The Libation Bearers

Libation Bearers (Choephori)

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AEGISTHUS: But to think that these men should let their wanton tongues thus blossom into speech against me and cast about such insults, putting their fortune to the test! To reject wise counsel and insult their master!CHORUS: It would not be like men of Argos to cringe before a man as low as you.AEGISTHUS: Ha! I will visit you with vengeance yet in days to come.CHORUS: Not if fate shall guide Orestes to return home.AEGISTHUS: From my own experience I know that exiles feed on hope.CHORUS: Keep on, grow fat, polluting justice, since you can.AEGISTHUS: Know that you shall atone to me for your insolent folly.CHORUS: Brag in your bravery like a cock beside his hen.CLYTAEMESTRA: Do no care for their idle yelpings. I and you will be masters of this house and order it aright.{Exeunt omnes.]THE END.


• Where are we when the play opens?


• Where are we when the play opens?

• Line 650?

Palace of Agamemnon

Tomb


Prologue: 1-21

Hermes of the nether world, you who guard the powers that are your father's, prove yourself my savior and ally, I entreat you, now that I have come to this land and returned from exile.

On this mounded grave I cry out to my father to hearken, to hear me. Look, I bring a lock to Inachus in requital for his care, and here, a second, in token of my grief.For I was not present, father, to lament your death, nor did I stretch forth my hand to bear your corpse.

What is this I see? What is this throng of women that moves in state, marked by their sable cloaks? To what calamity should I set this down? Is it some new sorrow that befalls our house? Or am I right to suppose that for my father's sake they bear these libations to appease the powers below? It can only be for this cause: for indeed I think my own sister Electra is approaching, distinguished by her bitter grief. Oh grant me, Zeus, to avenge my father's death, and may you be my willing ally!Pylades, let us stand apart, that I may know clearly what this band of suppliant women intends.


• Kophon Prosopon (κωφὸν πρόσωπον)



• 900-02



• 900-02

• Euripides Iphigenia at Tauris793-900


Parados: 26-81


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPq66pHcbuU&feature=related




Parados: 26-81

Where does the chorus come from?


Where do Orestes and Pylades go?


Where do Orestes and Pylades go?

Euripides’ Electra


Intending to ward off evil with such a graceless grace, O mother Earth, she sends me forth, godless woman that she is.

42-7(Strophe β)


First Episode: 83-304


Hope – Chorus: 109-23


Electra’s Prayer to Hermes: 124-51


Recognition!: 164-94 (anagnorisis)


Orestes!: 225-34


Oresteia: 458 BCElectra of Euripides: 415 BC

Old man: In vain; but still I could not endure this: for I came to his grave, an addition to my journey, and falling on it I wept for its desolation; then I opened the wine-skin which I am bringing to the guests, and poured a libation, and set myrtle-sprigs round the tomb. On the alter itself I saw a black-fleeced ram as an offering, and there was blood, not long poured out, and severed locks of yellow hair. And I wondered, child, who ever dared come to the the tomb; for it was no Argive at least. But perhaps your brother has somehow come secretly and on his return has done honor to his father's wretched grave. Go look to see if the color of the cut lock is the same as yours, putting it to your own hair; it is usual for those who have the same paternal blood to have a close resemblance in many features. (510ff)

Electra: Old man, your words are unworthy of a wise man, if you think my own brave brother would come to this land secretly for fear of Aegisthus. Then, how will a lock of hair correspond, the one made to grow in the wrestling schools of a well-bred man, the other, a woman's lock, by combing? No, it is impossible. But you could find in many people hair very similar, although they are not of the same blood, old man.

Old man:Then stand in the footprint and see if the tread of the boot will measure with your own foot, child.

Electra:How could there be an imprint of feet on a stony plot of ground? And if there is, the foot of brother and sister would not be the same in size, for the male conquers.

Old man:There is not, even if your brother, coming to this land . . . by which you might know your loom's weaving, in which I once stole him away from death?

Electra:Don't you know that I was still young when Orestes was driven out of the land? And even if I had woven him a robe, how could he, a child then, have the same one now, unless his clothes grew together with his body?


Revenge! Ordered by the god!: 270-305

Electra:O best beloved darling of your father's house, its hope of a saving seed longed for with tears, trust in your prowess and you will win back your father's house. O delightful eyes that have four parts of love for me: for I must call you father; and to you falls the love I should bear my mother, whom I most rightly hate; and the love I bore my sister, victim of a pitiless sacrifice; and you were my faithful brother, bringing me your reverence. May Might and Justice, with Zeus, supreme over all, in the third place, lend you their aid! (235-45)


Chorus: 306-314


Is revenge justified? Electra & Orestes: 429-450


Bad Dreams: 526-539


They have a plan!: 560-584


Where are we?: 650


Tragic deception: 674-690


Tragic deception: 674-690

Iphigenia at Tauris


Third Stasimon: 800-805


Agisthus: 838


Murder in the Palace: 869-891


Déjà vu


Chariot vs. stranger knocking



Deceiver vs. deceived




Murderer vs. victim




Murderer vs. victim

Father vs. son


Is matricide justified?


Is matricide justified?

What is Clytemnestra’s defense? (896-930)


Victorious Orestes? (973)


Victorious Orestes? (973)

Ekyklema?


Uh oh! (1051-64)

The Libation Bearers

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Transcript of The Libation Bearers