Having murdered his mother as revenge for his father’s death, Orestes is pursued relentlessly by the Furies. Pleading to Apollo, who ordered the young man to kill his mother, Orestes escapes to the city of Athens. Once there, he is captured and put on trial by Athena, the goddess of wisdom, who uses the case to set up the first courtroom trial in Ancient Greece. Will the verdict be in Orestes’ favour? Or will the Furies claim vengeance once and for all?

Eumenides is the final play in the Oresteia trilogy, and closes the only surviving example of a complete ancient Greek theatre trilogy. The events of the trilogy illustrate the development of social order, and the establishment of a formal judicial system in Athens.

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