The Oresteia And The Three Theban Plays: An Analysis

The tragic self which appears in Aeschylus’s The Oresteia and Sophocles’ The Three Theban Plays, is a self which is caught between the choice of two evils and between following natural and civic laws. However, the philosophical self in Aristotle’s The Nicomachean Ethics focuses on choice as well, but the choice of the highest good such that the fundamental aim of the self is happiness and to become rational human beings. The topic of choice also relates to the discourse between fate and free will and which has more power in the decisions humans make.
Greek tragic heroes have three common requirements: they are characters in which the reader sympathizes with, they have a tragic ending, and are rash and spirited in what they believe. Agamemnon,

However, he is still influenced by fate, the gods and the unconscious mind. He demonstrates a self which is related to the collective emotion of past tribes and familial ties, but still remains individualized and separated. This is demonstrated at the end of Homer’s Oedipus the King when Oedipus becomes self-conscious upon and discovering that he has executed the prophecy; he takes control of his punishment to compensate for his inability to recognize himself as the subject of the prophecy. For example, Oedipus takes control when he says, “but the hand that struck my eyes was mine, mine alone– no one else–/ I did it all myself!” (Oedipus the King, lines 1469-1471). He is distraught over his actions and is unable to see how fate also played a role in his behavior and acts rashly by taking control of his punishment. This transition is further supported by Oedipus’s continued admission of guilt such as when he declares, “now I’ve exposed my guild, horrendous guilt” (Oedipus the King, 1516). In Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus proclaims he is innocent for his behavior in the prophecy because he has accepted who he is and responsibility. By extension, Oedipus accepts himself as a fated man who acted as such, and so is innocent. This is demonstrated in the text when Oedipus cries out, “now that I hear the oracles my dear one brings/ and brood on the old prophecies, stored/ in the depths of all my

Aristotle’s self is governed by choice which is made voluntarily (therefore freely), and deliberately. However, only the virtuous can fully make a free choice because the unvirtuous will make decisions ignorantly and thus involuntarily and will act in accordance with those decisions. For instance, in The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle states that “those things [actions] then, are thought involuntarily, which take place by force or by reason of ignorance; and that is force of which the moving principle is outside” (1110a, Lines 35-37). Thus decisions need to be made voluntarily and not influenced solely by an object. This claim is supported by Aristotle’s point, “choice, then, seems to be voluntary, but not the same thing as the voluntary; the latter extends more widely” (1111b, lines 7-8). To determine if a choice is voluntarily made rather than involuntary, then there must be deliberation about the decision. This deliberation factor in the rationality of choice, whether it is made voluntarily or involuntarily, the opinion of the person, and which object is compelling the person to make it. According to Aristotle, “we deliberate about things that are in our power and can be done; and these are in fact what is left. For nature, necessity, and chance are thought