SWA: Appeals Court, Furies v. Orestes

Your SWA will be a preview of your arguments both pro and contra (both!) the verdict in the case of Furies v. Orestes. Here follows the assignment in detail. . . .

Orestes, accused of murdering Clytaemnestra, was found not guilty by the Athenian Areopagus court. The alleged victim, Clytaemnestra, is not happy with the verdict and has filed an appeal with the Mythological Court of Cassation. (Note that this is a universe in which the double-jeopardy rule preventing an accused person from being tried more than once does not hold force.)

The review of the case will be held in our classroom. Your job is to be well prepared both:

To argue the case for overturning the verdict. In your SWA submission, summarize briefly your rationale. Don't simply re-argue the case. Based on the available evidence (no new evidence will be admitted), show how justice failed to be served.
And to argue the case for upholding the verdict. In your SWA submission, summarize briefly your rationale. Don't simply re-argue the case. Based on the available evidence (no new evidence will be admitted), show how justice was indeed served.

In class, we'll assign students to to one of three roles in the matter:

Attorneys representing the Furies
Attorneys representing the Orestes
A panel of mythological judges

You will need to be ready to play any one of those three roles.

Background

General

For background to the Oresteia trilogy as a whole, click here.

Conflict and Parties Thereto in Eumenides

It is important to know that the play pits two sets of gods against each other:

Olympians: Sky gods oriented toward the male principal - the younger generation of deities
- Zeus
- Athena
- Apollo
Earth deities: Highly resentful of the Olympians, they are the older generation and allied with the female principal
- Furies

We have then approximately parallel conflicts:

Orestes-Apollo versus Furies.
Olympians versus earth gods.
Male versus female.
Justice of "self-help" (vendetta) versus institutionalized justice of process (jury trials).

Opening scene . . .

Orestes has carried out the terrible sentence of death against Clytaemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus. But in so doing, he has incurred blood-guilt, for he has spilled the blood of kin, his mother. He is thus pursued by the ghastly Erinues, or Furies, dread goddesses of vengeance.

The play opens at Delphi, Apollo's renowned place of prophecy. There, Apollo's priestess and mouthpiece, the Pythia, discovers Orestes as a suppliant (worshipper seeking the god's aid) in the inner shrine of Apollo's temple. Orestes, covered with the gore of his crime, is surrounded by sleeping Furies. The Pythia flees in terror.

Speaking to Orestes, Apollo promises not to abandon him. Orestes is to go to Athens as a suppliant of the goddess Athena. In Athens, Orestes will seek to be freed from the Furies through a judgment rendered by a jury of citizens there. The ghost of Clytaemnestra then appears; she rouses the sleeping Furies to a frenzied lust to seize and punish Orestes.

The high-point of the play is the trial scene: a face-off between Orestes and the Furies.

Special Discussion/Lecture Topics

MAGIC. I refer here to Apollo's and Orestes' strategizing for the latter's upcoming homicide trial, especially the part where Apollo, referring to the case Orestes is to present, says, ". . . with a magic spell — / with words — we will devise the master stroke / that sets you free. . ." (p. 234, Greek lines 81 ff.). What's that about??

MORE MAGIC. I.e., the peitho of incantation, which is to say, the "Binding Song" sung and danced to by the Furies (pp. 245 ff., Greek lines 307 ff.) — ditto. . . .

AGŌN. I.e., debate scene, in this case, the trial scene (pp. 255 ff., Greek lines 566 ff.). The peithō of arguments going back and during the jury trial, in particular, Apollo's quite fascinating take on genetics and conception. Hmmmm. . . .

MORE AGŌN. In this case, between Athena and the Furies. How does Athena get buy-in from the Dread Goddeses? How does Athena persuade them not to blight Athens but to join its "Department of Justice" (one might say)? How does she feel about her success with that? How do you feel?