When we last left Clytemnestra, she was standing with her hands soaked in blood and telling the

old men of Argos that she didn't regret the thing. We are now going to gallop on to the thrilling

part two of the Oristaya in our quest to figure out what to do about blood guilt.

This is Young Heretics. It's the classical education you didn't know you were missing. We've been talking

this week and last week about this ancient impulse to avenge the sins of history with your own

hands and how that always terribly goes wrong because we are all implicated in the sins of history

and the sinfulness of the world and getting more blood on our hands only makes things worse. And so

when we left Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, she had just murdered both him and Cassandra, his

consort from Troy. And I mentioned that their son was now going to be wrapped up in the this cycle

of retribution and violence because that's what happens. You think that you're ending the cycle

by doing the one thing that you know is just and right, but of course all you've done is perpetuate

the cycle. And so that's the subject of the co-efery or the libation bearers, which is part two of the

uh oristiah, this trilogy of plays that won the first prize at the city dynasia in 458 BC. Before we

move on to the second play though, I want to talk about one thing that happens at the end in the

fallout of the first play and that is the entry of a gistis. Now a gistis has been more of an idea

than anything thus far. Just you know, he's the guy, uh, remember he's Agamemnon's cousin because

uh Agamemnon's father is atrius atrius brother is thiestis. Thiestis was uh, terribly wronged by atrius

in the battle over Argos and thiestis son is the gistis. A gistis, uh, forms an adulterous relationship

with cladonestra and conspires in the plot with her against Agamemnon. Now he comes on stage and

we see him for real. And and might take on a gistis in this trilogy, I think, is that Escalus kind of

wants him to be just blanjly loathsome. Um, he wants him to be his far far less charismatic and dynamic

than cladonestra. Um, but he also, uh, for arrestees who's going to be the son that needs to avenge

...