« Tu sais ne pas être injuste » : Justice et procès dans les Euménides d’Eschyle

Orestes’ trial is staged in Aeschylus’s play The Eumenides. One may even say that this trial occupies a special place in Athenian minds as it is supposed to be the very first trial ever held in the Aeropagus, a court with several members. But, despite these extraordinary circumstances, one must admi...

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Main Author: Nicolas Boulic
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Criminocorpus 2013-01-01
Series:Criminocorpus
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/2121
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author Nicolas Boulic
author_facet Nicolas Boulic
author_sort Nicolas Boulic
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description Orestes’ trial is staged in Aeschylus’s play The Eumenides. One may even say that this trial occupies a special place in Athenian minds as it is supposed to be the very first trial ever held in the Aeropagus, a court with several members. But, despite these extraordinary circumstances, one must admit that this trial is far from perfect and that the way justice works in this play is not ideal either. Many things are unclear: who are the members of the jury? How are we supposed to interpret the verdict and the famous equality of votes which seem to be two dead-ends? What shall we do with Athena’s vote that declares, on a whim, that Orestes is “not-guilty”? What is the precise role of the Erinyes, then? Our intent is to show that Aeschylus did not intend to display a perfect sketch of what ideal justice could be, but he intended, on the contrary, to stage the dangers and risks of justice, especially in a democratic society such as Athens. A verdict must not be unequivocal, it must be a perfect balance, so that all parties are given a chance to accept what justice has decided and to be reconciled in the future.
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spelling doaj-art-7cb5b299435441efb0f37451863aa3392025-01-06T09:15:50ZengCriminocorpusCriminocorpus2108-69072013-01-01210.4000/criminocorpus.2121« Tu sais ne pas être injuste » : Justice et procès dans les Euménides d’EschyleNicolas BoulicOrestes’ trial is staged in Aeschylus’s play The Eumenides. One may even say that this trial occupies a special place in Athenian minds as it is supposed to be the very first trial ever held in the Aeropagus, a court with several members. But, despite these extraordinary circumstances, one must admit that this trial is far from perfect and that the way justice works in this play is not ideal either. Many things are unclear: who are the members of the jury? How are we supposed to interpret the verdict and the famous equality of votes which seem to be two dead-ends? What shall we do with Athena’s vote that declares, on a whim, that Orestes is “not-guilty”? What is the precise role of the Erinyes, then? Our intent is to show that Aeschylus did not intend to display a perfect sketch of what ideal justice could be, but he intended, on the contrary, to stage the dangers and risks of justice, especially in a democratic society such as Athens. A verdict must not be unequivocal, it must be a perfect balance, so that all parties are given a chance to accept what justice has decided and to be reconciled in the future.https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/2121OresteAreopagusequalitytragedy
spellingShingle Nicolas Boulic
« Tu sais ne pas être injuste » : Justice et procès dans les Euménides d’Eschyle
Criminocorpus
Oreste
Areopagus
equality
tragedy
title « Tu sais ne pas être injuste » : Justice et procès dans les Euménides d’Eschyle
title_full « Tu sais ne pas être injuste » : Justice et procès dans les Euménides d’Eschyle
title_fullStr « Tu sais ne pas être injuste » : Justice et procès dans les Euménides d’Eschyle
title_full_unstemmed « Tu sais ne pas être injuste » : Justice et procès dans les Euménides d’Eschyle
title_short « Tu sais ne pas être injuste » : Justice et procès dans les Euménides d’Eschyle
title_sort tu sais ne pas etre injuste justice et proces dans les eumenides d eschyle
topic Oreste
Areopagus
equality
tragedy
url https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/2121
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