Betrayal And Revenge In The Plays Medea And The Libation Bearers

In 458 B.C. Aeschylus produced his great trilogy, “The Oresteia”. The Oresteia was said to perfect the vision of warning and reward, which in other words also can be thought of as betrayal and revenge. The Oresteia originally consisted of four plays-Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Euminides and Proteus. Proteus did not survive, though the three tragedies form a unity in themselves as the only Greek trilogy we have. In this essay I will only focus on one of the three plays, called “The Libation Bearers”. The other play I will be looking at is “Medea”. Medea is the earliest tragedy of Euripides and in it we see a classic moral pattern. Aspects such as betrayal and revenge are explored in this play, such as also in The Libation Bearers, which can also be recognized in many modern plays today. It shows how strong feeling from one person to another can make you do things that are reactions of love and hate.

The first play I will look at is The Libation Bearers, and how already from the start Tantalus of Lydia betrays himself by killing his own flesh and blood. Although the actual “blood curse” first starts later (between two brothers n

I think that the murderers of Thyestes’ children continue to plague the house of Atreus even two generations later, and although every killing has its own justifications it only leads to more new killings with other new reasons for taking revenge. As it also explains in “The Oresteia”; “He (Orestes) must recognize, in fact, that his revenge is just, but that justice takes the form of matricide, the greatest form of guilt.” As read in the Oresteia it seems as though the crimes committed, only seen between family members, could be contagious, that the dead pursued the living for revenge and the revenge taken lead to more guilt and betrayal. Orestes must choose what justice he desires, but either way he will incite the furies.

“One day, just today, allow me here.

To Jason now, their portion nothing.

amed Atreus and Thyestes) with betrayal and revenge all amongst family members, I believe that it all started with Tantalus, a barbarian whose spirits haunt the Oresteia. Tantalus is the starter of it all; he feeds his son Pelops to the gods for no apparent reason that then gets condemned to starve in Hades. Already here we see how Tantalus is betraying himself by killing his own son and gets his justice from the gods who let him starve. This play runs on an act of recognition, were betrayal and revenge is taken from one generation to the next. The actual blood curse in the house of Atreus, which I mentioned earlier, was started by the a feud between two brothers, Atreus and Thyestes.Thyestes betrays his brother by seducing his wife, whereas Atreus takes revenge on Thyestes and feeds his sons to him. Thyestes takes revenge by cursing Atreus, and then flees with his one remaining son Aegisthus. Atreus had two sons called Agamemnon and Menelaus. Agamemnon marries Clytaemnestra, and Menelaus marries Helen. Helen somewhat betrays Menelaus by being seduced by Paris of Troy, and as a result of this Menelaus takes revenge, by him and Agamemnon organizing a massive force to win her back, but as they were just about to set sail the goddess Artemis held the weather against them and Agamemnon was therefore sat a choice that if he wanted to appease the goddess he had to sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigeneia. Agamemnon does so and his troops set sail. Agamemnon waged war on Troy for ten long years and on his return betrays his wife Clytaemnestra with his new mistress Cassand

Some topics in this essay:
Athens Aigeus, Clytaemnestra Aegisthus, Libation Bearers, King Kreon, Glauke Medea, Hades Tantalus, Paris Troy, Libation Bearers”, Orestes Electra, King Aigeus, betrayal revenge, takes revenge, king kreon, libation bearers, “the libation bearers”, medea killing, killing own, killing children, feels betrayed, libation bearers”, “the libation, medea killing children, play libation bearers, feels betrayed jason,