The Furies' Homecoming
| Autor: | Helen H. Bacon |
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| Rok vydání: | 2001 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Classical Philology. 96:48-59 |
| ISSN: | 1546-072X 0009-837X |
| DOI: | 10.1086/449523 |
| Popis: | Two sacred and related institutions-animal sacrifice, the shared feast of mortals and gods, and hospitality, the relation of host and guest-permeate the trilogy, both as actual occurrences and as figures of speech, and achieve climactic expression in the final scene of Eumenides in which the Furies become the beneficiaries of Athenian hospitality in two forms-a cult, which includes an invitation to participate in a recurrent sacrificial feast in their honor, and a permanent home in a cave under the hill of Ares. In an operatic finale they sing a song of blessing for the city, and now, robed in red instead of black,1 proceed to their new abode with a ceremonial escort of torch-bearing, singing Athenians. We need to consider what these two institutions, sacrificial feast and hospitality, meant in Aeschylus' society in order to understand the meaning of this pageant and its relation to the rest of the trilogy. Participants in the sacrificial feast receive portions of the sacrificed animal appropriate to their station-for the gods the smoke from the bones and fat burned on the altar, for mortals cuts of meat according to their rank. Sacrifice thus, by confirming every participant's proper place, consolidates community and social order. Disruption in the community is mirrored in |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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