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| Character | Orestes | |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | Male | |
| Age Range(s) | Teenager (13-19), Young Adult (20-35) | |
| Type of monologue / Character is | Crying, Descriptive, Depressed, Lamenting, Reminiscing life story/Telling a story | |
| Type | Dramatic | |
| Period | Ancient Greek | |
| Genre | Tragedy, Drama | |
| Description | Orestes mourns his father | |
| Location | Beginning of play | |
Summary
The Libation Bearers is the sequel to Agamemnon. In the previous play Agamemnon is killed by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegistus for having sacrificed his daughter during the Trojan war.
In the Libation Bearers Clytemnestra's daughter Electra (who she keeps as a slave) and her son Orestes (who had been sent away in exile since he was a kid) unite to avenge their father's death by killing their mother and her lover.
The play starts with Orestes mourning at his father's grave invoking the help of Hermes. After setting two locks of his hair on his father's grave, he sees Electra approach, mourning. He invokes Zeus' help to avenge his father's death.
In the Libation Bearers Clytemnestra's daughter Electra (who she keeps as a slave) and her son Orestes (who had been sent away in exile since he was a kid) unite to avenge their father's death by killing their mother and her lover.
The play starts with Orestes mourning at his father's grave invoking the help of Hermes. After setting two locks of his hair on his father's grave, he sees Electra approach, mourning. He invokes Zeus' help to avenge his father's death.
Written by Administrator
| Excerpt |
|---|
| ORESTES Hermes, messenger to the dead, guardian of your father's powers, help rescue me work with me, I beg you, now I've come back, returned to this land from exile. On this grave, on this heaped-up earth, I call my father, imploring him to listen, to hear me . . . [Orestes cuts two locks of his hair and sets them one by one on the tomb] Here's a lock of hair, offering to Inachus, the stream where I was raised. Here's another, a token of my grief. I was not there, my father, to mourn your death. I couldn't stretch my hand out to you, when they carried off your corpse for burial. [Enter Electra and the Chorus, dressed in black. They do not see Orestes and Pylades] What's this I see? What's this crowd of women coming here, all wearing black in public? What does it mean? What new turn of fate? Has some fresh sorrow struck the house? Or am I right to think they bring libations here to honour you, my father, to appease the dead below? That must be it. I see my sister there, Electra. That's her approaching with them. She's grieving ¯in great pain that's obvious. O Zeus, let me avenge my father's death. Support me as my ally in this fight. Pylades, let's stand over there and hide, so I can find out what's taking place, what brings these suppliant women here. |
