teste

O HORIZONTE LEGAL DA

ORESTEIA

O crime de homicídio e a fundação do tribunal do Areópago
DELFIM F. LEãO
Universidade de Coimbra

Abstract: Orestes's tríal in the court of the Areopagus obliged
Aeschylus to articulate very different realities: the legacy of myth and earlier literary traciition, as they referred to the saga of Orestes; Áttic constitutional history and the legal traditions current in the Athens of his own day and a consciousness of certain recenf politicai measures, like the reforms of Ephialtes and the murder of which he was a victim, hardly the norm for democratic standards. These factors, allied with the demands of the dramatic phenomenon itself, led him to íntroduce new ways of dealing with the myth and to alter some historical and procedural details. He did this, however, with clear objectives in mind; to link the end. of Orestes's wanderings to the foundation of the Areopagus, the most esteemed of
Athenian courts. By examining the competencies which Athena attributed to the court, it seems reasonable to suggest that Aeschylus agreed with
Ephialtes's measures. It is not necessary, however, to view this altitude as the sign of a marked politicai ideology. The analysis of the historical and legal context of this dramatic production helps us to understand this reality and reinforces another one, the most important: the timelessness of the civilizational principies developed throughout this trilogy.

1. O TEATRO G R E G O E N Q U A N T O " F E N Ó M E N O POLÍTICO"
E m b o r a as origens d o teatro g r e g o c o n t i n u e m a suscitar d ú v i d a s e suposições, h á u m d a d o q u e m a r c a r á d e forma indelével a experiência d r a m á t i c a grega, n o q u e à tragédia e à c o m é d i a antiga diz respeito: a sua

Delfim h. Leão

O horizonte legai da Oresteia

natureza, "política", isto é, a coiieGm J . f mpenhada. com a realidade da polis democrática ateniense, de qu j < i t MI simultaneamente reflexo,