TheScholarsRepository@LLU: Digital Archive of Research, Scholarship & Creative Works
Abstract
In the attempt to ascertain man\u27s changes in world view, the Orestes stories of the Greek tragedians were compared with the Orestes stories of six 20th-century playwrights. The Orestes plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were contrasted with the similar plays of Hofmannstahl, Jeffers, O\u27Neill, Giraudoux, Eliot, and Sartre. The Greek tragedians appear to terminate Orestes\u27 retribution for inherited evil and a just crime by an actual, total, restorative redemption, divinely instigated. The 20th century playwrights portray only the potential termination of Orestes\u27 retribution in a distant future, by means of a salvation that is self-instigated, costly, and completely non-restorative. This change is due, in part, to the disparity of the causes of justice and self-interest in the 20th century, while they were complementary in the 5th century B.C. More importantly, this change is due to the disappearance of the Greeks\u27 benevolent, transcendent deities in the 20th century, while the spirit of retribution holds away. Redemption is no longer bestowed by gods who can restore the past, man must save himself in the future
