The Oresteia was a brilliant read to follow on from the Iliad. I must say that women don’t get a lot of joy in this. First Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter to the gods (murders her) just so he can get good winds for his ship. Then he goes off to play his little war games, leaving his grief stricken wife mourning her daughter, for YEARS! When he finally turns up he brings his little girlfriend with him ( who is an unhappy enslaved war prize) and expects to be welcomed back with open arms. His wife is not best pleased, so with the help of her new partner she stabs him… in the bath. And kills the unhappy slave girl too (who didn’t want to be there in the first place).
Then the wife is killed by her own son.. who gets pursued by the Eumenides (also known as the Furies) for his crime. The furies are horrible to behold.. ‘repulsive’ hags whose eyes ‘ooze a sickening discharge’, amongst other ugliness.
It all ends in the first mortal court of law where it is remarked that mothers are not really parents, they just ‘nurse the seed’. Ha!
Despite all that it was a jolly little tale