Euripides' play, Orestes,
transcends the
Greecian categories of
tragedy and
comedy at the time of 408 B.C. Orestes; his sister,
Electra; and his friend,
Pylades, had committed
matricide, after Oreste's mother,
Clytaemnestra, took her husband's life. They are descended from a royal family with a similar history of
atrocious crimes committed against one another. Orestes himself is
sick with madness, and the other two support him
dutifully. They all wait
anxiously on the vote of the council who will decide whether they live or die. Most of their family - which includes the famous
Helen of Troy, their
uncle, and their
grandfather - wish to see them dead. The vote goes against them, influenced by the
paramour of Oreste's mother. Instead of
resigning themselves to their fate, they suddenly choose instead to take
vengeance on the
villified Helen and kill her, and then take her daughter,
Hermione, hostage to try to sway their uncle from claiming their familial
heritage. Orestes and Pylades try to murder Helen, but she disappears at the last moment. They quickly move to take Hermione
hostage, but
Apollo appears in the nick on time in the classic
deus ex machina fashion. He reveals their true fates to them: Helen was taken by the gods to live with them on
Mount Olympus, Hermione will be
betrothed to Orestes, Orestes must be
exiled and the gods will
rig the case so he is free, and their uncle will allow Orestes to rule part of the land and he the other peacefully. They all accept this without question. Far from being
erroneously written, the characters are deliberately
exaggerated to become something of a
tragic comedy before the official
genre arose.
I would like to thank www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/orestes.htm for supplying the translation.