Christopher S. Morrissey

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Christopher S. Morrissey

• Passions in Economy, Politics, and the Media
• http//theol.uibk.ac.at/cover/events/innsbruck2003
  _program.html
• http//www.moreC.com

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The Best Tragedies

• The change of fortune should be not from bad to
  good, but, reversely, from good to bad. It should
  come about as the result not of vice, but of some
  great error or frailty, in a character either
  such as we have described, or better rather than
  worse. The practice of the stage bears out our
  view. At first the poets recounted any legend
  that came in their way. Now, the best tragedies
  are founded on the story of a few houses- on the
  fortunes of Alcmaeon, Oedipus, Orestes, Meleager,
  Thyestes, Telephus, and those others who have
  done or suffered something terrible.
• -- Aristotle, Poetics 13

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The House of Atreuscannibalism, incest,
treachery, adultery, rape, murder

• Tantalus - dined with gods (theft test)
• Pelops (ivory shoulder) Oenomaus daughter
  Hippodamia curse from bribed Myrtilus (chariot
  race)
• Atreus Aerope fleece, sun, banquet of
  Thyestes 3 sons (raped daughter Pelopia)
• Agamemnon Meneleus (The Atreidae)
• Orestes, Iphigenia, Elektra, Chrysothemis

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Aristotle in Hollywood
The reasons why people watch movies, television
drama and the theatre, and why they read, are not
a mystery. We are seeking more from life, we
want to understand lifes meaning - and that of
death. -- Julian Friedmann
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Oresteia

• Agamemnon
• The Libation Bearers(Choephoroi)
• The Eumenides

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Agamemnon Iphigenia
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Orestes Aegisthus
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Furies Apollo Orestes
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Agamemnon the Set-Up

• Premise end of Trojan war
• Situation anger of Clytaemestra Argos
• Character dutiful warrior-hero (the king)
• Problem politics over family (kingship)

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Agamemnon the Action

• Watchman
• Clytaemestra
• Herald
• Agamemnon
• Cassandra
• Aegisthus

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The Libation Bearers the Action

• The Libation Bearers
• Elektra
• Orestes
• Clytemestra
• Nurse (Cilissa)
• Aegisthus
• Clytemestra Orestes

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The Eumenides the Action

• Clytemestra 94
• Orestes 235
• Athena 434
• Furies (Erinyes) 490
• Apollo 576
• Judges (483) 753
• Eumenides 885

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Structure Outline Oresteia
Agamemnon The Libation Bearers The
EumenidesDr. Robin Mitchell-Boyask, Associate
Professor of ClassicsTemple University
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Politics Religion
The contest between religion and politics is not
in itself a modern one. This we know not only
from the Bible, but also from Greek tragedy. The
action of Sophocles' Antigone hinges on the
conflict between political order, represented and
upheld by Creon, and religious duty, represented
in the person of Antigone. The first is public,
involving the whole community the second is
private, involving Antigone alone. Hence the
conflict cannot be resolved. Public interest has
no bearing on Antigone's decision to bury her
dead brother, while the duty laid by divine
command on Antigone cannot possibly be a reason
for Creon to jeopardize the state.
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Justice Vengeance
A similar conflict informs the Oresteia of
Aeschylus, in which a succession of religious
murders, beginning with Agamemnon's ritual
sacrifice of his daughter, lead at last to the
terrifying persecution of Orestes by the furies.
The gods demand the murders the gods also punish
them. Religion binds the house of Atreus, but in
dilemmas that it does not resolve. Resolution
comes at last only when judgment is handed over
to the city, personified in Athena. In the
political order, we are led to understand,
justice replaces vengeance, and negotiated
solutions abolish absolute commands. The message
of the Oresteia resounds down the centuries of
Western civilization it is through politics, not
religion, that peace is secured. Vengeance is
mine, saith the Lord but justice, says the city,
is mine.
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The Greek World
The Greek tragedians wrote at the beginning of
Western civilization. But their world is
continuous with our world. Their law is the law
of the city, in which political decisions are
arrived at by discussion, participation, and
dissent. It was in the context of the Greek
city-state that political philosophy began, and
the great questions of justice, authority, and
the constitution are discussed by Plato and
Aristotle in terms that are current today. --
Roger Scruton
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Justice Aegisthus vs. OdysseusOdyssey I.
31-60
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The Justice of Zeus
Drop, drop in our sleep, upon the heart sorrow
falls, memorys pain,                   and to
us, though against our very will, even in our own
despite,                       comes
wisdom,                                     by
the awful grace of God. -- Edith Hamilton (1937
translation of Agamemnon 179-183)