7 Comic Elements in Tragic Language: The Case of Aeschylus'Oresteia

AbstractThis chapter examines Aeschylus' Oresteia to show that linguistic features, which are common in comedy, are either unknown or at least exceedingly rare in tragedy. In Oresteia such ‘comic’ features, which are normally taboo in tragic poetry, begin to appear with some frequency after the slaying of Agamemnon and Kassandra. By using them, Klytaimestra and Aigisthos — who have broken the rules of legitimate marriage — also break the rules of language. Moreover, the violation of linguistic decency is constantly associated with the sphere of the Erinyes, those goddesses who are themselves the prime representatives of all that is taboo in the Greek imagination. The violation of linguistic decency continues throughout the Oresteia up to the liberating vote of the Areopagus tribunal, which ends the spell of kinship murder. Thus, ‘comic’ language does not, as is sometimes believed, function as a dramaturgical means of relief but on the contrary heightens the darkness of crime.