Violence, Death, and the Dead Theme Analysis

All of the characters within The Libation Bearers speak a language of violence and death. Whether male or female, they all express sentiments that are incredibly bloody, from Orestes and Electra plotting their mother’s murder, to the Chorus wishing for “the fresh-drawn blood of Justice,” to Aegisthus contemplating Orestes’s (falsely reported) death, to Clytemnestra calling for a “man-axe” to defend her house. Within this world, in which fathers kill children, wives kill husbands, and sons kill mothers, violence is an omnipresent and inescapable force, one that can strike at any time and come from any source.

Considering the constant threat of violence, it is unsurprising that the characters constantly think about and discuss death and the dead. This overriding theme is made obvious from the first moments of the play, when Orestes and Electra visit the burial mound of Agamemnon, a potent symbol of the power that their dead father has on his living descendants. This reverence for and obsession with the dead is characteristic of Ancient Greek culture. The Greeks had specific, set ways in which the living had to show their respect for the dead, and to violate those customs was a grave sin. In fact, Clytemnestra’s lack of reverence for her dead husband (despite the fact that she herself plotted his death) is held up as proof of her sinfulness. To Orestes, Electra, and the Chorus, their allegiance to the dead Agamemnon is in fact more powerful than their ties to their mother—proof of the incredible amount of sway that the dead still have on the living.

At the same time, it is vital to remember the background of violence and death that all the characters share. At this point in Ancient Greek mythology, the Trojan War—a bloody, prolonged conflict that took a decade to end—is still fresh in the characters’ minds. Also important to remember are the bloody deeds that these characters’ ancestors enacted upon each other: Agamemnon’s father Atreus exiled his brother (Aegisthus’ father Thyestes) and then later tricked him into eating two of his three sons (Aegisthus, the third child, escaping unscathed). Ancient Greek audiences would have been familiar with these stories, and would have understood the bloody, violent background that underlies the play.

Of course, the theme of violence, death, and the dead is also closely linked to the theme of revenge. While the Chorus and the characters often equate revenge with justice, the continual references to violence and death serve to remind us of the real and ongoing consequences that vengeance can have. The characters of The Libation Bearers are so caught up in their endless cycle of vengeance as a means of exacting justice that they do not seem to realize that their lives have become saturated in blood and death. In fact, only in this play’s sequel, The Eumenides, will this destructive cycle end, and will constant violence become a thing of the past.