The Libation Bearers
Introduction: The Libation Bearers as Part of The Oresteia Trilogy
.......The Libation Bearers is a tragedy that was first performed in Athens, Greece, in 458 B.C., along with two other plays: Agamemnon and The Eumenides. These three plays make up a set known as The Oresteia, considered Aeschylus's finest work and one of the greatest works in world literature.
.......Although they are separate plays--each one complete in itself--the second play (The Libation Bearers) continues the story of the first (Agamemnon) and the third play (The Eumenides) continues the story of the second. In addition, the plays share a common theme: how the justice system of ancient Greece evolved from a crude, "eye for an eye" system to a civilized system with courts and trials. In ancient Greece, three plays with a related theme and plot were called a trilogy. We still use this word today to identify three plays, novels, films, etc., with related themes and continuing plots. The first three Star Wars movies are an example of a modern trilogy. The title of the Aeschylus trilogy is derived from the name of a pivotal character in The Libation Bearers--Orestes. The Libation Bearers is sometimes referred to as Choephori, Choëphoroe, and Choephoroi, all English transliterations of the original Greek title.
Mythology Background
.......Aeschylus based the plot of The Libation Bearers and the other plays in The Oresteia (also spelled Orestea) on a mythological story well known to Greeks of his time. Because Aeschylus focused his plays only on parts of this story, readers need to be familiar with the parts not included in the Oresteia in order to gain a full understanding and appreciation of The Libation Bearers. Following is an abbreviated account of the myth, as well as information from the first play, to bring readers up to date on what took place before the beginning of The Libation Bearers:
.......Agamemnon was the son of a man named Atreus. When Agamemnon and his younger brother, Thyestes, were adults, Atreus became King of Mycenae, a city in southern Greece on a peninsula today known as the Peloponnese. Atreus then drove his brother out of the city when the latter challenged him for the throne. One account of this tale says Thyestes had first seduced Atreus’s wife, Aërope, to gain possession of a lamb with a golden fleece that conferred on its owner the rulership of Mycenae. When Thyestes left the city, he took with him Atreus’s child, Pleisthenes, and reared the boy.
.......One day, Thyestes sent Pleisthenes on a mission to kill Atreus. But the murder plot was foiled and Pleisthenes was killed. Atreus did not immediately realize that the man who tried to kill him was his own son. However, after he discovered to his horror the identity of the assailant, Atreus hatched a plot to get even with his brother: He invited Thyestes to a banquet, pretending he was ready to reconcile with his brother. The main course turned out to be the cooked remains of the sons of Thyestes. Thyestes ate heartily of the fare. After he learned of his brother's treachery, he laid a heavy curse on Atreus and his descendants to get even for this unspeakable abomination.
.......So it was that the son of Atreus, Agamemon, inherited the sin and guilt of his father, just as Christians of later times inherited the sin and guilt of Adam and Eve.
.......Thyestes then fathered another son, Aegisthus. When he grew up, he and Thyestes killed Atreus. Thyestes then seized the throne of Atreus and became King of Mycenae.
.......Meanwhile, Agamemnon went on to become King of Argos, a city in the Peloponnese, and later became general of all the Greek armies when Greece declared war on Troy. However, a cloud of doom--the curse pronounced by Thyestes--hovered over Agamemnon everywhere. It eventually manifested itself at Aulis, a Greek port city where Agamemnon's fleet had gathered to debark for Troy. There, the Olympian goddess Artemis--offended because Agamemnon had killed an animal sacred to her--stayed the winds, making it impossible for Agamemnon and his armies to sail to Greece. The only way to gain favorable winds, she said, was to sacrifice his young daughter, Iphigenia. Agamemnon did so and even gagged his daughter so that, with her last breath, she could not curse him for this deed. Her death enraged Agamemnon's wife, Queen Clytemnestra. After Artemis quickened the winds and Agamemnon sailed off to Troy, Clytemnestra never forgot what Agamemnon did. While he was fighting the Trojans, she took a lover--Aegisthus, the son of Thyestes. Together, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus plotted Agamemnon's murder while he was fighting at Troy.
.......When the Greeks at long last defeated the Trojans and Clytemnestra received word that Agamemnon would soon return home as a conquering hero, Clytemnestra set in motion the murder plan. It is at this point that Aeschylus begins the first play of the trilogy, Agamemnon, telling how Clytemnestra carried out her murder plot with the help of Aegisthus. The chorus predicts that an avenger will come to mete out justice against Clytemnestra. This avenger is Clytemnestra's son, Orestes, the main character of The Libation Bearers. According to Greek myth, Orestes was just a child at the time of Agamemnon's murder. Because his sister, Electra, and his nurse feared for his life, they secretly sent him to his uncle, the King of Phocis, who reared Orestes alongside his own son, Pylades.
