Eumenides Summary
Character list (in order):
Priestess of Apollo
Apollo: god of music, poetry and archery
Hermes: god of trickery and travel, messenger of the gods
Orestes: Son of Agamemnon & Clytemnestra, brother to Elektra
The Chorus: Made up of the Furies
Ghost of Clytemnestra
Athena: Goddess of wisdom
Judges
At The Temple of Apollo …
Prior to the play beginning, the Furies have pursued Orestes to the temple of Apollo at Delphi.
The scene opens in morning light, illuminating a priestess at the great doors to offer up prayers. The pythia lifts up prayers to (what feels like a million) the gods and then turns to the audience to ask who among them are greek. She demands that those members of the audience draw their lots and enter the temple for her to tell the future with the god leading her way. She then turns to go back into the temple.
However, the pythia quickly reemerges on stage, shaking with fear. She is thrown to her knees by some great force and begins to mumble. The priestess struggles to her feet and starts talking through the horror she has just witnessed from within the temple: as she was on her way to the vault she saw a seated man whose hands were covered with blood, a sword in one and a branch in the other. A sword was close to him — freshly drawn. She says that there is a ring of people around this man, which she then identifies as … maybe gorgons? But no, they can’t be gorgons as these have no wings. She says that whatever they are, they’re repulsive and their eyes ooze with discharge.
The priestess announces that this craziness is now Apollo’s concern and leaves the stage.
The god himself now appears and rises over Orestes. The son of Agamemnon is kneeled in prayer and surrounded by the sleeping Furies (the chorus in this play).
Side note: Hermes — god of trickery, travel and messenger of the gods — can be seen waiting in the background.
Apollo speaks to Orestes, telling him that he will never fail the son of Agamemnon because the god stands by his side. He stresses that Orestes should show absolutely no mercy to his enemy as he has the protection of Apollo.
The god then turns to the audience and encourages them to look at the Furies. He explains that he has beaten these Furies down in sleep to silence their tormenting voices.
Turning back to Orestes, Apollo tells him to go and find the citadel of Athena. Once he’s there, he should kneel and embrace her ancient idol and devise a plan to set Orestes free from his torment. At the end of his speech, Apollo acknowledges that it was he who convinced Orestes to take his mother’s life (THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO REMEMBER FOR LATER!).
Orestes then speaks, calling up to Apollo and asking the god to help him. Apollo replies and tells Orestes not to fear what awaits him.
The god then summons Hermes from out of the shadows. Hermes is instructed to guard Orestes on his journey and make sure that he remains unharmed.
Apollo then withdraws into the inner sanctuary of the palace and Orestes leaves with Hermes in the lead.
The Ghost of clytemnestra appears
Now that the sleeping Furies are left on stage alone, the ghost of Clytemnestra appears.
Clytemnestra comes on RAGING. She yells at the Furies (something line) “HOW CAN YOU SLEEP AT A TIME LIKE THIS! WAKE UP!! WHAT USE ARE YOU ASLEEP!!! I’M DEAD AND NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE THAT MY SON KILLED ME!?”
She then shows off her wounds to the audience to accentuate the horrible reality of what has happened.
Unsatisfied that her wounds nor her yelling has roused the Furies, Clytemnestra goes to grab one of the goddesses. It’s then that she realises just how dead to the world all of them are.
Clytemnestra then attempts to wake them up by stating that the goddesses aren’t doing their jobs. She stresses that because of their laziness, Orestes is literally getting away with murder. The ghost continues to try multiple ways of waking up the Furies, but nothing seems to work. The Furies only mumble and roll over in their sleep.
Finally, Clytemnestra snaps. She says (something along the lines of) “Oh isn’t it lovely that my son has so many friends to support him and allow him to live such a lovely life — NOT LIKE MY FRIENDS SINCE ALL OF YOU ARE ASLEEP!” (This is MAD Agamemnon energy circa The Odyssey underworld episode, btw). She yells some more at the Furies since all they do is mumble and roll around in their deep slumber, but eventually Clytemnestra just leaves.
Yes, this episode is just Clytemnestra showing up, yelling, being unsuccessful and then leaving.
