FB Post 5/24/17

[Cristen]

I’m gonna defer that quote to someone else because I’m not that familiar with Weil’s work. But let’s talk art and literature.

That painting is Bouguereau’s “Oreses Pursued by the Furies.”  It is also sometimes called “The Remorse of Orestes.”

This is another Greek myth (myths are awesome,) it’s best told in Aeschylus’ Orestia.

Agamemmnon, the king of Argos, sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia for good sailing weather to Troy and as a consequence he’s murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Orestes, their son, then returns home and murders his mother and Ageisthus to avenge his father at the god Apollo’s command.  Orestes is then pursued by the furies, spirits of vengeance. They represent the anger of the dead.

The furies follow Orestes, tormenting him, screaming for blood, until he is put on trial in Athens by Athena. Apollo speaks on his behalf.  The jury is split and Atena casts the deciding vote in Orestes’ favor. She then convinces the Furies to lay down their demand for blood vengeance and become protectors of Justice for the city of Athens. (Justice beings the ordered form in vengeance.)

It’s worth noting that the Furies seem to stalk Orestes specifically for the murder of his mother. Some scholars say that the murder of king Agamemnon may harken back to ritual killing of a male in early religious ceremonies. You can find a lot of interpretations of myths as veiled treatises on forgotten rituals. Matriarchy, or the role of a woman as head of house, seemed to be prevalent in early (Greek) society, thus the presence of goddess Athena here to save the day. (The cult of Athena was hugely popular.)

So what to take away from this?

The role of Athena as woman, goddess of war but never fighting without purpose (vs her brother Ares as chaos, violence.)

The vengeance and anger of the dead.

The Orestia story itself. A father sacrifices a daughter and pays the ultimate price, is avenged by an absent son, who is then pursued by the embodiment of vengeance itself to the point of madness. What will we sacrifice; what have we already? And what will come for revenge?

[Author]

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