The conflict between the rational and the irrational is present in every person or situation. In Greek tragedies, this conflict is constantly present in the actions and decisions of the characters. Usually, there is always one character who will act rationally in relation to the others and attempt to resolve the conflict. The Eumenides and the Bacchae describe the conflict between the rational and the irrational, but the act and the solution are presented differently. While The Eumenides depicts him killing the family by committing matricide and homicide, The Bacchae depicts him killing the family by committing an unconscious homicide motivated by the desire for the forbidden. The most powerful characters in the Eumenides, starting with the Furies, everything about them makes sense. The Furies view Orestes as a horrible person and are determined to capture Orestes for committing matricide. They do not symbolize peace, but vengeance; they represent the application of the law without further understanding. The Furies demonstrate this at the end of the play, in which they comply with a gift from Athena in order to stop discussing the solution. Apollo is another important character who symbolizes vengeance as well as order. By ordering Orestes to kill his mother or suffer the consequences, Apollo symbolizes the desire for revenge and the order of rights. He believes that avenging the death of the king (Orestes' father) and placing Orestes as the rightful heir to the throne is the right thing to do. As it is traditional to pass the throne to the son rather than the wife upon the death of a king, Apollo wants to impose this order. He does not let Clytaemestra rule, for a queen who murders her husband and sends...... middle of paper ......th Semele, leading to Dionysus' desire for revenge which resembles Clytaemestra's motivations. He wants his mother's family to repay their debts, causing the women to unconsciously become drunk and later prompting Pentheus to go see the forbidden. In this tragedy, Euripides aspires to demonstrate how even the desire to see the forbidden can deceive the most rational man. The rational and the irrational play a role in each person's decision; it is the way one decides to act in the face of a situation and demonstrate which side he or she tends to favor. Whether like Pentheus, a rational man deceived by his "inner Dionysus" commits an irrational act which took his life, or like Athena, who introduces a neutral trial which rationally decides the consequences and the seriousness of the conflict when each one conflict arises and neither party agrees, there should be.