.......After Orestes attains young manhood, he returns to Argos to avenge the death of his father. It is at this point that Aeschylus takes up the story in The Libation Bearers.
Plot Summary
By Michael J. Cummings...© 2005
.......Now grown to young manhood, Orestes returns to Argos with his friend Pylades to avenge the murder of his father, King Agamemnon, by his mother, Clytemnestra. At Agamemnon’s grave, Orestes prays that the spirit of his father will bless him in this task. Orestes lays down two locks of hair–one in tribute to a river god, Inachus, for watching over him and the other in tribute to his father. Orestes sees a group of women in the distance. When he recognizes one of them as his sister, Electra, he and Pylades withdraw to observe the women.
.......Electra and the others, a chorus of slaves who work in the palace, bear wine offerings, called libations. which Clytemnestra ordered them to pour out in honor of the earth goddess. But the chorus advises Electra to pour the wine on Agamemnon’s grave while praying that an avenger will come to inflict the ultimate punishment, death, upon Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, the murderers of Agamemnon.
.......While she pours out the libations, the chorus chants.
Mist of death and hell, arise and hear
Hearken and awaken to our cry of woe!
Who with might of spear
Shall our home deliver?
.......Electra then notices a lock of hair, saying its curls resemble those of her brother, Orestes. She thinks he sent it to Argos as a sign of his grieving. After she also notices fresh footprints near the grave, Orestes then comes forth and reveals himself to her. After she welcomes him warmly, Orestes asks Zeus to aid him in killing Clytemnestra, a task which will not only avenge his father’s death but also free Electra and the citizens of the Argos from the yoke of this tyrannical woman and enable Orestes to claim a throne that rightfully belongs to him. Electra reminds him that there is also another enemy to deal with, Aegisthus, who became Clytemnestra’s lover when Agamemnon was at Troy and who helped Clytemnestra plan and kill Agamemnon.
.......Orestes, Electra, and the chorus of slave women all pray in turn that the plot against Clytemnestra and Aegisthus will succeed.
.......Curious about why Clytemnestra commanded Electra and the others to pour out wine offerings, Orestes asks for an explanation. The chorus explains that Clytemnestra had a dream about giving birth to a snake that sucked bloody milk from her breast. It so frightened her as an omen of doom, raising her “shivering from her couch,” that she ordered libations poured on the earth to court divine intervention to protect her.
.......Orestes then sets himself to the task before him. Pretending to be a message-bearer from Phocis, he goes to the palace and tells Clytemnestra that Orestes has died. (Clytemnestra does not recognize him, for she has not seen him for many years.) The news saddens the old nurse who reared Orestes. Because Aegisthus is out in the city, the nurse leaves the palace to fetch him at Clytemnestra’s bidding. The chorus intercepts her, telling her to advise Aegisthus not to bring his bodyguards with him.
.......When Aegisthus appears at the palace, he tells the chorus, standing outside, that he will find out whether this messenger is reporting a mere rumor or whether the messenger himself witnessed the death of Orestes. Shortly after he enters the palace, the chorus hears a loud cry coming from inside. An attendant runs out of the palace to shout that Aegisthus has been slain. Clytemnestra comes out to inquire what the commotion is about. The attendant says, “The dead are come to slay the living.” She now realizes what is happening and asks the attendant to bring the very axe used to kill Agamemnon. Orestes then rushes out with a blood-stained sword.
Pylades is with him. Clytemnestra begs for her life.
Stay, child, and fear to strike. O son, this breast
Pillowed thine head full oft, while, drowsed with sleep,
Thy toothless mouth drew mother's milk from me.
.......Orestes, hesitant, asks Pylades what he should do. Pylades reminds him that he has a solemn duty to avenge the death of his father. Even the great god Apollo wills the death of Clytemnestra. After a verbal exchange with his mother, Orestes forces his mother back into the palace. Moments later, he opens wide the main doors as he stands over the corpses of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. In one hand he holds his instrument of vengeance, a sword. In the other, he holds the blood-stained robe Agamemnon was wearing when he was killed. It is proof, he says, that he was murdered.
.......Orestes then sees an unsettling sight:
Look, look, alas!
Handmaidens, see-what Gorgon shapes throng up
Dusky their robes and all their hair enwound-
Snakes coiled with snakes-off, off,-I must away!
.......They are the Furies, who have the “black blood of hatred dripping from their eyes!” Whenever a human commits a terrible wrong, these ugly female deities rise up from the lower world to exact vengeance against him. Murder arouses their wrath like no other crime.
