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Odysseus death
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In the Oresteia there seems to be a continuing cycle of revenge. Someone is murdered and then a relative must kill the murderer, therefore becoming a murderer himself. A new chosen one is then selected to take revenge on that person who killed before him and the cycle goes on and on. The furies also play a part in this cycle of revenge. They seek out those who kill their blood relatives and haunt them and torture them for eternity. So basically they also take revenge for the ones that have been murdered. Revenge is a continuing theme throughout the play until Athena has a hand in making it come to an end.
Apollo sends Orestes to visit the goddess Athena for judgment in the case of him murdering his mother because the furies continue to pursue him even though Apollo has washed his hands clean of the murder. He tells Orestes, “we will find the means to free you from this toil you’ve been caught in, once and for all. For I persuaded you to kill your mother” (97-9). Apollo is taking responsibility for this murder that Orestes committed. The furies, however, are not concerned with the fact that Apollo ordered Orestes to take revenge for his father. They only seem to focus in on the fact the he did murder his mother. The furies have no care as to why he did it, so Athena will be the one to listen to their cases and decide who is in the right or wrong.
When finally he reaches Athena’s court, he tells her of the previous events. He says, “So I returned, after my years of exile, an...
She woke up and told her father that she would wash all the clothes, her and her mates when down to the shore and washed all of their clothes they got naked and started playing and running . They woke up Odysseus with all the noise and laughter and she tries to help him. She gives him clothes to put on and she told him to meet her at her family's town so Odysseus goes and he finally gets to town and Athena disguises herself as a little girl and leads him in front of the gates and puts her magic so the king wouldn't see him and Odysseus got inside and ran to the queen and hugged her legs and the queen excepted
Ultimately, Athena has a great effect on all three of the main characters within The Odyssey. She is the one who finally sets in motion the return of the great warrior king Odysseus and helps him attain revenge on the suitors once he arrives in Ithaka. Athena helps to make Telemakhos brave and hopeful for his father to return home, giving him the courage and direction he lacked without his father for the first twenty years of his life. Even Penelope received help from the grey-eyed goddess in finding ways to protect herself from the advances of the suitors. Reading the classic epic poem The Odyssey, one can see how the great goddess Athena's relationship with Odysseus, Telemakhos as well as Penelope exemplifies how she impacted everyone she came across.
The deeds enacted by Agamemnon and Orestes were the same by definition, but different by motive. Agamemnon's motives were impure in his decision between his daughter and his war. He chose to conquer Troy at Iphigenia's expense. For such a ruthless act, consequences are inevitable, and Agamemnon met his punishment at the hands of his vengeful wife, Clytemnestra. Orestes was able to escape such a fate due in part to his faith in the gods, his reluctant desire to kill, and one goddess' (Athena's) mercy. The matricide committed by Orestes was padded by vengeance, and validated by retributive justice. Athena identified with Orestes during his trial on the basis that neither she nor Orestes had a true mother, and thus cast the final stone in favor of Orestes.
Her to beg Zeus for help in getting reprisal on Agamemnon. He pleads with her :
In the last portion of 'The Orestia';, titled 'The Euminides';, Aeschlyus describes the trial of Orestes, who is brought in front of a jury on the charge of matricide. The jury hands in a tied verdict and the goddess Athena casts the deciding vote in favor of Orestes. This of course begs the question: Was Athena's decision fair? I believe that this decision was in the best interest of fairness because Orestes was motivated by Apollo, enraged by the murder of his father, and aggrieved by the vicious cycle of antisocial behavior that was running rampant in his family.
When she approached the my statue she sighed happily and uttered, “My, this is a beautiful temple. It is a shame it is wasted on Athena for I obtain more beauty than her, perhaps one day people will build an even grander temple to my beauty.”
Homer’s poem The Odyssey depicts the tendency of people to ignore the consequences of their actions. Odysseus punished Penelope’s suitors without thinking of consequences that he would have to endure. He did not acknowledge the consequences because that would prevent him from doing what he wants to do. Odysseus wanted to kill the suitors; they ate away at his fortune. Finding consequences for murdering the suitors would force Odysseus to realize what he is about to do is not a good idea. Odysseus chose to ignore the consequences and killed the suitors anyway. Odysseus had absolutely no reason to kill the suitors; they had the right to stay in his home because Penelope made them feel welcome, Penelope and Telemachus both told them that Odysseus was dead, and although Telemachus told them to leave, he did not have the right to do so.
