How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
(Prophetess): "In front of this man an amazing band is asleep, of women, sitting on the chairs—no, I do not mean women, but Gorgons; but on the other hand I can't compare them to Gorgon-figures. I did see those in a painting once before, carrying off Phineus' banquet; these however have no wings to be seen; and they are black, utterly revolting in their manner, snoring out a breath which is unapproachable, while their eyes run with a loathsome fluid. Clothing of this form is not right to be brought near gods' images or into men's houses. I have not seen the race this company is from, nor the land which can boast of nurturing this progeny without harm or sorrow afterwards for its labour." (46-59)
Aeschylus makes the Priestess describe the Furies as some pretty nasty ladies. Could this be his way of commenting on the nastiness of revenge as a social practice?
Quote #2
(Apollo): "And now you see these rabid creatures overtaken (gesturing towards the closed door): they have fallen into sleep, abominations that they are, maidens in old age, ancient children, whom no god mixes with, nor man, nor beast, ever. It was for evil's sake that they even came into being, since their sphere is the evil dark of Tartarus under the earth; and they are objects of hate to men and the Olympian gods—but make your escape from them nevertheless, and do not soften! For they will drive you throughout all the long mainland as your steps take you constantly wandering the earth beyond the ocean and the cities round which it flows." (67-77)
Here, we see Apollo continuing the theme from the previous quotation: you don't want to get mixed up with the Furies. Now we learn that even the gods won't have anything to do with them. Could this be Aeschylus's way of signaling that he is disgusted by the social practice of revenge killing?
Quote #3
(Clytemnestra): "Hey! Stay asleep, then, do! And what's the use of your sleeping? Here am I dishonoured like this among the other dead because of you, and with the slain ceaselessly reproaching me for those I killed; and I wander in shame. I tell you solemnly that they accuse me very much; and that although I have suffered so terribly from my closest kin, not one divine power is angry on my account, although I was slaughtered by the hands of a matricide. See these blows, see them with your heart!—the mind asleep is given clear light by the eyes. You licked up many enough things from me, libations without wine, plain offerings of appeasement. Meals, too, solemnized by night in burning altar-hearths, were my sacrifices, at an hour shared by no god; and yet I see all these heeled and trodden down, while the man has made his escape and is gone like a young deer, and lightly at that: he bounded from your nets' midst, with a great mocking leer at you. Hear me! I have been talking about my existence; give it thought, you goddesses under the earth! I am Clytemnestra, and I call on you, in your dream!" (94-116)
These lines are interesting because they reveal a special relationship between Clytemnestra and the Furies. The question that is left open is when Clytemnestra made these "offerings." Did she make them after she killed Agamemnon, in an attempt to buy off the Furies and prevent them siding with her son, Orestes? Or did she make them before she killed Agamemnon, in an effort to bring the spirits of vengeance on to her side.
Back-story: Clytemnestra killed Agamemnon in part because he killed their daughter Iphigenia. Remember, too, that the Furies don't buy into Apollo's wacky theory that husbands and wives are related by blood to each other (217-224) but mothers aren't related to their children (657-667). Also, the Furies are mainly in charge of punishing murders committed against members of one's own family: from their point of view, what Clytemnestra did to Agamemnon was justified.