REVENGE AND JUSTICE IN ANCIENT GREECE. Part 2

In memory of Oenomaus, the Olympic Games were created because Oenomaus' chariot race was one legendary origin of them.
Pelops and Hippodamia had many sons; 2 of them were Atreus and Thyestes. They murdered Chrysippus, who was their half brother, a divine hero of Elis in the Peloponnesus. He was the bastard son of Pelops king of Pisa and the nymph Axioche. He was kidnapped by the Theban Laius, his tutor, who was escorting him to the Nemean Games, where the boy planned to complete. Instead, Laius ran away with him to Thebes and raped him, a crime for which he, his city, and his family were later punished by the gods. His death is seen as springing from the curse that Myrtilus placed on Pelops for his betrayal. Because of the murder, Hippodamia, Atreus, and Thyestes were banished to Mycenae, where Hippodamia is said to have hanged herself.
Atreus vowed to sacrifice his best lamb to Artemis. Upon searching his flock, however, Atreus discovered a golden lamb which he gave to his wife, Aerope, to hide from Artemis, the goddess. Aerope gave the golden lamb to Thyestes, her lover, Atreus' brother, who then convinced Atreus to agree that whoever had the lamb should be king. Thyestes produced the lamb and claimed the throne. Atreus retook the throne using the advice he received from Hermes. Thyestes agreed to give the kingdom back when the sun moved backwards in the sky, a feat that Zeus accomplished. Atreus retook the throne and banished Thyestes. Atreus then learned of Thyestes' and Aerope's adultery and plotted revenge. He killed Thyestes' sons and cooked them, save their hands and feet. He tricked Thyestes into eating the flesh of his own sons and then taunted him with their hands and feet. Thyestes was forced into exile for eating the flesh of a human. Thyestes responded by asking an oracle what to do, who advised him to have a son by his daughter, Pelopia, who would then kill Atreus. However, when Aegisthus was first born, he was abandoned by his mother who was ashamed of the incestuous act. A shepherd found the infant Aegisthus and gave him to to Atreus, who raised him as his own. Only as he entered adulthood did Thyestes reveal the truth to Aegisthus, that he was both father and grandfather to the boy. Aegisthus then killed Atreus, although not before Atreus and Aerope had had 2 sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus, and a daughter Anaxibia.
Agamemnon married Clytemnestra, and Menelaus married Helen, her sister (known later as helen of Troy). Helen was taken away from Menelaus by Paris of Troy during a visit. Menelaus then called on the chieftains to help him take back Helen.
Prior to sailing off to war against Troy, Agamemnon had angered the goddess Artemis because he had killed a sacred deer in a sacred grove, and had then boasted that he was a better hunter than she was. When the time came, Artemis stilled the winds so that Agamemnon's fleet could not sail. A prophet named Calchas told him that in order to appease Artemis, Agamemnon would have to sacrifice the most precious thing that had come to his possession in the year he killed the sacred deer. This was his first-born daughter, Iphigenia. He sent word home for her to come, on the pretense that she was to be married to Achilles. Iphigenia accepted her father's choice and was honored to be part of the war. Clytemnestra tried to stop Iphigenia but was sent away. After doing the deed, Agamemnon's fleet was able to get under way. Artemis, however, has instantly switched Iphigenia, as she lay upon the altar, with a deer without anyone noticing, and had taken her todistant Colchis, there to be her priestess.
While he was fighting the Trojans, his wife Clytemnestra, enraged by the murder of her daughter, began an affair with Aegisthus. When Agamemnon returned home he brought with him a new concubine, the doomed prophetess, Cassandra. Upon his arrival that evening, before the great banquet she had prepared, Clytemnestra drew a bath for him and when he came out of the bath, she put the royal purple robe on him which had no opening for his head. He was confused and tangled up and Clytemnestra then stabbed him to death.
Agamemnon's only son, Orestes, was quite young when his mother killed his father. He was sent into exile. He was the legitimate heir and as such a potential danger to his usurper uncle. Goaded by his sister Electra, Orestes swore revenge. He knew it was his duty to avenge his father's death, but saw also that in doing so he would have to kill his mother. He was torn between avenging his father and sparing his mother. "It was a son's duty to kill his father's murderers, a duty that came before all others. But a son who killed his mother was abhorrent to gods and to men."
When he prayed to Apollo, the god advised him to kill his mother. Orestes realized that he must work out the curse on his house, exact vengeance and pay with his own ruin. After Orestes murdered Clytemnestra, he wandered the land with guilt in his heart. After many years, with Apollo by his side, he pleaded to Athena. No descendant of Atreus had ever done so noble an act and "neither he or any descendant of his would ever again be driven into evil by the irresistible power of the past."
Thus Orestes ended the curse of the House of Atreus.
This story as the major plot line of Aeschylus' s Trilogy "The Oresteia" shows how the Greek gods interacted with the characters and influenced their decisions pertaining to events and disputes.
The principal themes of the trilogy include the contrast between revenge and justice, as well as the transition from personal vendetta to organize litigation.

