Persuasion in Ancient Greece
Andrew Scholtz, Instructor
Study Guides. . .
Aeschylus' Libation Bearers
Journal Entry
Based on agon (debate scene): Clytemnestra versus Orestes (Penguin pp. 216 ff.).
- Choose a persona: Clytaemnestra (Orestes's mother) or Pylades (Orestes's friend).
- Advocate for one or the other as you attempt to persuade Orestes to kill/not to kill Clytemnestra.
- Try to think of ways to make his/her case as persuasive as possible
- Try to connect with Orestes — how?
- But try to anticipate the arguments of opponents of opponents, to think of effective counter arguments
- Is this simply manipulation?
- Does reason play a role?
We shall stage just such a debate in class, then analyze the results.
Background
For background to the Oresteia trilogy as a whole, click here.
As we learned in the Agamemnon, Orestes, son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, was sent to another region of Greece - specifically, to Phocis - to be in the care of king Strophius. In the Libation Bearers (this play), he is old enough to go abroad on his own; we find out that he has been to Delphi, were the oracle has instructed him in no uncertain terms to return to Argos to take vengeance on his father's killers.
In the company of his friend, Pylades (Strophius' son), he returns to Argos. But before proceeding to the palace (where he intends to slay Clytemnestra and Aegisthus), he visits the grave of his father. There he finds his sister, Electra, and a group of elderly slave-women (the Chorus of "libation bearers," i.e., bearers of drink offerings for the deceased). Electra and the women have been sent by Clytemnestra to bring offerings to Agamemnon's grave, to appease his ghost. That is because Clytemnestra is being haunted by horrible nightmares - dreams that she believes are being sent to her by the angry ghost of her murdered husband.
Larger Questions
- What connections/disconnects exist between
- dike (justice)
- kratos (power)
- peitho (persuasion)
- logos (speech, reasoned discourse)
- praxis (the doing of something, accomplishment)?
- Justice - dike - how does justice play itself out in this play?
- Who is in the right? Who not?
- How is justice achieved?
Special Discussion/Lecture Topics
"Conjuration" Scene (Penguin pp. 192 ff., lines 312 ff), "Persuasion" Chorus (pp. 208 f., lines 706 ff.)
- How to evaluate the relationship of logos (speech) to praxis (deed)?
- "Now the time breaks for Persuasion . . ." (Chorus
in line726) - what manner of persuasion here? I.e., . . .
- who persuading whom?
- how?
- why?
- with what success?
- with what moral evaluation?
Agon (debate scene): Clytemnestra versus Orestes (Penguin lines 872 ff.)
- Peitho (persuasive strategies . . .)
- What does she want Orestes to do, or not to do?
- How does she set about trying to convince him?
- Critique: is her peitho successful? Why or why not?
- Dike (justice): in the final analysis, do you think . . .
- Clytaemnestra has justice on her side?
- Orestes?