The Oresteia

by Aeschylus

lords of sceptred sway, By Zeus endowed with pride of place,

the wrath divine

Maybe this refers to the cycle's accout of the earth bidding zeus to lessen the burden of mankind on her face whuch was indeed eliceted through the matter of helen and the trojan war

Lost in the garish day!

This elaboration of the sad state of sinility i wonder what it has to do with the whole story. Mayne it merely is a use of an arbitrary image of sadness to make the audience feel badly to lend further sadness to the ensuing tale through an otherwise unrelated device

Zeus—if to The Unknown That name of many names

?

The virgin’s blood,

I wonder why someone would think it pleasing to god to kill a daughter whos a virgin. maybe they inferred some mystical inference to the factbthat women bleed periodically which makes them dirty and unfit for god as the bible elaborates and youg girls still dont so theyre untouched by whatever that is which makes them more fit for god and mayne they like killing people so they can be close to god, to join god in his palace in the sky and attend to him which would be pleasing. and all this coukd be an extrapolation from the very existence of god and a ned to interact with him

false

Disloyal

youthful priestly

Were the priests youthful? maybe so. Or Maybe as priests thry were exempt from hardening labor which trains manly muscles or like working in the sun which makes one look old. or youthful might not be by dint ofbthe priests at all but rather by dint of the young girl they were kiling and in dictioning youthful aeschylus continues to underscore her description

seed,

Ironjic bec tgats her. Or this might betray the fact that only sons were valued as seed which is why shes dispensibke for sacrifice. Cf biblical presc riptiin for levarite marrige and talmudic explanation of she has no seed. I think it may interpret as no sons

like a long beard streaming in the wind,

Lol

Within one cup pour vinegar and oil, And look! unblent, unreconciled, they war.

nursing father’s

Yet let them reverence well the city’s gods, The lords of Troy, tho’ fallen, and her shrines; So shall the spoilers not in turn be spoiled.

Bewre of hubris cf. Lattimkores intro to the iliad

Zeus, Lord of hospitality,

Zenia

Alexander,

?

ill coin

Ill gotten or else a light coin bearing less weight than its suposed to

ashes in an urn!

Insight into athenian tradition. Cremation and urn rather than burial. Cf. Bible Book of kings משרפה

War’s money-changer, giving dust for gold,

Great metaphor for the uselessness of war

Slain for a woman’s sin, a false wife’s shame!

If she’s saying it about herself, it might be an acute grief driving her to extreme self judgement for not an act of adultery but even a casual and unrealized thought about another man. Cf. Bible ‏לא תתורו

smote down to nothingness Each altar, every shrine; and far and wide

Earlier someone was afraid of offending gods for fear of triubke on the return trip home

And when at length the sun rose bright, we saw Th’ Aegaean sea-field flecked with flowers of death,

mistrustful all Of fortune’s smile,

Helen, the bride with war for dower?

Well named, at once, the Bride and Bane;

?

pest

i wonder if this is a good translation of satan in 1 kings

Some past impiety, some gray old crime, Breeds the young curse,

Religious justification Made in hindsight by the victors of war

Oft for self-slaughter had I slung the noose, But others wrenched it from my neck away.

Eastern lord,

Who are tge soft eastern lords? Troy? persia? Phonecians?

such pomp beseems the gods, Not me. A mortal man to set his foot On these rich dyes? I hold such pride in fear, And bid thee honour me as man, not god.

Avoids hubris

If cause be cause, ‘tis mine for this resolve.

Does he mean I have my reasons? The words sound pretty but senseless soooooo uggg

To unfulfilment’s hidden realm might fall.

Else had he spared the leech Asclepius, skilled

I will not stay: beside the central shrine The victims stand, prepared for knife and fire—

Human sacrifice?

Mother Earth!

God doesnt want to hear her. We know this bec he didnt listen when her city fell and she was taken captive

a sleuth-hound questing on the track,

Cool that this tradition is as old as classic athens

Low lie the shattered towers whereas they fell, And I—ah burning heart!—shall soon lie low as well.

ruth,

dark

Hidden

Brave to the last! I mourn thy doom foreseen.

Does this mean they believe her. I thought she was cursed to not have her prophrsies believed. Maybe belief fro bthe chorus isnt important bec tbeyre not imporramt actors vis a vis agam. Or clytymnestra etc

in a long robe, within a silver-sided

Silver is a luxjury that agamemn jjust before was afraid of for angering Tge

Flung from his breast swift bubbling jets of gore,

filled his home with curses as with wine, And thus returned to drain the cup he filled.

Cf jeremiah the cup of evil and doom

held as light My daughter’s life as that of sheep or goat,

Crimson upon thy brow.

Cf tyhe sign god made for cain in genesis

So I can say, ‘Tis past and done. The bloody lust and murderous, The inborn frenzy of our house, Is ended, by my deed!

Nope!

This man lie wound in robes the Furies wove,

:) nice metaphor based on a featured aspect of the play

by thine own unaided plot

Not clytemnestras? Were women considered incapable?

reckless blossoms of the tongue,

Be art and part,

sign—these footsteps, look,— Like to my own, a corresponsive print; And look, another footmark,—this his own, And that the foot of one who walked with him. Mark, how the heel and tendons’ print combine, Measured exact, with mine coincident!