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The Orestia, or Orestes Trilogy, is a series of 3 plays by Aeschylus about crime and punishment over the course of two generations(plus a third off stage). The Murder of Agamemnon by his wife, Clytemnestra continues a cycle of violence that began between the fathers of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra lover, Aegisthus, his cousin. The following two plays continue to address this blood vendetta as it continues into the next generation, when Orestes returns to avenge his father, and is ultimately saved from the cycle by divine intervention. The plays ultimately tell the tale of justice moving from a primordial force, powered by poetic destiny, to the hands of Athena, who brings it to the court of law.

Before the beginning of the first play in the series, Agamemnon, the titular character makes a sacrifice of his own daughter in order to bargain for fair sailing on his way to war. This brutal act is but a drop in the bucket compared to the horrors committed by his father Atreus, who served up his dismembered nephews as meatloaf at a dinner party hosted to “reconcile” with his brother after a bitter feud for the throne and some adultery. The murder/sacrifice of her daughter, Iphigenia, before the beginning of the play is cause enough for us modern readers to sympathize with Clytemnestra, but she has other possible motives, such as her affair with Aegisthus. This affair, however does begin after Clytemnestra would have been alienated form her husband, so it's feasible that it one simply followed the other.

What she does in revenge is not frowned upon by the Greeks for it's brutality, for indeed, it is among the least brutal murders committed under the roof of the House of Atreus. Her real crime was committing this murder as a woman. The idea of a killer woman was horrifying to the Greeks, as an extreme violation of what is socially acceptable. Her murder of Agamemnon would have been more acceptable if she'd been a male, but perhaps that doesn't matter, because her attitude seems to transform at the end of the play, in a way that sets her up as a much less sympathetic victim in the following play, where the blood vendetta is visited upon her.

In the previous play, the audience is left feeling less sure of the purity of her revenge. Not only does Clytemnestra have great ambitions(And had been ruling in the absence of a king) but she has a lover, Aegisthus, who would also be happy to see Agamemnon dead, for no reason other than spite inherited from his father. We also wonder if Cassandra really had to die, for being a slave and lover of Agamemnon against her will, and in the following play we become sure of Clytemnestra's villainy.

In The Libation Bearers, the hero and sustainer of this cycle of violence is Orestes, the exiled son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, under the strict orders of Apollo, who has decided to take this case into his own hands. Charged with the duty to avenge his father, upon his mother, with threats that not doing so will invoke the wrath of the furies, Orestes returns to Argos with murder on his mind. Upon his arrival at Agamemnon's grave in Argos, Orestes is greeted by the titular libation bearers, a group consisting of his estranged sister Electra and slaves from the palace. It turns out that Clytemnestra hasn't won any popularity contests in the long years since Agamemnon's murder, because all of these individuals eagerly scheme with Orestes. Soon enough, with the help of all these people, Orestes slays Aegisthus, and despite her pleading, executes his mother. He wraps the two bodies in the robes used to bind Agamemnon years ago. As the old blood and new blood mingle, one would think that the play has met it's poetically-just end, but it has not. Despite the fact that he was on a divine mission, Orestes crime cannot be pardoned.

The furies are charged by fate to hound and destroy anyone who would commit a blood crime, such as matricide, and they are invisible to all but their victim. These foul creatures, who are the embodiment of spite, chase Orestes out of Argos. In The Eumenides, he finds haven at the navel of the world in Delphi, where Apollo puts the furies to sleep. It is not within Apollo's power, however, to stop them entirely. As Apollo sends Orestes off to meet his sister Athena in Athens, the spirit of the recently deceased and disgraced Clytemnestra rouses the furies back into action. Justice, for her, has not been done, and will not be until the cycle continues.

This is the point in the series where justice, which has been taken into the hands of the gods is put into the hands of the people. Upon his arrival at Athens, he pleads at the statue of Athena, while the furies gather around and taunt him. She arrives, flying in from a dedication ceremony in Troy, and hears Orestes plea for a fair trial. She decides that this is the perfect opportunity to teach her people, and gathers up a jury from the citizens of Athens, who all gather around to witness the first trial for homicide, with Apollo taking up the position of defense attorney for Orestes. The jury eventually comes to a tied vote, and Athena breaks it, in favor of Orestes going free. The Furies, naturally are enraged at this, but are appeased by silver tongued Athena, who gives them new purpose as the defenders of Athens.

This marks the end of the transformation of justice, from a cycle of revenge driven on by blood and primordial titanesses, to a lawful process under the guidance of Athena. In this way, the stories explain how the power of justice transferred from divine to human hands. It makes sense that such a tale needed to exist, because it explains why the gods must have such a hands off role in day to day mundane justice for the audience, and this play explains it in a way that would make them want to believe. By the end of the play, justice is largely in the hands of mortal beings... the very audience.

I need a more powerful closing sentence.