The Orestia: RITUAL
Greek religion is ritual and ritual
is ...what? How do we define ritual? Before reading my definition
below, free-write your own definition. Then, brainstorm a list of
the types of rituals and ritualisitc elements that you can locate in
the three plays. Write these down and compare with the list
below.
Rituals are those actions that we do because they have meaning. Rituals have historical meaning, through the repetition of them. They have context, including spacial and temporal placement, because rituals are enacted in certain ways, in certain times and places. Rituals tend to be stylized and specialized, but that only sets them apart from other actions and an "outsider' may not see the ritual if they are not familiar with the context of the community. Rituals are created for both community and for self--they give cohesion to community life (we all do these rituals together) and they provide us with a stronger sense of self, through our recollections of the meanings behind the rituals.
RITUALS and ELEMENTS OF RITUALS:
To do: find three examples at least of where we can find these rituals and ritualistic elements in the plays. Record the page numbers and lines and offer interpretations as to how they fit in the play, why the playwright uses THIS ritual in particular, what purpose it serves (in terms of meaning or theme, or action in the play).
For instance, as Clytemnestra is responding to the signal fires at the start of Agamemmnon by lighting the altar fires, the chorus is anxiously waiting for the news and filling up the space by commenting on revenge--on Paris and the furies and the Trojan war. The war resulted from Paris's actions; neither "singeing flesh / nor tipping cups of wine / nor shedding burning tears can you / enchant away the rigid Fury"
Clytemnestra is performing these rituals while they make this comment...she is not only lighting fires but "burning victims" (so she would have gone through rituals to cleanse and offer animals for sacrifice). She is so focused on ritual that she will not "soothe our fears." This may be our first indication that she can not "enchant away the rigid Fury" from the house of Atreus by ritual without a pure life.
Quotations from lines 75-78, 96.
Rituals are those actions that we do because they have meaning. Rituals have historical meaning, through the repetition of them. They have context, including spacial and temporal placement, because rituals are enacted in certain ways, in certain times and places. Rituals tend to be stylized and specialized, but that only sets them apart from other actions and an "outsider' may not see the ritual if they are not familiar with the context of the community. Rituals are created for both community and for self--they give cohesion to community life (we all do these rituals together) and they provide us with a stronger sense of self, through our recollections of the meanings behind the rituals.
RITUALS and ELEMENTS OF RITUALS:
| robes
processions libations navelstone death prayer winding sheet welcoming path altar fires sacrifice oracle prophecy prayer to gods cult image (of the living god) |
 Libations poured by Apollo himself (from Delphi's museum)   Athena at Aegina Temple (similar to the warrior image of Athena at the Parthenon) |
To do: find three examples at least of where we can find these rituals and ritualistic elements in the plays. Record the page numbers and lines and offer interpretations as to how they fit in the play, why the playwright uses THIS ritual in particular, what purpose it serves (in terms of meaning or theme, or action in the play).
For instance, as Clytemnestra is responding to the signal fires at the start of Agamemmnon by lighting the altar fires, the chorus is anxiously waiting for the news and filling up the space by commenting on revenge--on Paris and the furies and the Trojan war. The war resulted from Paris's actions; neither "singeing flesh / nor tipping cups of wine / nor shedding burning tears can you / enchant away the rigid Fury"
Clytemnestra is performing these rituals while they make this comment...she is not only lighting fires but "burning victims" (so she would have gone through rituals to cleanse and offer animals for sacrifice). She is so focused on ritual that she will not "soothe our fears." This may be our first indication that she can not "enchant away the rigid Fury" from the house of Atreus by ritual without a pure life.
Quotations from lines 75-78, 96.