In his first lecture at Ralston College, Spencer Klavan offers a reading of Aeschylus' Oresteia that seeks to make sense of the American political landscape. The Furies exemplify the impersonal arithmetic of blood and counter-blood, while the younger gods introduce personal claims, partiality, and the integrity of the individual. When these powers collide with a single human being, we enter into a tragic cycle that demands a payment which only deepens the debt. Resolution is brought about by Athena and the city that bears her name. Deliberative justice creates a forum in which opposing claims can be weighed without the need for more bloodshed. Vengeance and wrath are transmuted into law that enable the city to live with its past, rather than being ruled by it. Klavan reminds us that scapegoating increases when deliberation is foregone, leaving us prone to ritual violence.

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Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode:

Plato's Euthyphro
Homer's Iliad
Aeschylus' Oresteia
The Code of Hammurabi
Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Herodotus
Aristotle's Poetics
The Book of Exodus
Shakespeare's Hamlet
Abraham Lincoln
Ken Burns' The Civil War
Palace of Knossos
The Acropolis and Parthenon of Athens
The Theatre of Dionysus
Barbara Fields
Eddie Izzard
Neil Gaiman's the Sandman