Desire: The Feminine Vice in the Oresteia

In Aeschylus’s The Oresteia the principle conflict is between the male and female, but in a trilogy framed by the male-dominated polis the fact that this literary piece also discusses the interconnection between the female and masculine society of ancient Greece is not bizarre. In The Oresteia the female-society interaction only becomes a struggle when the female transcends her proper social position. The threat imposed upon the community that results from her overstepping the Greek social bounds is the consequence of a single feminine vice, desire, manifesting itself in two different ways. For Aeschylus the first materialization of feminine desire is the misuse of the body and the other is the misuse of language. Hence, through these two channels Aeschylus’s trilogy demonstrates the manner in which feminine desire can corrupt society, and in analyzing these two vehicles of feminine corruption, The Oresteia hints at the reasoning behind the Greek social position forced upon women.

The strife between the female and society in The Oresteia is initiated and perpetuated by Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon and a character that implements both of Aeschylus’s deceptive devices. Clytemnestra’s first threat to the community is ushered in as her sexual desire coaxes her into adulterous relations with her husband’s cousin, Aegisthus. This association is exceedingly perilous because Clytemnestra is the wife of the king, but for the ancient Greeks any extramarital relations, not just those involving the ruling-class, were excessively dangerous. In fact adultery was so hazardous that the Greeks actually found the launch of a full military expedition to be an appropriate response to the infidelity of Helen, Clytemnestra’s sister. The war which the Greek would initiate would of course take the lives of numerous Greek warriors, but such a hefty sacrifice was necessary in order to oppose marital betrayal.

The weight of unfaithfulness was significant enough to constitute a war because infidelity menaced the continuance of the patriarchal system, the basic family structure of the Greeks.

Doctor Mabel Elliot and Doctor Francis Merrill express the danger of feminine desire to the patriarchal structure in the book Social Disorder. If a woman were promiscuous, there would be no means of ascertaining paternity, and no man could be certain that his wife’s children were his own. Desire for an heir and for certainty of parentage is thus inextricably related to demands for martial fidelity.”

For the Greeks the key word was paternity, which as the passage states is only ensured by “martial fidelity”. Certainly for the Greek male a basic desire of legacy or a yearning for the family name to be continued played a role in the desire for paternity. However, the more immediate concern was that a man’s offspring could be denied citizenship because of questions of legitimacy. Under Athenian Law, as was the case in many other Greek cities, citizenship required an individual to be the offspring of two legally married citizens, and usually only citizens were capable of inheriting property. This fact threatened the survival of the household, of the oikos, because an illegitimate son could not be the heir to his house. Hence, female desire in the form adultery interrupted the passage of property from father-to-son and challenged the proper maintenance of the oikos, of the family legacy.

In The Agamemnon the chorus summaries this thought extremely effectively in singing:

“Desire, corrupt desire, female in nature,
Perverts and conquers the yoked society
Of beast and men.”

In this passage the chorus clearly states that female desire, which often and in the case of Clytemnestra is manifested in the form of sexual desire, has the power to “pervert and conquer” the established order, the patriarchal system of the oikos.

While the danger of adultery and the misuse of the female body is made remarkable apparent by the plot of The Oresteia, the female usage of language is portrayed as equally perilous though more complex. In The Oresteia, as in the Greek world, the power and importance of language is great, and Aeschylus exhibits this weightiness when Athena says, “In this place [the trial of Orestes] we will find judges; and speeches as our engine to enchant them.” By these words Athena implies that language has the ability to “to enchant”. Indeed words, language, and the ability to speak were of the utmost priority to ancient Greeks because words were the medium through which action resulted. Often for a male active in the polis the success of his political life depended on his ability to speak, for the male citizen had to voice his opinion at the assembly and even speak on his own behave in court. Undoubtedly for the individual language was both significant and powerful, and in the group sense language was not less consequential. In fact, the survival of the polis depended upon the language of the assembly and courts, and moreover language was the power to move the polis to action. Hence, the importance of language to the Greek is undeniable, and as a result Clytemnestra’s misuse of speech is no light thing.

With the importance of language established, it becomes apparent why feminine misuse of speech is so hazardous. However, the reason for suppression of the female into silence is not a result of a conception of female inadequacy but rather a fear of female’s misuse of the power of language. The easiest manner in which to demonstrate how the female can misuse this power is to contrast the male application of language to the female misapplication of the same. In The Oresteia, all male characters use language to spur actions that benefit the social structure, the polis. For example, the language of Agamemnon results in him consenting to the sacrifice of his daughter for the sake of the military expedition, and Orestes language eventually leads him to the act of matricide with the intent of putting his house back in order. In both cases, language leads each male to an action that is advantageous to society. However, the language of the female results in actions that are self-centered or self-concerned and are damaging to society. The most obvious example is Clytemnestra’s elaborate deception that enables her to commit regicide. This act maims the polis, but appeases her own sense of justice.

Helen’s treachery is similar in that it wounds the community by causing a war that takes the lives of countless Greeks, but her language and actions are in compliance with her own desires. Thus while the end actions of both of these women are beneficial to their own will, their deeds are harmful to the community. Hence, the Greeks held that the desire of a woman could pervert language to such an extent that it would be harmful to society.

In conclusion for the Greeks the appropriate place for the woman was the unheard interior of the home, because such an environment would prevent her from using Aeschylus’s two deceptive devices. On female fidelity philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau would later state, “The danger that a woman might be unfaithful both necessitates and justifies their subjection.” Certainly the Greeks identified with the danger of a woman’s unfaithfulness and understood the peril it posed to the patriarchal system of the oikos. The Greeks also perceived female language as destructive to the community because the Greeks believed feminine language would lead to self-centered actions that would hurt society. Indeed Simon Goldhill would later write, “There is commonly an association of the female with corrupt language in early Greek thought.” The end result is that the potential of a woman to misuse her body and to harm society through the use of her language both “necessitates and justifies” her subjection to the harmless, unheard interior of home.