The Furies are pissed
The Leader of the Furies wakes up once Clytemnestra has stormed off stage.
Realising the situation, the Leader yells rather aggressively at the other Furies to wake up. Once all of them have risen, they are PISSED that they’ve been sleeping on the job.
The chorus begin to sniff their air to try and find Orestes’ scent, crying out when they understand he is too far away for them to follow a trail. As a number of the Furies express their outrage, Apollo strides in from his sanctuary.
The god is dressed in full armour, picks up his bow and basically tells the Furies to leave. When the Furies don’t move, Apollo threatens to shoot them all with his arrows if they don’t go willingly.
In response, the Leader announces that now is Apollo’s time to listen. The Fury tells him that he is the one who did this horrible crime (the killing of Clytemnestra*) and therefore the guilt is also his. Apollo asks the Fury to elaborate, and the Leader reminds him that he was the one who commanded Orestes to kill his mother in the first place.
Apollo immediately corrects the Fury, saying that he encouraged Orestes to avenge his father, not kill his mother. Obviously, the Leader then highlights that even though that is true, Apollo refused to punish Orestes for the killing of Clytemnestra. In fact, he did the opposite and invited the son of Agamemnon into his temple to be purified. When Apollo agrees, the Furies see this as their chance to pounce. They tell Apollo how unfair it is for him to not only let Orestes off, but then to punish THEM for doing their job in ensuring Orestes is punished.
However, Apollo stands his ground. He reminds the Chorus that one of the reasons he put them to sleep is because they are not fit to enter his temple. Orestes thing aside, the goddesses aren’t permitted onto his premises anyways. He also questions why the Furies have chosen to torment Orestes after killing his mother, but failed to show up when Clytemnestra murdered her husband.
The Furies have probably one of the most blunt and hilariously honest responses in all of tragic theatre. They tell Apollo that the reason why they weren’t concerned with Clytemnestra murdered Agamemnon is because that was not matricide. That case was just murder … and regular murder isn’t in their job description.
Apollo gets pretty riled up by this and reminds them that marriage — given it is governed by the gods — is much stronger than any bond. Therefore, the idea that they’re going after Orestes and didn’t care for the marriage destruction is absurd on a logic AND divine level. But regardless, Apollo wants this argument over as much as we do. He closes his speech by announcing that Athena should settle this dispute once and for all.
Happy with this, the Furies leave the stage saying they will never leave Orestes alone until justice is served.
Before Apollo leaves, he makes it clear that he will continue to defend Orestes. Then he exits.
Scene change: Acropolis of Athens
The staging now changes to show the Acropolis of Athens. Escorted by Hermes, Orestes enters the stage and kneels before the shrine idol of Athena. He announces that he has come to her by the orders of Apollo and asks her to receive him kindly. Orestes hugs the knees of the idol and says that he now awaits his trial.
Obviously, the Chorus are not far behind. The Furies come bounding onto stage but cannot seem to find their target. This is because when Orestes hears the Furies approaching, he moves to entwine himself around Athena’s idol.
Unfortunately for Orestes, the Leader spots his footprints. One by one they press around him and Athena’s idol, eyes locked on their prey. Orestes remains impassive as the Furies squeal with excitement.
Orestes gathers their attention, demands silence and then speaks. He looks down at his hands and says they are still stained with his mother’s blood. The torment he has received for performing such actions is driving him crazy and so he begs for Athena to help him.
The Leader tells Orestes that no one will help him. As the Chorus wait for his reply, Orestes prays to the gods in silence.
This irritates the entire Chorus an absurd amount. If you think about it, they’re really upset because Orestes WON’T argue with them! In their anger, the Leader steps forward to say that Orestes will be forced to hear their spell.
Together, the Furies claim that they are the just creatures. They call up to “mother Night” and say that their spell will strike a frenzy in Orestes’ mind and claim that no god can be their judge. They reach out for Orestes, trying to pull him away from the idol with their claws and song — but Athena walks on and interrupts them. then continue to basically say that this is their duty so this is what they will do, but the speech is far far too long for me to get into and there are loads of images spoken of within it – so go look at that if you have to.
