How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
(Chorus of Furies): "And do you then abuse us for escorting him on his mission here?"
(Apollo): "Yes, for you are not fit to come to this temple."
(Chorus): "But this is our prescribed duty!"
(Apollo): "What prerogative is this? Make a boast of your fine privilege!"
(Chorus): "We drive matricides from their houses." (206-210)
One of the major conflicts in The Eumenides is between the past and the future, between the old way of doing things and the new. The Furies represent the old way of doing things, where you hunt down any evildoers and punish them severely: no Ifs, Ands, or Buts. Apollo and Athena and the jurymen of Athens represent the new one, where trials allow for a more nuanced understanding of how crimes came to be committed.
People are always afraid of what's new. Just look at the Furies: they don't have any better reason for hunting down Orestes other than that it's their "prescribed duty" (208). Those Furies are living in the past, man.
Quote #2
(Orestes): "Now my lips are pure I call reverently upon Athena, this land's queen, to come to me with her help; and without warfare she will gain myself, and my land, and the Argive people as her true and ever-faithful allies." (287-291)
Okay, now things are going to get a little complicated. That's because there are two levels of "Memory and The Past" involved in this play, depending on whose perspective you look at. On the one hand, there is what is in the past from the perspective of the characters in the play.
For an example of this, look at the quotation above: from the perspective of the Furies, their special duties were given to them in the past. But there are also references in the play to events that were in the past from the perspective of Aeschylus and his audience, but were actually in the future from the perspective of the characters in the play.
This quotation from Orestes falls into the second category. That's because, around the time that Aeschylus wrote this play, Athens had become allies with Argos. So, when Orestes promises to make the Argives (the people of Argos) allies with Athens, that's kind of Aeschylus's way of showing how events from recent memory had their origins back in the mists of time—in the mythical, heroic world depicted in his Oresteia trilogy.
Quote #3
(Orestes): "I am an Argive, and you do me well to enquire about my father—Agamemnon, the men's commander in their fleet, with whom you yourself made Troy's city of Ilion a city no more. He did not die well, when he came home, but my black-hearted mother killed him, trapping him in embroidered stuffs to cloak his sight, which witnessed his murder in his bath. And when I came back home myself, an exile for the time before, I killed the mother who bore me, I shall not deny it, in retribution for the killing of my dearest father." (455-464)
Here we see how Memory and the Past can continue to play an active role in the present. By presenting his version of the past Orestes is able to put a good spin on his own actions. In this way, he hopes to win the sympathy of the jury. At the same time, however, these lines give subtle clues about how hard it is to know anything for certain about the past.
How so? Look at the way Orestes describes his mother murdering Agamemnon by "trapping him in embroidered stuffs to cloak his sight"; it is these fabrics ("stuffs" is an old word for fabric) that "witnessed his murder in his bath" and no one else. By this point in The Eumenides, Orestes seems to have made up his mind about what happened—but that still doesn't change the fact that he wasn't there when Clytemnestra did it.