The Eumenides Analysis

The setting of The Eumenides is not only interesting in itself, but it also provides you with a counter-example to throw at any literature teacher who paints a narrow-minded and inflexible portrait...

Technically speaking, The Eumenides doesn't have a narrator at all, because it's a play. Instead of hearing what characters do, we actually see them do it. Of course, these characters also talk abo...

If you look at our discussions of genre for the first two plays of the Oresteia trilogy (Agamemnon and Libation Bearers), you won't find the word "comedy" anywhere. As we've been saying throughout...

In keeping with the other plays in the Oresteia trilogy, The Eumenides maintains a pretty capital-S Serious tone throughout. This is in keeping with the fact that these plays are intended as traged...

Poetic, Metaphorical, SubtleOkay, first things first. What makes the writing style of The Eumenides poetic? Here at Shmoop, we use the translation by Christopher Collard in the Oxford World Classic...

The title of Aeschylus's The Eumenides is Greek for the "Kindly Ones." Who are the "Kindly Ones" in this play? Maybe Athena and Apollo, because they help Orestes? Dead wrong. Don't worry, if you ha...

When reading the ending of The Eumenides, it's important to bear in mind that this isn't just the end of a single play: it's the end of an entire trilogy of plays, stretching back to Agamemnon, and...

Even though the language of The Eumenides still might occasionally be challenging—especially in the Chorus's songs—the stakes and the plot is super recognizable. Sure, you've got a goddess as j...

This is the state of affairs before the story even begins; the opening scene shows the priestess of Apollo discovering what has happened: Orestes and the Furies are asleep in Delphi. This opening...

The CallThis is a pretty clear example of the "Call." That's because, literally, a god (Apollo) appears and tells Orestes what he's got to do: go to Athens and pray to the goddess for help. This...

Orestes and the Furies wake up in Delphi and get sent to Athens by Apollo and the ghost of Clytemnestra, respectively. The Furies catch up to Orestes in Athens, but the goddess Athena appears and...

Aeschylus himself appears as a character in a play by another ancient Greek playwright named Aristophanes. Aristophanes' play is a comedy that takes place right after the death of a writer named Eu...

There's no real sex to speak of in this play, certainly nothing you'd call "steamy." There is a little bit of icky birds-and-the-bees talk (doubly icky because of how sexist it is, from a modern pe...

Alliance between Athens and Argos (287-291), (667-673), (762-774)Establishment of the Council of the Areopagus (482-484, 489), (566-573), (681-690), (690-695), (696-706)