Gender and Sexism in the Oresteia

through appear the Oresteia, Aeschylus portrays sex as a socially volatile b another(prenominal) that results in increasing miasma within the House of Atreus. Aeschylus engages the ethnic significance behind such(prenominal) sexist disputes by personation gender-based competition among Greeks who feel peril when others do not hold back their expected masculine and distaff identities. However, he indicates that when wo custody do work out accordingly, they be still pocket-sized from both men and other women. Through his portrayal of sexist double standards and societys rejection of diverse gender expression, Aeschylus exposes the widespread, unjust underestimation of females, who in the end, ironically possess authority. \nFor an Athenian citizen, power and strength atomic number 18 essential qualities to have in order to be respect; yet such traits are deemed too masculine for women and wherefore are only famed when men obtain them. For example, Agamemnon is well(p) r egarded for representing the culturally ideal sensory faculty of virility for fighting at troy weight and returning firm safely, piece of music, Aegisthus on the other hand, is mocked for his weak, cissy qualities. In The Libation Bearers, Orestes honors the soldiers efforts and then ridicules Aegisthuss sissified complacency, saying, Besides, the lack of patrimony presses unassailable; and my compatriots, the glory of men who toppled Troy with nerves of singing steel, go at the beck and call of a brace of women. Woman-hearted he is (Aes., Ag., ll. 307-311). Aeschylus specifically uses this quote to show Orestess disfavour of Aegisthus who stays at inhabitancy under the rule of Clytemnestra, while other real men like Agamemnon defend Athens. \nHowever, Aeschylus also highlights Orestess misogynistic views towards his own mother, a horizon that resurfaces. For instance, Orestes maintains these views even when he disguises himself as a foreigner to apostrophize his mother : Come out! Whoever rules the house. The woman in charge. No, the man, bet...