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?”

What I didn't know about Prometheus

In my on-going attempt to read all of “The Great Books,” I just finished “Prometheus Bound” by Aeschylus.  My previous acquaintance with Prometheus was through a book given to me by my favorite aunt when I was a child.  It was a large, but not very thick book of Greek myths.  As I remember it, each myth was told on one to three pages and included a color picture portraying the story.  The grizzly image of Prometheus chained to rocks with a bird about to tear into his liver became branded in my visual memory where it still resides.

I don’t know if in the attempt to make the story appropriate for young readers, major themes in the myth were simplified to the point of being unrecognizable, or if I, in my immaturity, just didn’t catch them.  I knew that Prometheus had angered Zeus by giving fire to humans, but I have now come to realize that I didn’t have the whole picture regarding Prometheus.

What I didn’t know about Prometheus:

1.        It is not only fire that he gave to humans.  He claims that prior to his involvement, humans lived in caves.  He taught them to build homes with timber and bricks, to use animals for their benefit for farm work and transportation, to make ships, to compound drugs to combat disease, and to use writing.  Prior to his involvement, he says, men were senseless beasts, and he gave them sense.  He sees himself as the savior of man who has mitigated man’s suffering.

2.       He rails against Zeus.  He does not believe Zeus to be the most powerful god, but the god who currently wields control through self-made laws and intimidation.  Other characters in this play, admonish him to hold his tongue lest his punishment become greater.  Prometheus persists in his defiance.  At one point he says:

Go thou and worship; fold thy hands in prayer,

And be the dog that licks the foot of power!

Nothing care I for Zeus; yea, less than naught!

Let him do what he will, and sway the world

His little hour; he has not long to lord it among the Gods.

3.        Prometheus also claims to be a prophet.  He foretells the future of Io who appears in the play.  He also claims to know when his own suffering will end, and when and how Zeus will fall from power, although this he refuses to reveal.

With whirl of feathery snowflakes and loud crack

Of subterranean thunder; none of these

Shall bend my will or force me to disclose

By whom ‘tis fated he shall fall from power.

Among the intriguing concepts in this play:

*Thou are a better counselor to others than to thyself …..a common problem for most of us.  We see problems and recognize corrective actions for others, but we don’t have the insight to see the same in ourselves.

*True marriage is the union that mates equal with equal.  I’m all in favor of that!  I have seen some unions that appeared to be a mismatch, but that have seemed to work as observed from the outside.  I would have stayed single before entering into such a union.

*I would not, if I might, change my misfortunes for thy vassalage…spoken like a patriot. 

The question arises while reading “Prometheus Bound,” when is it appropriate to be defiant?  Was the original Tea Party appropriate?  Is the current Tea Party appropriate?  Prometheus shakes his fist in the face of Zeus.  That’s OK with me.  Some individuals today shake their fist in the face of the One I believe to be the one true God, Creator and Sustainer of the universe.  I’m afraid that is not OK.  I might be wrong in my beliefs, but I fear for those who are defiant, if I am right.

When is it right and good to defy authority?

When is it just plain foolish?

The Seven against Thebes by Aeschylus

Eteocles is King of Thebes and son of Oedipus (he of the infamous complex).   A messenger arrives with news that an army prepares to attack Thebes.  Seven of the invaders’ champions have been assigned to storm each of seven gates into the city.  Eteocles must decide which of his mighty men to post at each gate to repel the onslaught.

The chorus in this play is comprised of a group of Theban women whom Eteocles considers to be more or less hysterical.  He chides them for their carrying on, since it may cause others to lose courage.  They, of course, don’t see things that way.  They believe they are offering legitimate prayers to the gods.  Chauvinist that he is, he eventually tells them, “These be men’s matters…your business is submiss silence, and to bide within.”

After some interaction between Eteocles and the chorus, he gets around to deciding which soldier to post at each gate.  He is especially grieved that one of the gates is to be attacked by a man for whom he has great respect.  He bemoans that, “’Tis unhappy chance that couples oft the just with many wicked!”  When he finds that Polyneices will attack the last of the gates, he decides to confront him himself.  The chorus protests that Polyneices and Eteocles are brothers….both sons of Oedipus.  It is not fitting for brothers to be fighting each other to the death.

Eteocles and Polyneices end up killing each other.  Both of their bodies are brought into the city.  As their sisters, Antigone and Ismene, grieve, a herald arrives and announces that the Governors have declared that while Eteocles is to be buried with pomp, Polyneices’ body is to be thrown to the dogs.  Antigone is prepared to defy this order and carries off the body of Polyneices.  Antigone is not into submissive silence. Ismene leaves with the body of Eteocles.  The chorus of women splits, some going with Antigone and others with Ismene. 

