The Oresteian Trilogy is a Greek tragedy written in the 5th cent. BC, during the height of Athenian civilization. It tells the story of the vicious cycle of blood-guilt and justice in the House of Atreus. To give a very brief summary (and this is totally doing injustice to the actual text), Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter to the gods so that the winds would be favorably for all the Argive Greeks to set sail toward Troy. After the war, Agamemnon returns home only to be murdered by his wife who is carrying out justice for her daughter. Now her son, Orestes, is under compulsion to carry out justice for his father by murdering his mother. After the deed, the Furies, who punish blood-guilt, are after Orestes. Apollo decides to help Orestes out by setting up a trial in Athens with Athena as the judge and the citizens as the jury. Apollo defends Orestes. The juries votes are cast even, but Athena sides with Orestes. He goes free and the Furies are placated by Athena who makes a deal with them.
The problem with this story is that there is no resolution for the cycle of guilt and justice. Orestes' sin went unpunished. For the Greeks, the only justice for blood-guilt is death. And it seems that those nearest to the guilty are responsible for carrying out the just penalty, which would in turn make them guilty of bloodshed. It's fascinating as I re-read this story, how hard the Greeks try to figure out how to carry out justice while extending pardon/mercy to Orestes. In the end, there is no real resolution.
The fact is, there is no way to break the cycle without bringing in a third party to expiate their sin. What they're missing is a God who can be wholly just and wholly merciful at the same time. But we know the God of the Bible -- a wholly just and wholly merciful God. All of us are guilty of death because the wages of sin before a holy God is death. If God is truly just, He must put us all to death. But God knew a way to be wholly merciful to us in his love for us, by atoning for our sins through Jesus. Jesus breaks the cycle of guilt and justice by offering us mercy and taking our punishment in our place. It is mind-blowing. The Greek gods would have never done such a thing for humans.
Re-reading the Greek tragedies fills me once again with overflowing gratitude that God allowed me to know His mercy, so that I do not have to be stuck in the same, merciless cycle that the Greeks had with their gods.
