Acts, Metaphors, and Powers of Feet in Aeschylus’s Oresteia

summary:

Aeschylus’s Oresteia employs metaphors of the power, uses, and weakness of human feet in order to underline the narrative’s progression from disorder to reconciliation. Agamemnon’s conquering foot was “Troy’s plunderer,” before he entered his palace barefoot and met his death. Shoeless Orestes leaves a footprint at Agamemnon’s grave before going inside to avenge his father. In contrast to Athena’s protecting feet, the Furies’ “crippling” feet and “vindictive dancing” pursue Orestes until accepting “an honored seat by the halls of Erechtheus.” In the solemn processional exodos, instead of frantic running hunters, they walk as protective spirits “feeling delight along their way.”