Εὐμενίδες
Eumenides
Aeschylus · Oresteia, third play · City Dionysia, 458 BC · first prize
The Furies pursue Orestes to Athens. Athena sets up a court to try him for his mother’s murder; he is acquitted, and the Furies are given a home in the city.
Persons, in order of appearance
- Προφ.Priestess
- Ορ.Orestes
- Απ.Apollo
- Κλ.Ghost of Clytaemestra
- Χο.Chorus
- Αθ.Athena
- Προπ.Escort
Translations
- H. W. Smythprose · 1922 · aligned by line · with Smyth's Greek
- E. D. A. Morsheadverse · 1881–1908 · aligned by speech · with Murray's Greek
- Smyth, rev. Bannon & Nagy (Kosmos Society)prose · aligned by speech · with Smyth's Greek
- Ian Johnston (VIU)verse · aligned by speech · with Murray's Greek
Greek texts
Cite as Aesch. Eum. 1–1047
Full synopsis (tells the ending)
The Furies have pursued Orestes from Argos to Delphi, where Apollo shelters him, and from Delphi to Athens. There Athena declines to judge the case alone and founds a court of Athenian citizens to hear it, the first trial for murder. Apollo speaks for Orestes; the Furies prosecute. The vote is even, and Athena's vote acquits him. The Furies threaten to blight Attica until Athena talks them into a home under the city as its Kindly Ones.
Drawing: Line drawing after Carl Bötticher's 1859 drawing of an Apulian red-figure volute-krater (Naples): the Pythia fleeing, the Fury, Apollo, Orestes at the omphalos, Artemis with her hounds; retraced.