Greek Religious Thought

Life is not a meaningless series of acts of violence, but a progression to the rule of Zeus who stands for order and justice. Thus, the law of human life which Zeus administers is that wisdom comes through suffering.

The chain of events leading to Trial by Jury, part of Zeus's plan for humans:

Progression with the Gods

• Uranos -- other deities at this time, the Furies (vengence)
• Chronos -- Chronos overthrows his father, Uranos
• Zeus -- Zeus overthrows his father, Chronos

Progression with Humans

• Prometheus gives man fire and angers Zeus who chains him up for eternity. Prometheus tells Zeus he has a prophecy: Thetis, Zeus's current mistress, will have a son greater than his father. Zeus marries her off to a mortal, Peleus, so that won't happen. All the gods come to the wedding except for the uninvited goddess, Strife, who comes anyway and throws out the golden apple for the fairest goddess of all. Then comes the story of Paris and Helen and the Trojan War.

• The Furies: old goddesses associated with the reign of Uranus, pre-Zeus, equated with vengeance. The Furies's job was to hound out of any community a perpetrator of the three great sins: a) blasphemy, b) treachery to a host or guest, c) shedding of kindred blood.

   

• Feud between the brothers, Atreus and Thyestes: Thyestes seduces Atreus's wife; to avenge the seduction, Atreus kills his brother's two young sons and invites his brother to a feast at which he serves him a stew of the two little boys, making sure that Thyestes is permanently unclean and therefore unfit to rule. Thyestes retires to exile along with his other son, Aegisthus.

   

• The Human Sacrifice of Iphigenia

   

• Clytemnestra and Aegisthus kill Agamemnon, she for the death of Iphegenia, he for the crime Agamemnon's father perpetrated on Aegisthus's father. (In the old scheme of things, the sins of the father are inherited by their sons: in this case, Agamemnon inherits his father's crime and is punishable for that crime.)

   

• Orestes, guided by Apollo, avenges his father's death by killing his mother; the Furies, who represent the older religion, pre-Zeus, pre-Olympian religion, want to kill Orestes to avenge his crime of shedding kindred blood; they forgive the murder of Agamemnon because Clytemnestra wasn't blood-related to her husband.

   

• The Trial of Orestes: 12 Athenian citizens are jurors; Apollo defends Orestes, the Furies prosecute; Apollo points out that the Furies' form of justice is intolerable because it implies a contempt for the marriage bond and will result in generations of blood-feuds. The vote is tied; Athena, as judge, casts the tie-breaking vote: she votes to acquit Orestes.