What must happen has already happened

That's from Ted Hughes' stirring translation of Aeschylus' Oresteia, as spoken by Cassandra (painting by Evelyn de Morgan). Cassandra, the Trojan princess--that's Troy burning in the background--both blessed and cursed by Apollo: blessed with the gift of prophecy; cursed because no one believed her.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that the issue of free will has been a source of passionate interest at least since the time of the ancient Greeks, and the Oresteia (written about 460 BC) is perhaps the prime example. So many deaths and so much justification, appealing to fate, duty, the gods.

Agamemnon had to sacrifice his daughter, or the Greek fleet wouldn't have got the right wind to sail to Troy. Clytemnestra had to kill her husband Agamemnon to avenge her daughter's murder. Orestes was ordered by Apollo to kill his mom Clytemnestra--she'd murdered his dad, after all, what else could a guy do? And the Furies were bound by fate to torture him near to death for murdering his mother--this was their role.

[Finally Apollo and the Furies present Orestes' case to the people's court in Athens, where the best justice was to be had (Aeschylus was presenting his plays in Athens, and what better way to win the playwright-of-the-year award?). It was a hung jury, so Athena intevened, on Orestes side.]

The question that Aeschylus keeps throwing at his audience--then and now--is this: Could any of the protagonists have done otherwise? Could Agamemnon have said, "Y'know, my daughter's life is more important than sailing off to Troy to get my brother's wife back!" Could Clytemnestra have done otherwise? What about Orestes--"Hey Apollo, mom killed dad because dad killed my sister. I'm not going to do your bidding!"

In other words, did they have free will? Or were they fated to follow Cassandra's gloomy dictum, What must happen has already happened?