Oresteia

Use this activity to engage all types of learners while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“The Furies’ Appeal”

In this activity, students will use collaborative learning and critical thinking to recreate (and rethink) Orestes’s trial in a modern setting.

Though Orestes is acquitted at the end of the Oresteia, Orestes’s trial on the Areopagus may not always cohere with modern ideas about justice and law. In this activity, imagine that the Furies have decided to appeal the acquittal verdict of the Areopagus in a modern court. Split into two groups: One group will represent the Furies, while the other group will represent Orestes. Each group will then present their case using their own arguments. Each group may want to consider the following points as they prepare their case:

• How have ideas about justice and law changed since Aeschylus’s time?
• When, if ever, is one justified in acting against the law? Is the permission of a god-like Apollo enough to justify criminal behavior or murder?
• Was there any way for Orestes to seek justice for his father without murdering Clytemnestra and Aegisthus?
• What punishment, if any, would be fair in Orestes’s situation?

After each group has presented their case, the instructor can evaluate their arguments and select a “winner.” This activity should prompt class discussion on the differences between ancient and modern ideas about justice.

Teaching Suggestion: Though students should think about applying modern ideas about right and wrong in this mock trial, some suspension of disbelief will still be necessary. The premise that Orestes killed his mother because the god Apollo told him to do so, for instance, will need to be accepted (although such a premise would not be accepted by most modern courts). On the other hand, students should question other arguments put forward in the play, especially Apollo’s argument that a father’s life is more important than a mother’s life.

Differentiated Suggestion: English language learners and students with executive function differences may benefit from a simplified version of this activity in which the instructor leads students in a class discussion exploring how Orestes’s case would have played out in a modern court. For each of the arguments Aeschylus presents for/against Orestes in The Eumenides, students can try to brainstorm an equivalent modern argument, possibly organizing their research using a graphic organizer. Students may benefit from small group collaboration throughout the activity; alternatively, they might complete parts of the task individually before pooling their findings.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Each of the tragedies making up the Oresteia has a different Chorus: the old men of Argos in Agamemnon, the enslaved women in The Libation Bearers, and the Furies in The Eumenides.

• What is the role of the Chorus in the Oresteia? (topic sentence)
• Compare and contrast the Chorus in each of the plays of the Oresteia, noting its importance in the unfolding action of each play.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, reflect on what makes certain Choruses (especially the Furies) more active than others.

2. In The Eumenides, Apollo defends Orestes at his murder trial.

• What arguments does Apollo use to defend Orestes at his murder trial? (topic sentence)
• Analyze Apollo’s defense of Orestes in The Eumenides by identifying and explaining the purpose of the persuasive techniques he uses throughout.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, evaluate Apollo’s methods of persuasion and discuss whether his arguments are valid.

3. Agamemnon and Aegisthus are enemies because of the blood feud between their fathers, Atreus and Thyestes.

• What is the nature and significance of the enmity between Agamemnon and Aegisthus? (topic sentence)
• Compare and contrast the characters of Agamemnon and Aegisthus, and discuss the way their fathers’ blood feud has shaped their lives.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, reflect on the different aspects of family, leadership, and masculinity that Agamemnon and Aegisthus represent.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. When Agamemnon returns to Argos, Clytemnestra convinces him to enter the palace by walking on crimson tapestries. What is the significance of this scene? How do the tapestries represent Agamemnon’s hubris or impiety? Why is Clytemnestra so insistent that Agamemnon step on the tapestries?  

2. Suffering is a key concept throughout the Oresteia, with the Chorus of Agamemnon especially reflecting that learning and justice only come through suffering. How is suffering represented in the Oresteia? Why is the connection between suffering and justice so important? What part do the gods play in producing suffering in the world, and how do the characters of the plays represent the inevitability of suffering?

3. Throughout the trilogy (and especially in Agamemnon), Clytemnestra is often compared to a man or imbued with masculine qualities such as physical strength, boldness, and courage. How does Clytemnestra’s character represent and subvert ancient Greek gender norms in the Oresteia? Is Clytemnestra completely reprehensible, or are some of her characteristics commendable? How does Athena, who appears in The Eumenides, represent the same kind of gender subversion as Clytemnestra, and why is Athena’s representation positive, while Clytemnestra’s is generally negative?

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Why is the fall of Troy just, according to the Chorus?

A) Because Paris of Troy broke the rules of hospitality by running off with Helen

B) Because Priam of Troy blasphemed the gods

C) Because it is Troy’s fate to fall

D) Because Troy was cursed

2. What is Cassandra's curse?

A) To die young

B) To outlive all her loved ones

C) For her prophecies never to be believed

D) For her worst enemy to make her a concubine

3. Why does Clytemnestra say she killed Agamemnon?

A) To avenge Iphigenia

B) So she could be with Aegisthus

C) To avenge Troy

D) Because he was unfaithful to her

4. Why does Aegisthus hate Agamemnon?

A) Because he loves the Trojans

B) Because of the bad blood between their fathers

C) Because he hurt Clytemnestra

D) Both A and B

5. How does the Chorus respond to the murder of Agamemnon?

A) With celebration

B) By swearing allegiance to Clytemnestra and Aegisthus

C) With fear and anger

D) By hiding their true feelings

6. How does Electra realize Orestes has returned to Argos?

A) She sees a lock of his hair and his footprints.

B) She interprets this from Clytemnestra’s dream.

C) She learns this from a prophecy.

D) She is told by Pylades that he has returned.

7. Who sent Orestes to avenge his father?

A) Apollo

B) Athena

C) Agamemnon’s ghost

D) Electra

8. Why does Orestes think it is right to use trickery to kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus?

A) Because that is what Apollo told him to do

B) Because trickery was considered honorable by the Greeks

C) Because trickery is less risky than other methods

D) Because they had used trickery to kill Agamemnon

9. How does Orestes infiltrate the home of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus?

A) He bribes a slave to let him in.

B) He poses as an old man.

C) He poses as a messenger.

D) He sneaks in at night.

10. What does “Eumenides” mean?

A) Fearsome Ones

B) Kindly Ones

C) Angry Goddesses

D) Young Women

11. Where does Apollo tell Orestes to go?

A) Argos

B) Athens

C) Sparta

D) Mycenae

12. What is the Areopagus?

A) A hill in Athens

B) Athens’s homicide court

C) A temple of the Eumenides

D) Both A and B

13. Who defends Orestes at his trial?

A) Pylades

B) Zeus

C) Apollo

D) Artemis

14. Which two characters are most highly influenced by prophecy?

A) Aegisthus and Agamemnon

B) Cassandra and Orestes

C) Clytemnestra and Aegisthus

D) Orestes and Agamemnon

15. How does Athena stop the Furies from destroying Athens?

A) By granting them cult honors in Athens

B) By letting them pursue Orestes

C) By letting them take out their anger on Apollo

D) All of the above

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. Why does Orestes hesitate before killing his mother? What does Pylades say to him?

2. How does Orestes’s trial put an end to the curse of the outhouse ofHouse of Atreus?