Orestes flees. His destination is the holy place of Apollo at Delphi. There, he will seek protection.
.......The Libation Bearers is a tragedy that was first performed in Athens, Greece, in 458 B.C., along with two other plays: Agamemnon and The Eumenides. These three plays make up a set known as The Oresteia, considered Aeschylus's finest work and one of the greatest works in world literature.
.......Although they are separate plays--each one complete in itself--the second play (The Libation Bearers) continues the story of the first (Agamemnon) and the third play (The Eumenides) continues the story of the second. In addition, the plays share a common theme: how the justice system of ancient Greece evolved from a crude, "eye for an eye" system to a civilized system with courts and trials. In ancient Greece, three plays with a related theme and plot were called a trilogy. We still use this word today to identify three plays, novels, films, etc., with related themes and continuing plots. The first three Star Wars movies are an example of a modern trilogy. The title of the Aeschylus trilogy is derived from the name of a pivotal character in The Libation Bearers--Orestes. The Libation Bearers is sometimes referred to as Choephori, Choëphoroe, and Choephoroi, all English transliterations of the original Greek title.
Mythology Background
.......Aeschylus based the plot of The Libation Bearers and the other plays in The Oresteia (also spelled Orestea) on a mythological story well known to Greeks of his time. Because Aeschylus focused his plays only on parts of this story, readers need to be familiar with the parts not included in the Oresteia in order to gain a full understanding and appreciation of The Libation Bearers. Following is an abbreviated account of the myth, as well as information from the first play, to bring readers up to date on what took place before the beginning of The Libation Bearers:
.......Agamemnon was the son of a man named Atreus. When Agamemnon and his younger brother, Thyestes, were adults, Atreus became King of Mycenae, a city in southern Greece on a peninsula today known as the Peloponnese. Atreus then drove his brother out of the city when the latter challenged him for the throne. One account of this tale says Thyestes had first seduced Atreus’s wife, Aërope, to gain possession of a lamb with a golden fleece that conferred on its owner the rulership of Mycenae. When Thyestes left the city, he took with him Atreus’s child, Pleisthenes, and reared the boy.
.......One day, Thyestes sent Pleisthenes on a mission to kill Atreus. But the murder plot was foiled and Pleisthenes was killed. Atreus did not immediately realize that the man who tried to kill him was his own son. However, after he discovered to his horror the identity of the assailant, Atreus hatched a plot to get even with his brother: He invited Thyestes to a banquet, pretending he was ready to reconcile with his brother. The main course turned out to be the cooked remains of the sons of Thyestes. Thyestes ate heartily of the fare. After he learned of his brother's treachery, he laid a heavy curse on Atreus and his descendants to get even for this unspeakable abomination.
.......So it was that the son of Atreus, Agamemon, inherited the sin and guilt of his father, just as Christians of later times inherited the sin and guilt of Adam and Eve.
.......Thyestes then fathered another son, Aegisthus. When he grew up, he and Thyestes killed Atreus. Thyestes then seized the throne of Atreus and became King of Mycenae.
.......Meanwhile, Agamemnon went on to become King of Argos, a city in the Peloponnese, and later became general of all the Greek armies when Greece declared war on Troy. However, a cloud of doom--the curse pronounced by Thyestes--hovered over Agamemnon everywhere. It eventually manifested itself at Aulis, a Greek port city where Agamemnon's fleet had gathered to debark for Troy. There, the Olympian goddess Artemis--offended because Agamemnon had killed an animal sacred to her--stayed the winds, making it impossible for Agamemnon and his armies to sail to Greece. The only way to gain favorable winds, she said, was to sacrifice his young daughter, Iphigenia. Agamemnon did so and even gagged his daughter so that, with her last breath, she could not curse him for this deed. Her death enraged Agamemnon's wife, Queen Clytemnestra. After Artemis quickened the winds and Agamemnon sailed off to Troy, Clytemnestra never forgot what Agamemnon did. While he was fighting the Trojans, she took a lover--Aegisthus, the son of Thyestes. Together, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus plotted Agamemnon's murder while he was fighting at Troy.
.......When the Greeks at long last defeated the Trojans and Clytemnestra received word that Agamemnon would soon return home as a conquering hero, Clytemnestra set in motion the murder plan. It is at this point that Aeschylus begins the first play of the trilogy, Agamemnon, telling how Clytemnestra carried out her murder plot with the help of Aegisthus. The chorus predicts that an avenger will come to mete out justice against Clytemnestra. This avenger is Clytemnestra's son, Orestes, the main character of The Libation Bearers. According to Greek myth, Orestes was just a child at the time of Agamemnon's murder. Because his sister, Electra, and his nurse feared for his life, they secretly sent him to his uncle, the King of Phocis, who reared Orestes alongside his own son, Pylades.
