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Lecture 20:
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A) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1393-1398
Since this is so, old men of Argos, rejoice, if you would rejoice; as for me, I glory in the deed. 1395 And had it been a fitting act to pour libations on the corpse, over him this would have been done with dikê. With dikê and then some! With so many accursed lies has he filled the mixing-bowl in his own house, and now he has come home and himself drained it to the dregs.B) Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 84-97
You handmaidens who set our house in order, since you are here as my attendants in this rite of supplication, give me your counsel on this: what should I say while I pour these offerings of sorrow? How shall I find gracious words, how shall I entreat my father? Shall I say that I bring these offerings to a philos husband from a philê wife - from my own mother? I do not have the assurance for that, nor do I know what I should say as I pour this mixed offering onto my father's tomb. Or shall I speak the words that men are accustomed [nomos] to use: "To those who send these honors may he return benefits" - a gift, indeed, to match their evil?Or, in silence and dishonor, even as my father perished, shall I pour them out for the earth to drink and then retrace my steps, like one who carries refuse away from a rite, hurling the vessel from me with averted eyes?
C) Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 118-130
What should I say? Instruct my inexperience, prescribe the form.- Pray that some daimôn or some mortal may come to them -
As judge or as avenger, do you mean?
- Say in plain speech, "One who will take life for life."
And is it right for me to ask this of the gods?
- How could it not be right to repay an enemy with ills?
Supreme herald of the realm above and the realm below, O Hermes of the nether world, come to my aid, summon to me the daimones beneath the earth to hear my prayers, spirits that watch over my father's house, and Earth herself, who gives birth to all things, and having nurtured them receives their increase in turn. And meanwhile, as I pour these lustral offerings to the dead, I invoke my father.
D) Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 399-404
(Electra) Hear, O Earth, and you powers below with your timê!Chorus: And it is the eternal law [nomos] that drops of blood spilled on the ground demand yet more blood. Murder cries out on the Fury [Erinys], which from those killed before brings one atê in the wake of another atê.
E) Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 466-489
(Chorus) Ah, inbred trouble [ponos] and bloody stroke of ruin [atê] without a tune [mousa]! Ah, lamentable and grievous sorrows! 470 Ah, the unstaunched pain!Our house has a cure to heal these woes, a cure not from outside, from the hands of others, but from itself, by fierce, bloody eris. 475 This hymn is for the gods beneath the earth.
O you blessed powers below [khthonioi], hear this supplication of ours, and with favorable phrenes send forth to these children your aid for victory!
Orestes: O father, who perished by a death unbefitting a king [turannos], 480 grant in answer to my prayer the power [kratos] over your halls!
Electra: And I too, father, have a like request of you: to escape when I have wrought great destruction on Aegisthus.
Orestes: Yes, for then the customary funeral feasts of men would be established in your honor. But otherwise, at the rich and savory banquet of burnt offerings made to the earth, 485 you will be without a portion of tîmê.
Electra: And I will likewise at my wedding offer libations to you out of the fullness of my inheritance from my father's house, and before all else I will hold this tomb of yours in the highest honor.
Orestes: O Earth, send up my father to watch my battle!
F) Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 576-578
I will skewer him with my swift sword and lay him dead. The fury [Erinys] that has no fill of slaughter shall, for her third and crowning drink, drink unmixed blood!
Review Relevant facts about ancient Greek hero cults.
A woman pours a wine libation.
