The Eumenides Response

1. Please reconcile or make peace between two parts of the play, The Eumenides. If you cannot do so, then explain how you deal with these parts of the play and make sense of the parts and of the play. Begin by re-reading the conversation among the tribunal of the Areopagus regarding the role of male and female, i.e. father and mother, in the creation of a person. See especially, Athena's contribution to the discussion -- The Eumenides, ll. 750-760. Consider Athena's attitudes towards men and women expressed in these lines, and compare them to her viewpoints in lines 979-1040. Are there contradictions in Athena's views of men and women? Is she consistent? Is she fickle? Is she just another savvy politician? How do you understand her?

 

My understanding of Athena in the Eumenides is not contradictory. In lines 750-760, she is explaining why she would vote for Orestes rather than against him, she will always "honour the male, in all things but marriage" (l. 752), therefore she casts her lot for him. I don't think this is contradictory with the latter lines because the later situation is not between a male and female. The Furies are all female and there is no combatting male force that could be the Eumenides. I believe Athena is saying that in matters of judgement between a male and female, such as Orestes and Clytaemnestra, she will side with the male, as the leader of the house and the giver of life in her belief. She clearly believes that women can be a powerful force, she is one herself, and in honoring the Furies by making them the Eumenides, there is no contradiction in honor of male. I don't think that we have enough examples of her judgement to say whether she would always be consistent, however in this case, I believe that her lot cast in Orestes trial does not contradict her promoting the Furies to the kindly ones of Athens.