The Eumenides
E.D.A. Morshead (1881)
The third and final play of Aeschylus's Oresteia trilogy (458 BCE). It depicts Orestes, hounded by the Furies for killing his mother, brought to Athens for trial before a court established by the goddess Athena — the mythic founding of the rule of law replacing the rule of vengeance. The play is the trilogy's philosophical climax, dramatizing the transition from archaic blood-feud justice to civic courts.
Start readingYour notebookShow in graph