The Eumenides — Third Episode

The herald calls the court to order. The jury of twelve Athenian citizens takes their seats. Athena opens the proceedings: the Furies will speak first, as is right for those whose case is being heard. The Furies address Orestes directly: did you kill your mother? He answers plainly — yes, with a drawn sword, I gashed her neck. The Furies press: and who commanded you? Apollo. They turn to Apollo: is this true? Yes.

Apollo's defence is audacious and troubling. He argues that Orestes was right to kill in obedience to divine command; that Agamemnon's death was worse than Clytemnestra's, because Agamemnon was a man and a king; and — most controversially — that the mother is not the true parent of the child she bears. The true parent is the father who provides the seed; the mother is only the nurse who tends the seedling. As proof, he points to Athena herself: born from the head of Zeus, with no mother at all. Therefore, the killing of a mother is less grave than the killing of a father.

The Furies make their counter-argument: the mother's blood is kindred blood; that is all that matters; the relationship between mother and child is the deepest human bond; Apollo's biology is irrelevant. The jury votes. Each juror casts a pebble into one of two urns. Athena counts the votes. They are equal — six for conviction, six for acquittal. The decision falls to Athena.