Athena shows up
Athena enters the stage armed for combat with her aegis and her spear and announces that she’s just returned from Troy.
She then turns her heard to see Orestes and the Furies at her shrine and she says (something line) “Who the hell are all of you people and what are you doing at my shrine?”
The Leader of the Chorus answers her and introduces the Furies as everlasting children of the Night. Athena briefly interrupts like “Right, thank you and –” as if she’s going to ask Orestes who he is, but then the Leader is like “But you don’t know our powers!” (I obviously paraphrase*).
To our surprise, Athena bites. She says (something like) “... Okay then tell me what your powers are”, and the Leader is all “DESTROYERS OF LIFE!” Athena questions the goddess what their business is with Orestes, to which they tell her that it’s because Orestes murdered his mother. Athena replies (with something along the lines of) “Are you sure he did this of his own volition and no one made him do it or …?” and — as you can probably guess — the Leader retorts “He killed his mother??? What force could make a man do this??” Frustrated, Athena says (something sort of like) “Look, I don’t know but there are two sides to every story and I’m just here listening to yours so I have to ask.” This continues for a bit until the Furies and Athena realise that the goddess has to talk to Orestes herself, so she finally turns to him.
Athena asks Orestes to defend himself against what the Chorus Leader just said against him. Orestes tells her that he’s from Argos and the son of Agamemnon. He goes on to say that his father died an ignoble death as his mother killed him in the bathtub, and so Orestes killed his mother out of revenge. However, he does stress that Apollo spurred him on to commit this crime and therefore shares some of the guilt. To round off his speech, Orestes says that only Athena can decide if he is just or not and states that he will accept her judgement.
Listening to this, Athena says (something like) “Honestly, murder is a big topic and this is really tricky to just judge off the bat. Therefore, I suggest we bring this to trial. Unfortunately, these Furies will also be in court and I know exactly how they’ll react if they lose: they’ll absolutely torture us all to make up for us wounding their pride. So, Orestes, it’s really a lose-lose. Either you lose and that’ll suck for obvious reasons, or you win and the Furies make all of our lives suck.” Athena has this moment of looking back and forth between the Furies and Orestes before finally saying (something similar to) “Expel one of you, embrace the other … it beats me, to be honest. But since it must be settled, I’ll appoint a fair judging. Make sure both of you get ready with your witnesses because I’m about to pick the finest men in all of Athens to get involved.” And with that she leaves.
Scene change: Areopagus
As the scene changes, the Chorus sing a long song of their intentions in the trial and their roles within the divine justice system. Once the finish up and take their places on stage, we see the scene has shifted the Areopagus.
Athena enters the stage in a procession with a herald and the ten citizens she has chosen to be judges. The judges go to sit in front of the audience and the heralds move to their place among the court. Athena stands in the middle and calls for order, demanding that someone blows the trumpet to signify that court is in session. The trumpet is blown and Athena separates the Furies and Orestes, ordering them to sit on opposite sides of the stage: Orestes sits on the “stone of outrage” and the Chorus on the stone of “unmercifulness”. The goddess of wisdom stands between two urns that will receive the ballots when the judges are asked to cast them.
Apollo then enters the scene and looms behind Orestes. Athena sees him and says (something like) “Apollo! So nice of you to join us. Do tell us of how exactly you are involved in this case.” To which Apollo replies “Well, I come as a witness. Orestes came to my temple as a suppliant and I purged his bloody hands. I also share responsibility for his mother’s execution as I encouraged him to avenge his father.”
With that, Athena turns to the Furies and announcing that the trial will begin. She tells the Chorus that they can start, stressing that they need to use this time to give everyone all the details they have available to them.
The Leader turns to Orestes and asks if he killed his mother. Orestes confirms this, causing the Leader to follow up by asking how he committed the crime. The son of Agamemnon explains to the court how he cut his mother’s throat with a sword. When the Leader asked if there was a force that compelled him to do such a thing, Orestes turns to point at Apollo.
