Twenty five centuries
have passed since Aeschylus, dissatisfied with the life that Athenians had to
bear, marked by the anguish and the terror, wrote The Oresteia, in a time that aspired the order but that moved
itself in mystery and in fear, in a world where violence ruled. Aeschylus was
worried and he would protest, if there was a need, and this protest lead into
an aspiration of justice. The Oresteia
is just a protest from Aeschylus and the citizens of Athens
Over the three plays in
which The Oresteia consists on (Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The
Eumenides) this justice, that starts divine and that’s why it’s feared,
it’s desired and claimed and, in the end, is retouched and humanized. This is
truly Aeschylus’ intention who is not satisfied with a simplistic optimism, but
looks for and order, a civic ideal and a certain image of a worthy leader.
After twenty five
centuries nothing has changed. Our Hellas lives through rough times like those in the
past, our libation bearers are still
subdued by discrimination and total abandon. We found it difficult to support
the plans and misfortunes that those gods (that consider themselves) bigger
force us to bear, and the eumenides,
the justice representatives, are always slow to arrive.
Aeschylus was an artist
(he wrote, he staged and interpreted), and the duty and responsibility, to
denunciate the subjugation that the οἱ τύραννοι (the tyrants) and the οἱ δεσπόται (the
despots) imposed to the people, has always been inspired to the artists. Aeschylus tried to draw the spectator’s spirit into the idea of a more
human and humanized society, fair and with equal duties and rights.
Dear citizens of this Athens Theatro Circo planning. Don’t wait to arrive just a
little bit before the show, slowly buy your ticket, walk into the room and,
cozily seat in the public to watch a nice classic. Don’t be mislead, the
Erynies’ discomfort and restlessness are waiting to torment you at any time.
The only thing I can assure you is that you’ll be a conflict’s victim, like our
Hellenic fathers were one. Confrontation and comfort between characters and
confrontation between theatre and a reality, which everyone thinks as ancient
but, it is, in fact, so ordinary.
Sirs that don’t know how
to lead their armies, that poorly rule their cities, that illegitimately use
the power to them confide, that narrow relationships and make new alliances as
it is better for them, that sacrifice the youth because a need demands a
military attitude such as that.
«If the great crisis, as
Jaqueline de Romilly says, have something collective: it so easily combines
with the role of the Chorus», that problem’s resolution also involves the
practice of justice, through an Orestes that, more than revenge, comes to
restore the order and to put justice into practice!
Nuno Campos
Monteiro
Universidade
do Minho
