Libation Bearers Lies and Deceit Quotes Page 3
Citations follow this format: (Line). We used Christopher Collard's translation.
| Quote #7 (Chorus): "A part in things would justly go |
Once again, the Chorus invokes the help of Maia's son (i.e., Hermes, the god of trickery) to help them in their plan of deception. Their description of the god – invisible at night, no more visible during the day – is pretty darn cool, in our humble opinion.
| Quote #8 (Clytemnestra): "Stop, my son! Hold back, from respect for this breast! You often drowsed at it while your gums drew out its rich milk." (896-898) |
Did Clytemnestra really breastfeed Orestes? You might think so, from the face of it, but we in the audience have actually just heard the Nurse give a long speech about how she was the one in charge of breastfeeding Orestes. (That's, uh, probably why she's called the Nurse.) Whose word do you accept? We think there's a strong possibility that Clytemnestra is just exploiting the fact that Orestes (like everyone else) doesn't remember his own infancy, in order to deceive him and prevent him from killing her.
| Quote #9 (Chorus): "There came stealthy fighting, the favourite means |
Nowadays, we tend to think about justice as going hand-in-hand with clarity and transparency. Here, however, the Chorus seems to think that justice is a deft hand with trickery as well.
