It’s almost midnight the night before the mid-term. Will this blog make sense? Most likely not, but I’ll give it a shot anyway.
“Talk on, talk on. But if I lose this trial I will return in force to crush the land.”
If something really stands out to me in The Eumenides it is the idea of reason and logic verses emotion and passion. As it shows in the title of my blog, the furies are extremely passionate and unreasonable. Towards the end of the text we see the furies arguing with Athena. However, the furies use the same arguments over and over again:
“But for me to suffer such disgrace…I, the proud heart of the past, driven under the earth, condemned, like so much filth, and the fury in me breathing hatred- O good Earth, what is this stealing under the breast, what agony racks the spirit? …Night, dear Mother Night! All’s lost, our ancient powers torn away by their cunning, ruthless hands, the gods so hard to wrestle down obliterate us all.”
Their passion and raw emotion seem to get in the way of their ability to make a valid argument. Then we see Athena who may not possess their passion, but she has reason. And reason, in the end, wins out in this text. Ultimately, there needs to be a balance of passion and logic. If we become too passionate, like the furies, we will lose the ability to reason.
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