Resumo de The Libation-bearers

The Libation Bearers begins some years after the end of the

Agamemnon. The play opens at the tomb of
Agamemnon.

Orestes

enters, having grown up and returned in secret
from

exile.

He cuts off two locks of his hair, the first

dedicated to the local river as a sign that he
has

reached

maturity, the second dedicated in mourning to
his

father

Agamemnon. Orestes and his companion Pylades
hide

themselves

when a chorus of women, the libation bearers of
the

title,

enters along with Orestes' sister Electra. This

chorus

of

slave women brings libations to pour on the
grave of

the

dead Agamemnon, displaying the traditional signs
of

mourning

(Cheeks marked with crimson, gashed, / nails
plough

furrows

fresh and deep) and complaining about
Clytemnestra

(that godless woman) who sent them to appease
the

ghost

of

dead king. Electra asks the chorus how she
should

perform

the rite, since Clytemnestra has sent them to
lessen

the

spirit's wrath against her, and yet both the
chorus

and Electra hate her. The chorus says that
Electra

should

pray

for a man or daimon to come and kill those

and Aegisthus> who killed (line 121). Electra
prays

that

Orestes

will come home, that she be granted "the
discretion

my

mother lacks, that her own hands be kept clean
and

pure,

and

that Justice kill the killers!
(lines

130-151).

Electra

then

notices a lock of hair on the
ground,

and

wonders

whether it

might belong to Orestes.

Orestes steps out of hiding and a

recognition

scene

ensues.

Throughout The Libation Bearers,

Aeschylus

uses

much

of

the

same imagery he employed in the

Agamemnon.

For

example,

Agamemnon is still described as an

eagle,

while

Clytemnestra

is still a viper:

Behold our cause!

Look on the brood bereft of their

eagle-sire,

who died entwined in the coils of a

vicious

viper.

Look on the starving orphans,
ravaged by

hunger,

too young to carry their father's
prey

to

shelter.

(lines

246-250)

Notice also the subtle slanting of

gender

perceptions

here:

the male eagle Agamemnon is depicted
as

providing

"prey"

(spoils of war from Troy?) to
fledgling

chicks,

an

activity

normally associated with females.
After

a

speech

in

which

Orestes reveals that Apollo's oracle
has

sanctioned

his

attempt at revenge, Orestes, Electra
and

the

chorus

sing

a

long kommos <"a striking"> or lyric

dialogue

of

lamentation.

James C. Hogan notes that this
lament is

designed

"to

conjure the aid of the daimonic
powers

for

the

children

as

they try to reclaim the house for

themselves.

Their

supplication subverts Clytemnestra's

attempt

to

appease

the

dead and aims to capture the
attention

and

dynamic

power

of

the underworld for their revenge

(117-118).

The chorus begins the kommos by
claiming

that

Justice

(dike)

screams / and demands her price for

revenge:

Bloody

blow

pays bloody / blow. 'The doer
suffers,'

/

sounds

the

saying,

three times old (lines 309-314). You

probably

will

have

noticed that this language echoes
and

even

repeats

the

revenge-rhetoric of the Agamemnon
(see

lines

250-251,

532-37, 1528-9, and. According
to

Plato's

Laws,

the

ancient priests said that Justice

ordained that the doer of such a
deed

a

family

member> must of necessity suffer the

same as

he

has

done: if

ever a man has slain his father, he
must

endure

to

suffer

the same violent fate at his own

children's

hands .

. .

for

of the pollution of common blood
there

is no

other

purification, nor does the stain of

pollution

admit

of

being

washed off before the soul which

committed

the

act

pays

back

murder for murder, like for like,
and

thus

by

propitiation

lays to rest the wrath of all the

kindred.

(quoted

in

Hogan

118)

In the next play, The Furies
(Eumenides)

, we

will

see

that

the Furies also believe that
Apollo's

purification

of

Orestes is invalid: only Orestes'
blood

will

satisfy

the

debt. Like Telemachus in the Odyssey
(1.

272-80),

Agamemnon's

children wish that he had died more

gloriously

at

Troy.

They

pray to Zeus and the Earth to "force

vengeance /

up

from

below, rain down Ruin" (p. 84, lines

382-83)

on

the

murderers. The Chorus describes how

Agamemnon

was

dishonored

after death: "He was mutilated of

manhood, /

and

she

buried

him like this" (lines 439-440).

Apparently,

Greek

murderers

were in the habit of cutting off the

extremities

of

murdered

people and tying them under the
armpits

so

that

the

ghost of

the murdered person would not pursue
and

haunt

the

murderer.

After the kommos, Orestes asks his
dead

father

for

the

"power over the House" (line 480)

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