Orestes y la impiedad del héroe

Abstract

Aeschylus and Euripides both analyse the behaviour of Orestes and the pitilessness
that he reaches when he kills his mother, Clytemnestra. Nevertheless,
when providing a moral and religious qualification, they do not agree
in terms of the religious vocabulary used. Whilst for the “theologian”
Aeschylus, Orestes’ behaviour gets to the very heart of the field of ἀσέβεια,
in the case of “philosopher” Euripides, he does it in the δυσσέβεια one. For
the first author the religious aspect is fundamental, for the second one is
also important to delve into the legal aspect.