as well, as you say, from that remarkable description
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that Orestes recounts, it's not only if you don't kill your mother. It's like, no, you will be,
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if you don't do it, you will be, you know, there'll be a profusion of ulcers all over your body. You'll
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get sick. You'll be ill. The Furies, who we'll talk a lot more about, obviously, in the third play. But
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worth mentioning now, these very, very ancient, because they come from before the time of the
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gods themselves, don't they? Before the Olympians, straight from Uranus, the sky.
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Yeah. So let me give you this, because I think when we bury the context in mind,
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we see the real beauty of these plays. Because sometimes they can, especially Aeschylus,
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Aeschylus can be interpreted as very dry, at least in comparison with Sophocles.
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Yeah. But if we bury the context in mind, the text becomes alive.
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