REVENGE AND JUSTICE IN ANCIENT GREECE. PART 1

The Oresteia is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus concerning Agamemnon's murder by Clytaemnestra, the murder of Clytaemnestra by Orestes, the trial of Orestes, and end of the curse on the House of Atreus.
The House of Atreus begins with Tantalus of Lydia. Tantalus was the son of Zeus who enjoyed cordial relations with gods until he decided to slay his son Pelops and feed him to the gods as a test of their omniscience.
Most of the gods, as they were served, were appalled and did not partake. But Demeter, who was distracted due to the abduction by Hades of her daughter Persephone, obliviously ate Pelops' shoulder.
The gods threw Tantalus into the Underworld, where he spends eternity standing in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever he reaches for the fruit, the branches raise his intended meal from his grasp. Whenever he bends down to get a drink, the water recedes before he can drink. Thus is derived the word "tantalising." The gods brought Pelops back to life, replacing the bone in his shoulder with a bit of ivory, thus marking the family forever afterwards.
Pelops and Hippodamia.- Pelops married HYippodamia after winning a chariot race against her father, King Oenomaus, by arranging for the sabotage of his future father-in-law's chariot and resulting in his death. Oenomaus was the son of Ares, the Greek god of War, one of the 12 Olympians, son of Zeus and Hera. In Greek literature, Ares often represent the physical or violent and untamed aspect of war, in contrast to his sister the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of Intelligence include military strategy and generalship. Are, although embodied the physical valor necessary for success in War, he was a dangerous force, "overwhelming, insatiable in battle, destructive, and man-slaughtering. His sons Phobos (Fear) and Deimos (Terror) and his lover, or sister, Enyo (Discord) accompanied him on his war chariot. In the Illiad, his father Zeus tells him that he is the god most hateful to him. An association with Ares endows places and objects with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality.
King Oenomaus of Pisa, fearful of a prophecy that claimed he would be killed by his son-in-law, had killed 18 suitors of his daughter Hippodamia after defeating them in a chariot race. He affixed their heads to the wooden columns of his palace.
Pelops, worried about losing, went to the seaside and invoked Poseidon, his former lover. Reminding Poseidon of their love (Aphrodite's sweet gifts), Pelops asked Poseidon for help. Smiling, Poseidon caused a chariot drawn by winged horses to appear. Pelops, still unsure of himself, convinced Oenomaus's charioteer, Myrtilus, a son of Hermes, to help him win. Myrtilus was convinced by Pelops promising him half of Oenomaus' kingdom and the 1st night in bed with Hippodamia. The night before the race, while Myrtilus was putting Oenomaus' chariot together, he replaced the bronze linchpins attaching the wheels to the chariot axle with fake ones of beeswax. The race began, and went on for a long time. But as just as Oenomaus was catching up to Pelops and readying to kill him, the wheels flew off and the chariot broke apart. Myrtilus survived, but Oenomaus was dragged to death by his horses.
When Myrtilus tried to claim his reward and have sex with Hippodamia, Pelops killed Myrtilus by throwing him off a cliff into the sea. As Matylus died, he curse Pelops. This was the source of the curse that haunted Hippodamia and Pelops' children Atreus and Thyestes as well as their descendants Agamemnon, Aegisthus, Menelaus, and Orestes.

