Aeschylus' Oresteia is undoubtedly one of the greatest surviving tragedies of antiquity. Driven by the universal struggles of justice versus injustice, fear versus obligation, and parent versus child, the play follows an unhappy family through passion, hatred, and destruction that through pain and ultimate suffering, end up purging the lineage and restoring honor to their name. A prelude to generations of domestic homicide, adultery, and brutality, the Oresteia shows the purification and redemption of the house of Arteus. The play takes place directly after the Trojan War. Helen was kidnapped, Menelaus enraged, Ifigenia sacrificed, war was waged and Troy massacred. The first play in the series, Agamemnon, opens with a lone sentry observing the Greek countryside, pining for the loss of his king and the rise of Queen Clytemnestra to absolute power. In her husband's absence, she had taken Argos into her embittered, power-hungry hands, undermining its authority and causing its citizens to hate her and fear the future. The sentry sees a lighthouse in the distance, his sign of the triumph of the Greeks, and rejoices at the idea of ​​his master's return. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay This brief but moving prologue immediately establishes the period, setting, and emotional openings of the tragedy. In a few short lines, the sentry conveys the anxieties and fears of an entire city. It shows both the love that the people have for Agamemnon and the contempt they feel towards Clytemnestra who usurped her husband and destroyed the city of Argos through her tyranny and hatred. The prologue moves quickly to the grand parados – the entrance to the choir. The audience is now overwhelmed by the beauty and spectacle of the swirling, dancing choir serenading them with over two hundred lines of lyrical verse. The dazzling spectacle draws the audience into the action of the play with a highly effective but now completely lost convention which, while relaying the entire story of the play within the context of exquisite, poetic singing and intricate dancing , gives a complex social commentary on the play's characters and the theological principles of the time. Fredrich Schiller discusses the importance of choral segments in Greek tragedy such as the Oresteia parados in "On the Use of the Chorus in Tragedy". He states that since the Chorus is a body above the dramatic action, "not an individual but a general conception" (474), it has the capacity to step outside the plot to make a specific comment on society represented. “He abandons the restricted sphere of incidents,” he explains, “to extend over the past and the future, over distant eras and nations, and over humanity in general, to deduce the great results of life and pronounce the lessons of wisdom" (474). ). By bringing the lyricism of the Chorus, the playwright reinforces the poetry of the play and makes the action more credible. As Schiller describes it, “with a bold lyrical freedom that ascends, as if with divine steps, to the summit of worldly things; and it effects it in conjunction with all the sensible influence of melody and rhythm, in tones and movements” (474). . The Chorus transcends the plot and draws the audience out of the emotions of the play. By being trained in precise and poetic language, they become aware of the theatricalities they witness and are therefore more open to the social reflection that is highlighted there. "It is by separating the different parts and interposing itself between the passions with its composing views, that the Choir gives us back our freedom, which would otherwise be lost in thestorm" (474). Frederick Nietzsche describes the Chorus in a slightly different way. He is more particularly interested in the historical roots of the Chorus and thus determines its notoriety. He sees Greek tragedy as a marriage between the gods Apollo and Dionysus; the chorus as a vestige of Dionysian hedonism, and the episodes, language and themes as embodiments of Apollonian sensibilities With its rigid structure and specific attributes, but its freedom of beauty and artistic expression, “tragedy is an incarnation. Apollonian of Dionysian ideas and powers” ​​(823) This particularly concerns Agamemnon since the typically Dionysian chorus represents the old men or Argos left behind during the war. What was once the embodiment of freedom and pleasure is, in the. case of the first play of the Oresteia, the embodiment of Apollonian meaning and linear logic Although they still perform the same songs and dances as the Epicurean choirs of the past, this group of helpless old men demonstrates a. extreme sadness and sociopolitical sensitivity. Like Schiller, Nietzsche sees the chorus as a vehicle to elevate the entire drama. Through its language and interpretation, the Chorus not only gives weight to the action, but also serves to exalt the actors and characters. As Nietzsche explains, "it then became the task of the dithyrambic chorus to excite the mood of the listeners so that when the tragic hero appeared, they would see not the clumsily masked man, but a figure born of their own delighted vision” (824). . Unlike Schiller, however, Nietzsche sees the Chorus as driving the play forward by drawing the audience into its world through spectacle and language, while Schiller sees the latter as means to opposite ends. In the case of the introduction to Agamemnon's Chorus, the extended section elevates the playing because it is deeper than the average expositional passage. In a finely crafted language and poeticism lies a commentary on the characters in the play and on society as a whole. The Chorus speech is primarily an exposition telling the story that brought the play to the power of Clytemnestra and the success of Agamemnon. However, their opinion on the issues they discuss is rooted in their narrative. In their depiction of Clytemnestra, Agamemnon, and their entangled pasts and situations, the Chorus gives a subjective view of history and presents a romanticized view of monarchs that echoes Neitzsche's later argument. Although the Chorus despises Clytemnestra and her power in the kingdom, they are equally critical of Agamemnon and his escapades in Troy. They clearly disapprove of the war, calling it "a quarrel over one woman among many men" (36). They see Helen as a common whore and complain about those who lost their lives in such a vain and hollow struggle. This can specifically be seen in the use of animal imagery throughout the speech. The passage begins by describing the brothers as eagles, crying “in the lonely agony of their fledglings and all the watchful care they had devoted to their care” (36). This refers to Menelaus' loss of his wife, but the expression is ironic when viewed from Agamemnon's point of view. In his case, he had to sacrifice his beloved daughter, his “brother,” “like a kid” (41), to get Hélène back for his brother. The Chorus acknowledges this, saying in describing Ifigenia's sacrifice, "thus [Agamemnon] dared to become his daughter's sacrificer to aid in the war waged for a woman - first rites of deliverance for ships" (41). The Eagle Metaphor and the Chorus' Sympathy continues in their description of the omen, 1974. 359-363