However, the Furies aren’t happy about this. The Leader asks if it was Apollo who spurred Orestes to commit matricide, clearly trying to trap Orestes in their argument. Orestes confirms this and basically tells the court that he has no regrets.
It’s this addition to his confession that angers the Furies. The Leader tells Orestes that after he is pronounced guilty by the court and has to bear his punishment, surely his lack of regret will change. In response, Orestes kind of shrugs and says that he trusts that his father will help him cope from his grave.
If the Leader was mad before — now they’re ENRAGED. The Leader says (something like) “Oh, trusting corpses now?? You made you mother one so you might want to watch out!” To which Orestes replies (something similar to) “The lady had it coming – she had not one, but TWO deadly crimes against her.” This causes the Furies to pause. The Leader asks Orestes what these crimes were and Orestes replies “My mother killed her husband AND my father.”
This starts Orestes down his own questioning path, where he asks the Chorus why they never punished his mother for her horrific actions. As we have heard before, the Leader — again — clarifies that their job is NOT regular murder. The Leader explains that Clytemnestra did not spill her own blood in her killing (aka, they’re not actually, technically related). Orestes uses this to ask the Chorus if they believe that Clytemnestra’s blood runs in his veins. Naturally they say yes (as they should) because Clytemnestra birthed him.
Orestes turns to Apollo and asks the god if he stuck his mother down with justice. Apollo states that Orestes was just in his actions and no one should doubt his word as he (Apollo) never lies. Not only does he not lie, but he also has Zeus’ judgement on his side and therefore no one can say A THING.
The Leader jumps up at this, saying “Oh Zeus you say? Zeus was okay with Orestes avenging his father?” (obviously not an exact quote*). Apollo responds by emotionally explaining how Clytemnestra caught Agamemnon in her evil web and murdered him in cold blood. Because of that, Orestes had no choice but to avenge his dear father (Agamemnon is described as as being this hero who came home to his loyal wife and just went into the bath assuming a happy home coming blah blah blah – you get it).
Unfortunately for Apollo, he fell right into the Chorus’ trap. The Leader interjects by saying that of course Zeus backed this avenging because he too killed his own father.
As expected, Apollo gets incredibly angry and calls the Furies grotesque for such a suggestion. He reminds them that Zeus did NOT kill his father but merely put him in chains. Apollo makes it incredibly clear that you can take somebody out of chains but you can’t bring someone back from the dead.
The Leader is THRILLED by this and is says (something like) “Right, so we agree then? Killing one’s parent IS shameful and should be taken seriously??” They continue to ask if it is right that Orestes could kill his mother and then settle in on the throne of Argos? Since Apollo is suggesting that this is right, then what altars could Orestes use to signify his rise to power? Since he spilt his own blood, many altars are now off limits for his use.
Apollo’s famous speech is delivered
It’s now that Apollo delivers his … questionable speech, shall we say. So questionable that I had to give it its own mini section! Please remember as you read this that this speech is really interesting in understanding the structure of the ancient world and views of some (it’s impossible to generalise when we only have work surviving from a very specific demographic). But, alas:
Apollo says that Clytemnestra is not really Orestes’ mother. This is because she can only be seen as a “nurse to the seed” which ultimately became the baby Orestes. Apollo explains that it is man who is the source of life and women merely keep the seed alive. Therefore, a woman offers nothing to a child aside from … well, basically being an incubator. Apollo is so confident in his understanding of pregnancy that he states he can prove his point. So what does he do? He turns and points to Athena, stating that she did not have a mother and therefore men can father children without women if she so please. (Modern biology is SCREAMING).
Athena cuts off Apollo after this and says that now is the time for the judges to cast their votes. The Chorus confirm that they have said their part. Apollo agrees that he has also presented everything he intended to. He now turns to the judges and demands their judgement.
As the judges are decided who to vote for, Athena announces that this is the spot where all future trials will happen in Athens for the rest of time. When she finishes talking, the judges come forward to cast their lots.
