How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #7
(Chorus of Furies): "We think we are straight in our justice:
no anger from us comes against those
who hold out pure hands,
and each walks through his life without harm;
but to any who sins like this man here
and conceals bloody hands,
we appear as true witnesses in support of the dead,
exacting payment for bloodshed from authority." (312-320)
Once again, the Furies claim to be just because they are equal in how they dispense justice. In this case, their claim boils down to the famous boast of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that "we always get our man." But doesn't this just open them up to the same complaint that Apollo made: that the Furies are actually inconsistent because they didn't hunt down and punish Clytemnestra for killing Agamemnon?
Quote #8
(Athena): "Whoever are you? I speak to all in common, both this stranger seated at my statue [a line missing], and you who are like no kind of begotten things, neither belonging to goddesses seen by gods nor yet resembling human forms. But to speak ill of people at hand who give no cause for blame, is to assume a right far distinct from justice." (408-414)
Here, Athena basically says that she isn't going to judge anybody before she knows all the facts. How does this contrast with Apollo's words to Orestes earlier in the play?
Quote #9
(Chorus of Furies): "Catastrophe now is coming
from new ordinances, if a justice
which is harm to justice shall prevail
for this man here, the matricide.
This day's work will at once accustom
all men to licence;
and much veritable suffering, which their own children
will inflict, lies waiting for parents
in time hereafter." (490-498)
These are the Furies' words right before the trial gets started. As you can see, this isn't just an ordinary question of guilt or innocence, but actually pits two very different conceptions of justice against one another—that of the Furies and that of Apollo, Orestes and Athena. Is there any advantage to the view of justice that the Furies represent, or are we kind of forced to sympathize with the other side?