Sleep Imagery in The Oresteia
Sleep—it's what divides the day and the night; the conscious and the subconscious; the aware and the unaware. It's image, then, is a powerful tool for polarizing such extremes. In his trilogy, The Oresteia, Aeschylus utilizes sleep imagery to divide between those who are aware and those who aren't. Though sleep's meaning changes throughout the plays, Clytaemestra is always able to use it to her aid. Her story accompanies a shift in a justice system that defines right and wrong. Throughout the trilogy, the meaning of sleep evolves from a clear division into a more indefinite one as the definition of right and wrong becomes increasingly ambiguous.
"…fear in sleep's place stands forever at my head against strong closure of my eyes, or any rest:" (Agamemnon 14) So says the watchman, who begins "Agamemnon", the first play of The Oresteia. As guardian of the house, the watchman is fearful of falling asleep because it leaves him unaware of what is happening. Though he is awake to see the beacon in the distance, he is oblivious to the mutinous plans taking place inside the house. The reference to sleep in his speech emphasizes his lack of awareness for the evil taking place right under his eyes. Clytaemestra, planning to kill her husband upon his return, takes advantage of those who are unaware like the watchman. Because of their sleep, she is able to plot against her husband without their knowing. When Agamemnon returns home, Clytaemestra says to him "…my hearts unsleeping care shall act with the gods' aid to set aright what fate ordained." (Agamemnon 912) Just as "sleeping" represented obliviousness for the watchman, "unsleeping" represents awareness for Clytaemestra. N...
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...inia and Agamemnon, respectively. However, in the third play, the role of sleep becomes more ambiguous—it no longer represents a division, instead it is a struggle. Similarly, the third play calls for a new system of justice, one that weighs the right and wrong of each side to come a fair conclusion, as seen in Orestes' trial. Just as the clear separation of right and wrong is emphasized by a clear meaning of sleep in the first two plays, this more ambiguous definition of justice is complemented by a more ambiguous definition of sleep. Thus, while emphasizing the awareness of different characters, the image of sleep throughout the trilogy also serves to distinguish the old system of justice from the new.
Works Cited
Aeschylus. The Oresteia. Trans. Richmond Lattimore. Ed. David Grene and Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1953.
With this foundation in mind, Aeschylus pens two drastically different libations offered by Clytemnestra and by Elektra and Orestes in his Oresteia. Oedipus offers the traditional outline of the libation of Oedipus at Colonus. He instructs his daughters to take their vessels of fresh water and, turning towards the east.tip the vessels towards the west; the olive branches.now strew on the ground at the place where the earth has drunk in the libation; and with a silent prayer depart, not looking back, (168? ). Aeschylus presents libations drastically different from that prescribed by Oedipus. Through these deviant libations, Aeschylus offers a clandestine exploration of the declining health of the oikos, by first portraying an insincere libation.
11: Virgil, The Aeneid, trans. and ed. David West, Revised Edition; Penguin Books, published by the
* Scully, J & Herington, C.J., Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound (Oxford University Press, New York 1975)
Lattimore, Richmond. “Phaedra and Hippolytus.” Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics 1.3 (Autumn, 1962): 5-18. JSTOR. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
At first glance, the picture of justice found in the Oresteia appears very different from that found in Heraclitus. And indeed, at the surface level there are a number of things which are distinctly un-Heraclitean. However, I believe that a close reading reveals more similarities than differences; and that there is a deep undercurrent of the Heraclitean world view running throughout the trilogy. In order to demonstrate this, I will first describe those ways in which the views of justice in Aeschylus' Oresteia and in Heraclitus appear dissimilar. Then I will examine how these dissimilarities are problematized by other information in the Oresteia; information which expresses views of justice very akin to Heraclitus. Of course, how similar or dissimilar they are will depend not only on one's reading of the Oresteia, but also on how one interprets Heraclitus. Therefore, when I identify a way in which justice in the Oresteia seems different from that in Heraclitus, I will also identify the interpretation of Heraclitus with which I am contrasting it. Defending my interpretation of Heraclitean justice as such is beyond the scope of this essay. However I will always refer to the particular fragments on which I am basing my interpretation, and I think that the views I will attribute to him are fairly non-controversial. It will be my contention that, after a thorough examination of both the apparent discrepancies and the similarities, the nature of justice portrayed in the Oresteia will appear more deeply Heraclitean than otherwise. I will not argue, however, that there are therefore no differences at all between Aeschylus and Heraclitus on the issue of justice. Clearly there are some real ones and I will point out any differences which I feel remain despite the many deep similarities.
