Choephoroe by Aeschylus

Evil seems to have a trickle-down effect on generations to come.

As the play Choephoroe opens, Agamemnon has been killed by his wife and her lover and has been buried.  His daughter Electra and a chorus of women go to his tomb to mourn.  There Electra finds a lock of Orestes’ hair.  Orestes is her brother (Agamemnon’s son) and has been out of the country.  She realizes he must have returned.

The siblings stand mourning at the tomb and plotting to murder their mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus in revenge for their father’s murder.   At one point Electra declares, “We live in a community of hate.”  The decision is made that Electra will go back home as though nothing much has happened.  Orestes and his friend Pylades will get inside the palace by pretending to be travelers looking for refuge for the night.  This they do.  Once inside they carry out their plan to kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.

Although he has spent several pages justifying his actions, Orestes is, after the deed, plagued by a vision of creatures with blood dripping from their eyeballs coming after him.  He rushes off leaving the chorus to sum things up.  They, of course, are clueless as to whether these murders are the end or the beginning.

“Shall I hail thee Wind of Deliverance, or art thou a blast of doom?

Oh, when will thy course be finished, when wilt thou change and cease,

And the stormy heart of Havoc be lulled into lasting peace?”

As I write this, Egypt has been in upheaval for two weeks.  President Hosni Mubarak has just resigned.  But, is this the end or just the beginning?

Is our world a “Community of Hate?”