{"id":2179,"date":"2026-07-31T17:44:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T17:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/drjclassics\/classics-courses-syllabi\/eumenides-passages\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T17:44:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T17:44:53","slug":"eumenides-passages","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/drjclassics\/classics-courses-syllabi\/eumenides-passages\/","title":{"rendered":"Aeschylus’ Eumenides Passages"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Significant\n Passages from Aeschylus’ Eumenides<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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But what are you doing?\/Up! Don’t yield to the labor, limp with sleep.\/Never\n forget my anguish.\/Let my charges hurt you, they are just;\/deep in the righteous heart\n they prod like spurs.\/You, blast him on with your gory breath,\/the fire of your vitals –\n wither him, after him,\/one last foray – waste him, burn him out! Ghost of Clytemnestra (Eum.\n 131-137)<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Lord Apollo, now it is your turn to listen.\/You are no mere accomplice in this\n crime.\/You did it all, and all the guilt is yours. Chorus Leader (Eum. 196-199)<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Embrace one? Expel the other? It defeats me.\/But since the matter comes to rest on\n us,\/I will appoint the judges of manslaughter,\/swear them in, and found a tribunal here\n for all time to come. My contestants,\/summon your trusted witness and proofs,\/your\n defenders under oath to help your cause.\/And I will pick the finest men of Athens,\/return\n and decide the issue fairly, truly -\/bound to our oaths, our spirits bent on justice.\n Athena (Eum. 496-505)<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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I come\/as a witness. This man, according to custom,\/this suppliant sought out my house\n and hearth.\/I am the one who purged his bloody hands.\/His champion too, I share\n responsibility\/for his mother’s execution. Bring on the trial.\/You know the rules, now\n turn them into justice. Apollo (Eum. 581-586)<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Here is the truth, I tell you – see how right I am.\/The woman you call the mother of\n the child\/is not the parent, just a nurse to the seed,\/the new-sown seed that grows and\n swells inside her.\/The man is the source of life – the one who mounts.\/She, like a\n stranger for a stranger, keeps\/the shoot alive unless god hurts the roots.\/I give you\n proof that all I say is true.\/The father can father forth without a mother.\/Here she\n stands, our living witness. Look – \/Child sprung full-blown from Olympian Zeus,\/never bred\n in the darkness of the womb\/but such a stock no goddess could conceive! Apollo (Eum.\n 665-677)<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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My work is here, to render the final judgment\/Orestes, I will cast my lot for you.\/No\n mother gave me birth.\/I honor the male, in all things but marriage.\/Yes, with all my heart\n I am my Father’s child.\/I cannot set more store by the woman’s death – \/she killed her\n husband, guardian of their house.\/Even if the vote is equal, Orestes wins. Athena (Eum.\n 749-756)<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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And the lightning stroke\/that cuts men down before their prime, I curse,\/but the lovely\n girl who finds a mate’s embrace,\/the deep joy of wedded life – O grant that gift, that\n prize,\/you gods of wedlock, grant it, goddesses of Fate!\/Sisters born of the Night our\n mother,\/spirits steering law,\/sharing at all our hearths,\/at all times bearing down\/to\n make our lives more just,\/all realms exalt you highest of the gods. Furies (Eum.\n 968-978)<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2167,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2179","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/drjclassics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/drjclassics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/drjclassics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/drjclassics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/drjclassics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/drjclassics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2179\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/drjclassics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/drjclassics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}