The Libation Bearers & Eumenides

Here Dr. White discusses the second and third plays of The Oresteia. He explains that The Libation Bearers, the second play in the trilogy, is named for the chorus. It is a play about the power of the past, and how the living have obligations to the dead. Again it is a play about revenge though it begins and ends with a prayer. The third play in the trilogy, Eumenides, Dr. white tells us, features an enormous conflict between the gods, essentially turning the play into a courtroom drama, the outcome of which is ultimately judged by the goddess Athena.

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