Aeschylus' Orestia Trilogy

In the Greek trilogy, Orestia, Aeschylus focuses on the trail of blood as a crimson-splattered metaphor which brilliantly foregrounds the violence, murder, and revenge waged for three generations within a doomed family's genealogy. In the triadic dramas of Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides, Aeschylus indicates how the violent deeds of the past and the blood spilt within these misdeeds cannot be forgotten. Beginning with the crime of Atreus against Thyestes, Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter Iphigengia, Paris' abduction of Menelaus' wife Helen, Clytaemestra's murder of her husband Agamemnon with the assistance of her lover Aegisthus, continuing with Cassandra's murder, and the theatrical crescendo of Orestes and Electra's matricide of Clytaemestra, there are multiple foretellings that the Furies, the dark avengers for all past crimes will arrive on the scene and in their relentless pursuit of justice, refuse to leave. Throughout these three plays, Aeschylus' evocation of blood is used with his justly famed economic compression. Blood in Orestia evokes the irrevocable ties between kin which even death cannot obliterate, the remembrance of lives lived and slaughtered, and the ongoing life-force which cyclically returns, even when brutally vanquished, forcing itself to flower again. Scrutiny of blood's saturated appearance in the Orestia indicates that its presence grows so increasingly thick and vile that by the co

. . .
a is presented as the doomed priestess whose own miserable fate warns of the needless disasters to follow hers. The chorus indicates that "her rage and strength" will be "foamed away in blood" (1067). Predicting Orestes' desire to avenge "his father's blood" (1281), Cassandra wanders the streets moaning in despair, wailing about doom's oppressive tangibility whose close presence she suffers saying "That room within reeks of blood like a slaughter house" (1309). Sadly, Cassandra questions who can be born unshackled to this impending disaster, who might be granted a reprieve and "be born clear of the dark angel" (1342)? As Agamemnon concludes, Aeschylus' use of blood imagery has already grown more frequent and ominous. It splashes (1389), grows "bitter savored" (1389), and serves as an "old wound" bleeding (1480) onto its "death" (1574). In some of the earliest lines spoken by the Chorus in the trilogy's second play, The Libation Bearers, it is clear that Aeschylus is intent on escalating the trilogy's level of intensity and foreboding darkness. Almost immediately the Chorus announces "My cheek shows bright, ripped in the bloody furrows/of nails gashing the skin" (24-5). This image appears with a violence and threatening ton
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Libation Bearers, Trojan War, Whatever Aeschylus', Eumenides Aeschylus, Sadly Cassandra, Bearers Aeschylus, Blood Orestia, Orestes Electra's, Predicting Orestes', Orestia Aeschylus, libation bearers, eumenides aeschylus, agamemnon libation bearers, blood guilt, agamemnon libation, bearers eumenides, blood spilt, father's blood, innocent blood, libation bearers eumenides, reference blood, eumenides aeschylus indicates, chorus indicates,
Approximate Word count = 1548
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)