Peaceful Conflict Resolution and Its Discontents in Aeschylus's Eumenides (original) (raw)

The Transformation of Erinyes into Eumenides: Justice as Generosity

Forum Prawnicze 6 (68) 2021: 3-19, 2021

The problem addressed in this paper is of the crucial difference between justice and revenge. Following the vivid images of revenge and justice present in literature, I argue that revenge is rooted in a reactive, backward-looking spirit which is destructive for both individuals and the community. Justice, on the other hand, is rooted in an active, forward-looking spirit which is constructive and aimed at restoring order. I analyze the different functions of punishment which are based on payback and are thus focused on the balance of power and status which is more typical for revenge than justice. Punishment should be based on a normative balance rooted in norms and values, and which is aimed at promoting accountability. Anger transformed by justice should be focused on wrongdoing (the act), rather than the wrongdoer (person). Justice in its highest degree, when complemented by mercy, becomes ' justice as generosity' which is able to restore trust in social relations, fostering solidarity and reconciliation in society.

Forms of Justice in Aeschylus' Eumenides

Polis, 2017

In this article, we explore the forms of justice presented in Aeschylus’ Eumenides. Most scholarship hitherto has focused on the shift from retaliatory justice to trial by court of law enacted in the play. However, the verdict pronounced in Orestes’ favor does not bring about resolution, but rather threatens to destabilize the polis, as the Furies redirect their anger against Athens. Indeed, the play can be seen as a study in the limitations of criminal justice. Our article examines the resolution of the conflict in the post-trial phase of the play in the light of principles and practices of modern restorative justice. Such comparison is not intended as arguing for correspondence. Rather, the aim is to understand more fully the dynamics of Athena’s intervention by analyzing it against key elements of restorative justice.

Body, cognition, and anger in Aeschylus

2017

This paper explores how the body, considered both as a lived, experiential structure and as the context for cognitive mechanisms is present in the literary representation of ancient anger. Departing from embodied cognitive theories, the main argument that I pursue is that bodily experience underlies the representation of anger in the Agamemnon of Aeschylus. I will be paying special attention to the kommos and the interaction between Clytemnestra and the chorus following Agamemnon’s murder (Ag 1372-1576), where the lexicon of anger and explicit desire for punishment provide certain criteria to discern that the emotion is at stake. In addition to these criteria, through metaphors and symbolic representations of anger present in these passages, we can identify models that point to the idea that anger is capable of multiple conceptualizations simultaneously – such as ‘inner’, ‘involuntary’ or ´environmental´. This idea enriches our understanding of how anger might have been lived and experienced in Greece. In this sense, this paper brings together some of the premises of cognitive theories and phenomenology to show that Aeschylean anger is related to a certain experience of the body in its environment.

ACROSTIC REFLECTIONS ON DIVINE VIOLENCE IN THE AENEID

From killings at an altar to episodes where one is given for many, the Aeneid is replete with sacrificial deaths. This article focuses on the interpretive rewards of discerning a series of acrostics linked by the theme of divine violence. Its itinerary includes multiple authors and some surprising stops: it begins by connecting Horace's reflections on wine with sacrifice in the Aeneid, passes through erotic violence done to Vergil's Sibyl figures, turns to Ovid's association of his Myrrha with Vergil's Amata, and ends with Vergil's sacrifice of Turnus. It shows that far from being mere jeux d'esprit irrelevant to the poets' larger aims, acrostics were a form of serious play that could be a significant source of meaning. Becoming aware of the vertical "conversations" within and between poems brings the excitement of discovery to texts that have been pored over for thousands of years, and with it an even deeper appreciation of the ancient poets' complex reflections on such universal topics as art and wine, sex and sacrifice.

Murder in the family: gender and ethnic criteria in the construction of violence in Euripides' plays

In Greek tragedy, murder is one of the most common forms of transgression. Parents and their offspring kill each other, as violence is turned towards indiscriminate victims. Yet, crimes committed by men and those committed by women appear to have different origins. Analysing a series of Euripidian tragedies that display murder among members of the same family, one remarks that men seem to act primarily upon a divine command/demand, while women act without any human or divine assistance. Indeed, Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter at Artemis’ demand; Heracles kills his entire family under the influence of Lysa, send by Hera; Orestes kills his mother, following Apollo’s oracle and his sister’s Electra encouragements. On the contrary, Medea slaughters her own children in order to take revenge of her husband Jason, and Clytemnestra kills Agamemnon to avenge the death of Iphigenia and the arrival of Cassandra. Both wives appeal to their victims through a seductive speech and behaviour. Such a polarisation seems to indicate that, in tragedy, violence is shaped on the basis of the antagonist construction of the masculine and feminine genders: while men appear to be more receptive to the gods’ demands and to act violently only under their agency, women’s violence seems to have internal and independent origins. Yet Agave’s example, who kills her son while in a delirious state induced by Dionysos, combines the two aforementioned patterns. Although “The Bacchae” can be considered a tragedy of disorder and inversion, it also gives us a clue of the importance of criteria such as at ethnic identity in the expression of violence. By cross-examining these examples with the historical context of the Peloponnesian war, this paper will try to re-evaluate the discursive construction of violence in the light of the intersection of gender and ethnic discriminations. Keywords: divine agency, Greek tragedy, ethnicity, gender.

ERINYS' MORTAL VENOM. THE POETIC EXPRESSION OF EMOTIONS IN SILIUS ITALICUS' PUNICA (BOOKS I-V)

Classica Cracoviensia, vol. XXI/2018, pp. 169-194, 2018

Negative emotions are used to construct and develop the plot in the first five books of Silius Italicus' Punica. Dark, irrational forces, i.e. madness, cruelty and suffering, are hostile to the cosmic order and bring chaos to the epic world. The narrator employs pathos, hyperbole, irony, sarcasm and paradox. The scenes of bad emotions penetrate the longer ekphrases and the descriptions of the fall of Saguntum. The epic language abounds in passionate emotions and gives a foretaste of the later uncommonly atrocious events. Famous imperatores, such as Paulus, Fabius and Maximus suffer, but they will renew Rome and ensure its eventual victory.