In addition to the tension between men and women in the play, a strong current running throughout is that the sins of the fathers are visited on their children.  Many references are made to the wrong-doing of Oedipus, who killed his father and married his mother.  Now the sons of this union are both dead.  “O curse of Oedipus!  O malison dark…unrelenting…damning all his line!”

My husband once told me that as a young man, he avoided some temptations by thinking that he couldn’t bear the idea that wrong-doing on his part might harm his future children.  The world would be a better place if more young men and women gave that notion some consideration.

The Persians by Aeschylus

This play is written from the perspective of the Persians, but Aeschylus was, of course Greek.  Since the story that unfolds describes the defeat of the Persians by the Greeks, one might wonder about its objectivity.

However, the basic theme is that of pride.  Xerxes, son of Atossa and Darius (who is deceased and appears in the play as a ghost) is not satisfied to rule Persia.  He wants to expand his boundaries, and so, he attacks Athens.  When word of the slaughter of his army reaches Queen Mother Atossa and the Persian Ministers of State, great sorrow is expressed and the consensus is reached that pride was his downfall.  “…proud thoughts are not for the worm called man.”  When man is guilty of such, he will find God willing to help him along to his demise.  “…when man, shod with haste and girt with pride, beckons his own doom, God is on his side.”

The desire for material possessions is also critiqued.  “Possessions must not be revered save as men use them; yet they that have none, how poor!  To them what luster hath the sun?”  Apparently this is an age-old problem.  Abundance does not buy ones happiness, but poverty is certainly not pleasant either.  The you-can’t-take-it-with-you notion appears as:  “Where dead men lie, wealth nothing profiteth.”

The play ends with Xerxes and the chorus of ministers of state exchanging laments…many, many laments.  I can picture the Greek audience rising to their feet in applause as Xerxes exits inconsolable and in utter defeat.

What was Aeschylus’ objective?  Did he just want to puff up the Greeks regarding their victory?  Or, did he hope that using the Persians as an example would cause the Greeks to examine their own tendency toward pride?

It is always easier to see pride in another than in oneself.  Pride has a way of infiltrating the mind and sneaking up on us.  It muddies up our objectives and priorities.   Thank you Aeschylus for the reminder.

The Suppliants by Aeschylus

The next installment in my quest to read “The Great Books” is a group of plays by Aeschylus.  Last night I read “The Suppliant Maidens.”  The forward tells me that this play was written about 490 BC.  Unfortunately, 2500 years later there are places in the world where the difficulty on which the drama hinges is still prevalent.

Daughters of Danaus have fled their home in Egypt in order to avoid being forced to marry men they do not love.  Their father supports them in their refusal and has accompanied them to the land of the Pelasgians.  Poor King Pelasgus is not anxious to get into a battle with the Egyptians.  His attitude is that he did not go looking for this problem and doesn’t want to be forced into protecting these young women.  The maidens, who comprise a chorus for the purposes of the play, plead with him to be the “ally of Justice and not Law.”

King Pelasgus apparently rules by the will of the people, so he must consult them before rendering a decision.  Fortunately for the maidens, the people are on the side of “Justice,” and agree to allow them to live in their city and under their protection.

The Egyptians arrive.  A confrontation ensues.  The Egyptians leave and the maidens enter the safety of the city.

Interestingly, now that they are not in jeopardy, the chorus of maidens breaks into different groups with seemingly dissenting opinions.  One group adamantly speaks against forced marriage.  Another group wonders at the possibility of a dreaded marriage ending up blissfully.  A group points out that God’s will (meaning, in this case, the will of Zeus) will prevail and that his purposes cannot be discerned.

“Can I look into the unfathomable deep?

Due measure when thou prayest thou should’st keep.

Where lies the mark that may not be o’ertrod?

Search not too far the purposes of God.”

The chorus concludes the play with:

“It contents me then, whate’er

The judgment which the Gods approve

If there be embodied there

Justice which my prayers could move.”

So….

Are they hoping for a relationship with God?

Do they believe that God can be moved by our prayers?

What is the balance between acceptance of God’s will and pleading our case before Him?

We are still grappling with these issues.

As a Christian, I believe in the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives when we pray.  I believe that He can guide us into praying within the will of God.  The Bible is also clear that He intercedes for us when we are struggling so intensely with an issue that we can’t figure out what to pray.  He interprets the agony of soul for which we cannot find words.  “The mark that may not be o’ertrod” may be unclear to us, but the Holy Spirit knows its exact location.  

I am trusting Him.