History Theatre / TheOresteia

* MoralMyopia: Clytemnestra is happy to cheat on her husband with Aegisthus, but is so outraged when he does the same with his SexSlave Cassandra that she murders her.

* CycleOfRevenge: It all began when [[WhatTheHellHero Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter Iphigeneia so that the Greek army could sail out for Troy.]] He returns home after ten years of war, only to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra. Then Orestes, their son, felt it was his duty to kill ''her'', and so on and so forth. Also note that Ag's cousin, Aegisthus, has a hand in his death as the continuation of a blood feud between their fathers--Ag's father Atreus had [[ImAHumanitarian served up Aeg's brothers]] to their father, Thyestes, for having an affair with Atreus' wife. Finding a resolution to this cycle that does not involve the death of every named character is the focus of the final play.

Has been translated multiple times; you can find one version here: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/7atrs10.txt

!! Tropes in the ''Oresteia'' include:

[[quoteright:239:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sakdjajd_5827.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:239:And you thought ''your'' family had problems.]]

%%* BecauseDestinySaysSo

%%* Myth/ClassicalMythology
* CycleOfRevenge: It all began when [[WhatTheHellHero Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter Iphigeneia so that the Greek army could sail out for Troy.]] He returns home after ten years of war, only to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra. Then Orestes, their son, felt it was his duty to kill ''her'', and so on and so forth. Also note that Ag's cousin Aegisthus has a hand in his death as the continuation of a bloodfeud between their fathers--Ag's father Atreus had [[ImAHumanitarian served up Aeg's brothers]] to their father Thyestes for having an affair with Atreus' wife. Finding a resolution to this cycle that does not involve the death of every named character is the focus of the final play.

%%* GreekChorus

These questions had been asked by Athenians for decades after the battle of Marathon (which occurred during the first Persian invasion of Greece, in 490 BC) and were the inspiration for ''The Oresteian Trilogy'', three ancient Greek [[{{Tragedy}} tragedies]] written by {{Aeschylus}}.

{{Aeschylus}} shows us that unchecked violence gives birth to further violence, murder begets more murder.

* CycleOfRevenge: [[spoiler:It all began when [[WhatTheHellHero Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter Iphigeneia so that the Greek army could sail out for Troy.]] He returns home after ten years of war, only to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra. Then Orestes, their son, felt it was his duty to kill ''her'', and so on and so forth. Also note that Ag's cousin Aegisthus has a hand in his death as the continuation of a bloodfeud between their fathers--Ag's father Atreus had [[ImAHumanitarian served up Aeg's brothers]] to their father Thyestes for having an affair with Atreus' wife. Finding a resolution to this cycle that does not involve the death of every named character is the focus of the final play.]]
* DeusExMachina: Literally, since [[spoiler:that's the only way the CycleOfRevenge is concluded.]]

* MissingEpisode: The Oresteia would originally have been performed with a 4th comic play, ''Proteus''. It has not survived.

* BecauseDestinySaysSo

* Myth/ClassicalMythology

* GreekChorus

* DownerEnding: Played straight, but also subverted. In the first play of the trilogy, Clytemnestra seems to get away with Agamemnon's murder. However, the next play dealt with Orestes' vengeance against her. Of course, that is itself a big no-no, so Orestes is tormented by the Furies. The next play of the trilogy is a trial, which ends in the acquittal of Orestes, making the trilogy as a whole end on an up note. This was quite an innovation at the time, as a trilogy of plays produced for the City Dionysia were normally unrelated.

* ClassicalMythology

* CassandraTruth: Agamemnon features the actual Cassandra, who tells the Greek Chorus that she's going to die by Clytemnestra's hand, but they don't seem to understand her.

* CycleOfRevenge: [[spoiler:It all began when [[WhatTheHellHero Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter Iphigeneia so that the Greek army could sail out for Troy.]] He returns home after ten years of war, only to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra. Then Orestes, their son, felt it was his duty to kill ''her'', and so on and so forth. Also note that Ag's cousin Aegisthus has a hand in his death as the continuation of a bloodfeud between their fathers--Ag's father Atreus had served up Aeg's brothers to their father Thyestes for having an affair with Atreus' wife. Finding a resolution to this cycle that does not involve the death of every named character is the focus of the final play.]]

* CycleOfRevenge: [[spoiler:It all began when [[WhatTheHellHero Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter Iphigeneia so that the Greek army could sail out for Troy.]] He returns home after ten years of war, only to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra. Then Orestes, their son, felt it was his duty to kill ''her'', and so on and so forth. Also note that Ag's cousin Aegisthus has a hand in his death as the continuation of a bloodfeud between their fathers. Finding a resolution to this cycle that does not involve the death of every named character is the focus of the final play.]]

* BecauseDestinySaysSo
* CassandraTruth: Agamemnon features the actual Cassandra, who tells the Greek Chorus that she's going to die by Clytemnestra's hand, but they don't seem to understand her.
* CycleOfRevenge: [[spoiler:It all began when [[WhatTheHellHero Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter Iphigeneia so that the Greek army could sail out for Troy.]] He returns home after ten years of war, only to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra. Then Orestes, their son, felt it was his duty to kill ''her'', and so on and so forth. Also note that Ag's cousin Aegisthus has a hand in his death as the continuation of a bloodfeud between their fathers. Finding a resolution to this cycle that does not involve the death of every named character is the focus of the final play.]]
* DeusExMachina: Literally, since [[spoiler:that's the only way the CycleOfRevenge is concluded.]]

These questions have been asked by Athenians for decades after the battle of Marathon.(During the first Persian invasion of Greece, in 490 BC) And with that is the influence and inspiration for ''The Oresteian Trilogy'' Three ancient Greek [[{{Tragedy}} tragedies]] written by {{Aeschylus}}.

These three plays, detail the sordid affairs due to a curse on the House of Atreus. The trilogy consists of

{{Aeschylus}} shows us that unchecked violence gives birth to further violence, murder begets more murder.

* NightmareFuel: According to contemporary accounts, the Eumenides in the ''Oresteia'' caused fainting and [[BringMyBrownPants sphincter trouble]] in the audience at its premiere.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: According to contemporary accounts, the Eumenides in the ''Oresteia'' caused fainting and [[BringMyBrownPants sphincter trouble]] in the audience at its premiere.

* CycleOfRevenge: [[spoiler:It all began when Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter Iphigeneia so that the Greek army could sail out for Troy. He returns home after ten years of war, only to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra. Then Orestes, their son, felt it was his duty to kill ''her'', and so on and so forth. Also note that Ag's cousin Aegisthus has a hand in his death as the continuation of a bloodfeud between their fathers. Finding a resolution to this cycle that does not involve the death of every named character is the focus of the final play.]]