The Justice of the Chimaira: Goat, Snake, Lion, and Almost the Entire Oresteia in a Little Monstrous Image JOHAN TRALAU The second time we hear the word δίκη, dikē— which usually means “justice”—in Aischylos’ Oresteia, we may just read by, overlooking how strange an image it conveys . The tragic poet tells us that Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigeneia, ordering his servants to lift her above the altar δίκαν χιμαίρας (Ag. 232). The expression is often taken to mean “like a one-year-old she-goat,” a fairly simple simile comparing the killing of the woman to a normal sacrifice. Recently , as we will see, critics have pointed out that the wording could be understood as a reference to a mythic monster, the Chimaira. In the following, however, a new interpretation will be suggested. First, it will be argued that the words address the troubled relation between animals and justice in a very special way, and that the expression is consequently a wonderfully monstrous compound of two spheres that are, in the Greek cosmos, incommensurable. In short, the incongruent amalgamation of words in the expression, the incongruent body of the mythic creature alluded to in those words, and the incongruity of the spheres that coalesce in the human sacrifice all mirror each other. Second, it will be claimed that if we read the Oresteia through the lens of the Chimaira image, we will see a great part of the entire tale, from the prehistory of the Trojan war to the persecution of Orestes, in this three-bodied body, lion, goat and snake—that is, that the body of the monster incarnates the story told by Aischylos. If we accept this interpretation there are important implications for our understanding of Aischylos and his use of images in general. Aischylos’ poetry is an exercise in massive sensory overload which defies most attempts to establish strict “eiarion 24.2 fall 2016 ther-or” interpretations. Yet the interpretation laid out below will provide a counter-understanding against some influential readings that emphasise the wild, promiscuous or arbitrary nature of his metaphors and similes.1 I will try to show that Aischylos’ imagery is intoxicatingly systematic in its use of monsters, images and animal species. The argument will unfold in accordance with the body of the Chimaira. After relating previous scholarship, we will explore the hermeneutic potential of the image of the woman as a goat and the possibility of understanding her not only as a goat, but as the mythic creature from whose middle part a goat protrudes. We will then follow the lion imagery, continue with the series of images pertaining to snakes, and then go on to discuss conclusions and the implications of this interpretation . previous interpretations, from straightforward images to monsters the image of the goat-girl is to be found at the beginning of Agamemnon, the first play in the trilogy. After a watchman, lying on the roof κυνὸς δίκην (Ag. 3)—”like a dog,” perhaps —has seen beacons signalling that Troy has fallen, the chorus sing of the Trojan expedition. Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae, was forced to sacrifice his daughter in order to assuage Artemis, who had been slighted and who hence prevented the Greek force from sailing on from Aulis to Troy. After the first choral song we witness how Agamemnon returns home and is murdered by his wife Klytaimestra and her lover, Aigisthos. In the second play, Agamemnon and Klytaimestra’s son Orestes returns in disguise and retaliates. At the behest of Apollo, he murders his mother and her lover. He is then prosecuted by the Erinyes, the goddesses of revenge conjured by his mother. In the final play, Orestes reaches Athens where he is tried in court—specifically, the Areopagos institued by Athena for the purpose of trying homicide cases. Apollo and Orestes plead his case, the the justice of the chimaira 42 Erinyes plead theirs, the jury vote is tied, and Athena finally decides, acquitting Orestes. The Erinyes are then placated and introduced at Athens, where they will henceforth receive due honors and cult. So much for the story, which is the history—or rather, the great etiological myth—of the supersession of the archaic system of “private” retaliatory...