What comes to mind when one says the word sleep? Probably peace and recovery. The place you go to be sheltered from life’s battering ram. The thing you do to escape the wearisomeness of this life. Shakespeare turns this idea we have of sleep on its head. He uses lots of sleep imagery throughout Macbeth. Shakespeare uses it with Duncan’s death, he also compares beds to graves and all throughout the play Shakespeare finds and highlights commonalities between sleep and death. By putting all of these thing together and examining Shakespeare’s use of imagery one can determine that Shakespeare associates death with sleep in order to reinforce the not everything is what it seems theme.
Aristrophanes. "Lysistrata." The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Maynard, Mack. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1997. 466-469.
Euripides. Three Plays of Euripides: Alcestic, Medea, The Bacchae. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1974. Print.
The "Oedipus the King." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition, Interactive Edition. 5th ed.
In the Greek tragedy, The Oresteia, justice, revenge, and forgiveness unfold throughout Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, and Eudmenides. The use of justice, revenge, and forgiveness developed throughout the play seems to portray human nature, human endeavor and morality. As well, whether or not the quest for revenge and the concept of justice is disentangled, comes into question for the chorus and the characters. In the first play of the trilogy, Agamemnon, it is aware overall in the literal and figurative themes depicted in the context that the central concept is justice, or other words justice as revenge. For example, we find a clear notion of justice from the murders of Agamemnon and Cassandra, as well as Cassandra’s prophesy believing Clytemnestra
Virgil. “The Aeneid, Book IV”. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 974-95. Print.
Silvestris, Bernardus. Commentary on the First Six Books of Virgil's Aeneid. Translated by Schreiber and Maresca. University of Nebraska Press. London, 1979.
Euripides'version is much more dramatic. The play begins with Electra's marriage to a peasant. Aegisthus had tried to kill Electra. but Clytemnestra convinced him to allow her to live. He decided to marry her to a peasant so her children will be humbly born and pose no threat to his throne. Orestes and Pylades arrive. Orestes says that he has come to Apollo's shrine to pledge himself to avenge his father's. murder. Orestes, concealing his identity, talks with Electra about the recent happenings in Mycenae. She admits that she is sad that her brother had been taken away at such a young age and the only person that would recognize him to be her father's old servant. She also discusses her scorn of Aegisthus desecrating the monument over. Agamemnon's grave and his ridicule of Orestes. When the old servant. arrives, after being summoned by Electra, he recognizes and identifies.
Lawall, Sarah N. “The Aeneid.” The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 612-652. Print.
Oberon states, "Then crush this herb into Lysander 's eye, Whose liquor hath this virtuous property, To take from thence all error with his might, And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight. When they next wake, all this derision Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision. And back to Athens shall the lovers wend, With league whose date till death shall never end."(3.2) This explains how everything that happened in the forest will seem as dreams to the characters to make them think everything was their imagination. In Act 5, Scene 1, Hippolyta states, "But all the story of the night told over, And all their minds transfigured so together, More witnesseth than fancy 's images And grows to something of great constancy, But howsoever strange and admirable," this shows how Hippolyta thinks that because all of them are saying the same "dream" that this really did happen and was a reality. Dreams in the forest is a contrast to to the reality in the city because everything is based on the imagination of the people.