The dialogue between Orestes and the Furies reflects the entire dialectic struggle between matriarchy and patriarchy. Orestes contends that Clytemnestra has committed a double crime against him, because she did not only killed her husband but also her sons' father. So why the Furies(Erynies), persecute him and not Her that was much more guilty?
The answer is: “She had no blood relation with the relative that she murdered.” This answer, which today seems almost incomprehensible, shows with crystal clarity the logic of a matrilineal system. For the Erynies, matricide weighs more than spousecide, because they see the structure and ethos of society, from a maternal standpoint: “The Father has external bond with his children, while the Mother is sharing with them a blood bond.
According to Apollo, father "sows" the child in the mother's uterus and therefore has more rights to it; on the contrary according to the perception that prevailed until then, mother gives her child blood and life, she is the sole “owner”, and her child's father is for her a stranger.
For this reason the Furies reply to Apollo's perception this way: “You demolished the ancient authorities, you the young old women destroyer”.
The jurors then deliberate their verdict: Half vote in favor of the Old and the other half in favor of the new law, reaching tie. Then Athena gets the altar stone that was used for vote and she's throwing it into the ballot box, saying:
“It is my own task to judge the end of the trial thus I will give my vote to Orestes. Why mother is not who has given birth to me and I wholeheartedly compliment the Man, in all but marriage and with the father's part I totally am. I will not put a woman's death above a man's if that woman has already killed her husband, patron and safeguard of the household. Even if you come out with equal votes, again it is Orestes who wins.”
“It is my own task to judge the end of the trial thus I will give my vote to Orestes. Why mother is not who has given birth to me and I wholeheartedly compliment the Man, in all but marriage and with the father's part I totally am. I will not put a woman's death above a man's if that woman has already killed her husband, patron and safeguard of the household. Even if you come out with equal votes, again it is Orestes who wins.”
The Furies concede defeat recognizing the victory of the "New Gods". But not because the New ones are right, but only because they are now power. Oresteia, thus represents, with a mythological form, the passage from maternal to paternal law, the ancient revolution that marked the beginning of the history of the Greeks.
References:
- Lekatsas, P., Oresteia and the Pro-Hellenic Matriarchy, Athens, 1949.
- Adkins, A.W.H., Moral Values and Political Behavior in Ancient Greece, London, 1971
- Jones, W.H.S., Greek Morality, London, 1906
- Maine, J.J., Ancient Law, London, 1861
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