.......After Orestes attains young manhood, he returns to Argos to avenge the death of his father. It is at this point that Aeschylus takes up the story in The Libation Bearers.
Plot Summary
By Michael J. Cummings...© 2005
.......Now grown to young manhood, Orestes returns to Argos with his friend Pylades to avenge the murder of his father, King Agamemnon, by his mother, Clytemnestra. At Agamemnon’s grave, Orestes prays that the spirit of his father will bless him in this task. Orestes lays down two locks of hair–one in tribute to a river god, Inachus, for watching over him and the other in tribute to his father. Orestes sees a group of women in the distance. When he recognizes one of them as his sister, Electra, he and Pylades withdraw to observe the women.
.......Electra and the others, a chorus of slaves who work in the palace, bear wine offerings, called libations. which Clytemnestra ordered them to pour out in honor of the earth goddess. But the chorus advises Electra to pour the wine on Agamemnon’s grave while praying that an avenger will come to inflict the ultimate punishment, death, upon Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, the murderers of Agamemnon.
.......While she pours out the libations, the chorus chants.
Mist of death and hell, arise and hear
Hearken and awaken to our cry of woe!
Who with might of spear
Shall our home deliver?
.......Electra then notices a lock of hair, saying its curls resemble those of her brother, Orestes. She thinks he sent it to Argos as a sign of his grieving. After she also notices fresh footprints near the grave, Orestes then comes forth and reveals himself to her. After she welcomes him warmly, Orestes asks Zeus to aid him in killing Clytemnestra, a task which will not only avenge his father’s death but also free Electra and the citizens of the Argos from the yoke of this tyrannical woman and enable Orestes to claim a throne that rightfully belongs to him. Electra reminds him that there is also another enemy to deal with, Aegisthus, who became Clytemnestra’s lover when Agamemnon was at Troy and who helped Clytemnestra plan and kill Agamemnon.
.......Orestes, Electra, and the chorus of slave women all pray in turn that the plot against Clytemnestra and Aegisthus will succeed.
.......Curious about why Clytemnestra commanded Electra and the others to pour out wine offerings, Orestes asks for an explanation. The chorus explains that Clytemnestra had a dream about giving birth to a snake that sucked bloody milk from her breast. It so frightened her as an omen of doom, raising her “shivering from her couch,” that she ordered libations poured on the earth to court divine intervention to protect her.
.......Orestes then sets himself to the task before him. Pretending to be a message-bearer from Phocis, he goes to the palace and tells Clytemnestra that Orestes has died. (Clytemnestra does not recognize him, for she has not seen him for many years.) The news saddens the old nurse who reared Orestes. Because Aegisthus is out in the city, the nurse leaves the palace to fetch him at Clytemnestra’s bidding. The chorus intercepts her, telling her to advise Aegisthus not to bring his bodyguards with him.
.......When Aegisthus appears at the palace, he tells the chorus, standing outside, that he will find out whether this messenger is reporting a mere rumor or whether the messenger himself witnessed the death of Orestes. Shortly after he enters the palace, the chorus hears a loud cry coming from inside. An attendant runs out of the palace to shout that Aegisthus has been slain. Clytemnestra comes out to inquire what the commotion is about. The attendant says, “The dead are come to slay the living.” She now realizes what is happening and asks the attendant to bring the very axe used to kill Agamemnon. Orestes then rushes out with a blood-stained sword.
Pylades is with him. Clytemnestra begs for her life.
Stay, child, and fear to strike. O son, this breast
Pillowed thine head full oft, while, drowsed with sleep,
Thy toothless mouth drew mother's milk from me.
.......Orestes, hesitant, asks Pylades what he should do. Pylades reminds him that he has a solemn duty to avenge the death of his father. Even the great god Apollo wills the death of Clytemnestra. After a verbal exchange with his mother, Orestes forces his mother back into the palace. Moments later, he opens wide the main doors as he stands over the corpses of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. In one hand he holds his instrument of vengeance, a sword. In the other, he holds the blood-stained robe Agamemnon was wearing when he was killed. It is proof, he says, that he was murdered.
.......Orestes then sees an unsettling sight:
Look, look, alas!
Handmaidens, see-what Gorgon shapes throng up
Dusky their robes and all their hair enwound-
Snakes coiled with snakes-off, off,-I must away!
.......They are the Furies, who have the “black blood of hatred dripping from their eyes!” Whenever a human commits a terrible wrong, these ugly female deities rise up from the lower world to exact vengeance against him. Murder arouses their wrath like no other crime.
Orestes flees. His destination is the holy place of Apollo at Delphi. There, he will seek protection.