As they’re doing this — or, at least, attempting to — the Furies are literally whispering to the jurors to convince them to vote in their favour. The Leader is saying things like “Just remember that if you don’t side with us we’re a united force and can break your land AND SPIRIT!” But if you think only the Furies are saying such things, you’d be mistaken. Apollo is ALSO doing this, saying stuff like “Don’t forget that my oracle is not just mine but also Zeus’s. Make me mad and you also offend him.” (Neither of those are direct quotes, obviously*). What’s hilarious about this is that as the Furies are saying their part to the jurors and Apollo is saying is, they just end up squabbling with one another over the poor guys.
The Verdict
Athena breaks up the squabble and announces that her work at the trial is now done.
Holding her own lot, Athena states that she is siding with Orestes … because she sides with men. I wish I was joking. She says that because she didn’t have a mother she understands why Orestes would not value or acknowledge his own. Not only this, but Athena can also understand Orestes’ turbulent relationship with Clytemnestra considering she killed his father. Therefore, Athena will not vote against Orestes for what he did. Once she finishes, Athena asks for the lots to be counted. The judges approach to empty the urns.
Orestes turns to Apollo as asks how he thinks the verdict will go. Instead of answering, Apollo joins Athena in asking the judges to count the votes as quickly as they can.
As Orestes is feeling the pressure, the Chorus are hoping that Night is watching them so she care bear witness to their triumphant win.
Finally Athena receives the judges count. After a beat of silence, she announces that the voting is equal. And so, because she counts as the final vote, Orestes will walk away a free man.
Orestes is thrilled and thanks Athena for her vote. He announces that he is going home, promising that Argos will not fight with Athens in the future because of this verdict. Orestes leaves the stage, followed by Apollo.
The Closing
The Furies, though? Oh yeah, they are PISSED OFF (again).
The Chorus whirl around to Athena and yell (something like) “YOU YOUNGER GODS DON’T RESPECT ANCIENT LAWS!!!” In fact, they’re so angry that they threaten to poison the crops (and thus all the Athenians) because they want everyone to feel the same pain that they feel.
Athena tries to calm the Chorus down. She reminds them that they willingly chose to be a part of the trial FULLY KNOWING that they may lose. In an attempt to get the goddesses to not poison the Athenians, Athena tells them that she wants to give them a new home within the city as a pay off for their compliance.
But of course, the Chorus aren’t listening. They just repeat how they think the younger gods don’t respect their ancient laws, causing Athena to jump in again. She clarifies that she wants to offer the Furies a new godly duty in the city of Athens, but the goddesses are too busy complaining to hear her. After quite the back and forth, Athena eventually says that she’s not going to rescind her offer because she never wants anyone to say that the younger gods cast out the older gods, but if they refuse to stay in Athens that is their own choice.
It’s this final attempt from Athena that catches the Chorus’ attention. The Leader stops and says “Hold on — what was that about a new home?? If we take you up on this, what honours do we receive?” Athena explains that she wants them to change and to start bringing fortunes to good people in Athens. Slowly but surely, the Furies are convinced and take Athena up on her offer.
The Chorus now assemble around Athena, taking her on as their new leader and dancing in celebration. As they do this, they sing a song accepting their new home and new job title.
Athena calls the Chorus her new blessings that she will bestow on her people. As the song comes to a close, Athena announces that she will lead the way to the Chrous’ new home and states how excited she is for all the goodness they will bring to the city.
During this celebration, Athena’s entourage of women come on stage and bear offerings (including crimson robes).
Athena then leads them all off stage in a procession and the women of Athens sing of their new goddesses, welcoming them into the city.
The end.
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Thumbnail Image Link: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/250949
Fragment of a terracotta calyx-krater (mixing bowl)
Attributed to the Black Fury Painter ca. 400–380 BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 161
The ransom of Hector and Apollo with a goddess
”The larger fragment shows Priam, king of Troy, kneeling as he asks the Greek hero Achilles for the corpse of his son Hector. Behind Priam stands Hermes, the messenger god identifiable by his winged boots. The male figure at the far left is probably an attendant of Priam. The second fragment shows Apollo, god of music, holding his kithara, a lyre used in performance. The seated female before him may be his sister Artemis. The painting is exceptional for the rich detail and polychromy as well as the characterization of the distraught Priam.” (Copied from the Met Museum website).