Rituals Throughout The Oresteia

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness, Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,

Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:

What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape Of deities or mortals, or of both, In Tempe or the dales of Arcady? What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?

What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? Grecian urns preserve important scenes for posterity. Significant myths, figures, and rituals often grace the domed pottery. One such Grecian urn boasts a strange image: Apollo offering a libation. Libations, often drink offerings poured out to placate deities–typically

Throughout the work, the health of an oikos directly affects the libation and funeral rites offered to the dead. Aeschylus utilizes libations as a litmus test for the health of the oikos through the cultural significance of the ritual, the perversion of it by Clytemnestra, and the sincere yet incorrect offering of Elektra and

The choe is intended for the dead and for Chthonic gods; nevertheless, one can also speak of spondai for the chthonioi. (Burkett, 71).

The Greek side elucidates the historical meaning of the libation. The Old Indic side of the watershed reveals the beginning of the religious significance.

While the Greek word suggests the pouring of any liquid, the Old Indic form refers specifically to the pouring of the melted butter on the sacrificial fire. It has also been observed that… ‘pour’ is employed in Latin, Greek, and Old Indic not only for the pouring out of liquids, but also in speech, particularly that concerned with sacrifices in Indic…and elevated passaged of poetry in Greek,”. Therefore, by putting the two developments together, a fuller understanding of libations is gained. An understanding Aeschylus possessed. In Greek works, “the term indicates ‘to pour a libation’ on the occasion of some particularly difficult situation as a way to invite the support of the gods to protect