SEARCH JUSTICE.

Love Justice, you rulers of the World. Set your minds sincerely on GOD, and look for HIM with all honesty.  (Wisdom 1:1)  GOD said, 'This is the COVENANT that I will make with them in the Days to come. I will put MY LAWS IN THEIR HEARTS and WRITE THEM on their MINDS."(Heb.10:15)
"So let us come near GOD with a sincere heart and a sure FAITH, with hearts that have been purified from a guilty conscience and with bodies washed with clean water (REPENTANCE). Let us hold on firmly to the hope we profess, because we can TRUST GOD to KEEP HIS PROMISE. Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and do good. (22-24)

GOD will bring into Judgment both the Righteous and the Wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a Time to Judge every deed. (Ecclesiastes 3:17) Everything that happens in this World happens at the Time GOD chooses. (3:1) In this World you find wickedness where Justice and Right ought to be. (3:16) GOD is testing us, to show us that we are no better than animals. After all, the same fate awaits human beings and animals alike. (3:18) I looked again at all the injustice that goes on to this World. The oppressed were crying and no one would help them, because their oppressors had power on their side. I envy those who are dead and gone; they are better off than those who are still alive. But better off than either are those who have never been born, who have never seen the injustice that goes on in this World. (4: 1-3) I saw all of this when I thought about the things that are done in this World, a World where some people have power and others have to suffer under them. Yes, I have seen the wicked buried and in their graves, and on the way back from the cemetery people praise them in the very city where they did their evil. (8:9-10) There is something else I saw, a good example if how Wisdom is regarded in this World: 'There was a little town with without many people in it. A powerful king attacked it. He surrounded it and prepared to break through the walls. Someone lived there who was poor, but so clever that he could have saved the town. But no one thought about him.' I have always said that Wisdom is Better than Strength, but no one thinks of the poor as a wise or pays any attention to what they say. It is better to listen to the quiet words of someone wise than to the shouts of a ruler at a council of fools. (9:13-18)

GOD says, "The people of Israel have surrounded ME with lies and deceit, and the people of Judah are still rebelling against ME, the FAITHFUL and HOLY GOD. Everything that the people of Israel do from morning to night is useless and destructive. Treachery and acts of violence increase among them. They make treaties with the sky elemental spirits and do business with the earth elemental spirits."
"The LORD has an accusation to bring against the people of Judah; HE is also going to punish Israel for the way her people act. HE will pay them back for what they have done. (Hosea 11-12)

Old people have Wisdom, but GOD has WISDOM and POWER.
Old people have Insight; GOD has INSIGHT and POWER TO ACT.
When GOD tears down, who can rebuild, and who can be free those GOD imprisons? (Job 12:12)
GOD IS STRONG and ALWAYS VICTORIOUS; both deceived and deceiver are in HIS POWER.
HE takes away the wisdom of rulers and make leaders act like fools. HE dethrones kings and makes them prisoners; HE humbles priests and men of power. HE silences those who are trusted, and takes the wisdom of old people away. HE disgraces those in power and puts an end to the strength of the rulers. HE sends light to places dark as death. HE makes nations strong and great, but then HE defeats and destroy them. HE makes their leaders foolish and lets them wander confused and lost; they grope in the dark and stagger like drunkards. (16-25)

"When Justice is done, good people are happy, but evil people are brought to despair. Death is waiting for anyone who wanders away from good sense. (Proverbs 21:15-16)  The wicked bring on themselves the suffering they try to cause to good people. (22:18) Human wisdom, brilliance, insight -they are of no help if the LORD is against you." (22:30)