Justice and Social Order in OresteiaDemocracy, emerging in the city-state of Athens, granted unprecedented power to its citizens. Among these new powers was the ability to legislate. Yet the legislation was not without its problems. Citizens must first agree on what is just and unjust, then enforce the law by getting the unjust to reconcile their guilt with the public through trial, and finally pronounce the appropriate punishment. This development was not without concern. The Greeks were attempting to establish a system of government that would be somewhere between anarchy and despotism. Through the crimes played out in Aeschylus' tragic trilogy The Oresteia, Aeschylus demonstrates the contrast between anarchy and despotism and judges both guilty. Indeed, he shows, at the end of the play, that the only way for man to be absolved of his guilt is to ally himself with the gods in a common effort to promote justice. Its premise is supported by sequentially tracking the criminal legacy of the House of Atreus and demonstrating that the curse of continuing injustice can only be stopped by the cooperative effort of man and God. Aeschylus draws his contrast between anarchy and despotism through the main characters of the play. First of all, Atreus, Agamemnon's father, although he never appears in the trilogy himself, is a central character and the vehicle through which the curse is introduced. His crime is that of anarchy. Second, Agamemnon returns from Troy with the blood guilt of despotism. Next, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's queen, represents a mixture of both evils in that she embodies a selfish ruler. Finally Orestes, son of Agamemnon, is presented as a pious man who lets his destiny be determined by the gods in conjunction...... middle of paper ...... of the trilogy it was demonstrated the power that democracy brandished. He succeeded in eliminating anarchy and despotism through a middle ground. Although this had previously been the role of the Erinyes (Eu., ln.526-30), they had proved unsuccessful thanks to the play. Thus, at the end of the Eumenides, Aeschylus asks the Furies to abandon the governance of the city to the citizens and to grant honor to the people (Eu., ln.1016-20). Aeschylus therefore demonstrates that democracy allows the union between man and man. gods that neither anarchy nor despotism could realize. Moreover, it is only through this union that justice can be done and ancient laws and practices can be overturned. With this new social order, man celebrated unprecedented equality, honor, and prosperity. Works Cited: Aeschylus. Oresteia. Trans. Pierre Meineck. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998.