Killing the person responsible for one of your family member's deaths is Athenian justice. This type of lethal justice is executed by Orestes and Electra. Before proceeding to the house of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, they plot the murder of their father's murderers. They decide Orestes will murder his mother, and Electra will dispose of Aegisthus. Orestes is the most focused of the two; but Electra, although timid in the beginning, is the most masculine. Both of these personality traits are key to their plan coming to fruition. Once her brother devises the plan, Electra verbally encourages him to follow through with it. After thrusting his blade into Clytemnestra only once, Electra cries that "[i]f thou beest a man, [s]trike twice!" (Sophocles 5...
The character of Orestes is somewhat down-played in The Eumenides and in fact his role is far less significant than that of Apollo. Our first sight of Orestes sees him in a contradictory stance at Delphi, "Orestes holds a suppliant's branch in one hand, wreathed with a shining, pious tuft of wool, but in the other hand a bloody sword - bloody from his mother's wounds or from Apollo's purges, or both, since purging contaminates the purger and Apollo's shrine is polluted either way." (Fagles, R., The Serpent and the Eagle, p. 73, Penguin Classics, 1977.) Orestes admits his guilt (with no small amount of rationalization) but also attempts to place the bulk of the blame on Apollo, "And Apollo shares the guilt - he spurred me on, he warned of the pains I'd feel unless I acted, brought the guilty down." (Aeschylus, The Eumenides, Robert Fagles Trans., lines 479 - 481, Penguin Classics, 1977.) Apollo is representative of the new gods and, more particularly, of Zeus. "In the rapid succession of scenes at Delphi the representatives of the male and female divine forces appear before our eyes in bitter enmity with each other. And, they are indeed only representatives. Apollo speaks with the voice of Zeus... and hence of the Olympian patriarchy..." (Harington, J.,...
Orestes’ revenge is the first important example of the gods’ revenge in the poem. In Book 1, Hermes told Aegisthus, “’Don’t murder the man,’ he said, ‘don’t court his wife. Beware, revenge will come from Orestes…” (Homer 260). King Nestor delivers the story of Orestes’ revenge to Odysseus’ son Telemachus, while Telemachus is visiting Nestor to discover answers about his fathers’ whereabouts. In Book 3 of The Odyssey, King Nestor tells this of Agamemnon, “…Aegisthus hatched the kings’ horrendous death” (Homer, 285). King Nestor continues on telling of the revenge Agamemnon’s son Orestes has on Aegisthus, “Orestes took revenge, he killed that cunning, murderous Aegisthus…”(Homer, 285). This example of Orestes’ revenge shows that the gods should be listened to or they will give horrific revenges to those who disobey.
He attends Hippodameias marriage where he uses the gorgon head (transmutation of Athena) and changes
Bar-elli, G. and Heyd, D. (1986), Can revenge be just or otherwise justified?. Theoria, 52: 68–86. doi: 10.1111/j.1755-2567.1986.tb00100.x
The Dilemma that Orestes is facing is deciding whether to obey Agamemnon or Clytemnestra. With whatever Orestes decides might or not affect his fate. If he decides to kill Clytemnestra, he will be hunted down by the furies who are out to kill him. Orestes decides to obey the God of Apollo, which he will then sacrifice himself in order to keep the peace.
...o all guests saved Odysseus and helped him return home to his wife, son, and kingdom. Even though people from many different kingdoms and islands took Odysseus in their home and showed him great kindness on his return home, the individual who helped him most was the goddess Athena. In many occasions Athena assisted Odysseus. One such example is when Odysseus was fighting of the suitors and they threw spears at him. "Re-forming, the suitors threw again with all their strength, but Athena turned their shots, or all but two (p 566)." Another instance which Athena aided Odysseus was when she disguised him as a beggar on his arrival to his homeland. "Would even you have guessed that I am Pallas Athena, daughter of Zeus, I that am always with you in times of trial, a shield to you in battle (p 444)." "Your goddess-guardian to the end in all your trials (p 539)."
In Herodotus’ story, the bones of tragic hero Orestes served as protection for the Tegeans. Fagle’s allusion is crucial to Sophocles’ depiction of redemption as a result tragedy, in Oedipus at Colonus. In Oedipus at Colonus, we finally witness the triumph of free will over fate. Due to free will, Oedipus is doomed to suffer, and because of his damnation, he learns to accept they ways of the gods and is thus blessed in death (Lines 424-433). We can therefore conclude that Oedipus’ desired free will to escape his fate, led him to redemption. Despite his redemption, fate continues to influence the lives of his children: Antigone and Ismene doomed to carry their father’s shame, and Polynices and Etiocles, doomed to kill each other. Overall, we notice that in Greek Culture, fate holds more power over free will, but it is only through free will that the Greeks through learning by suffering, and are thus blessed by their gods. In conclusion it is safe to say that though fate holds more influence over free will, both fate and free will are of equal value to the Ancient