The third part, called The Furies (the Greek name "Eumenides" signifying literally "The Gracious Ones," from the change in the nature of the Furies with which the drama closes), opens at Delphi in the temple of Apollo. The Furies lie in sleep, made drowsy by the God: Orestes clings to the altar: Apollo bids him be of good hope, and depart unto Athens while the Furies are yet asleep. As he passes from the stage, the ghost of Clytemnestra rises and calls the slumbering Furies to arise and pursue the criminal. Then Apollo himself, with words of loathing, bids them forth from his temple; and scenting like hounds the truck of blood, they follow the flying Orestes.
Here the scene shifts to Athens; Orestes, having followed the behest of Apollo, clings to the statue of Athena on the Acropolis, and claims her aid. The cause is tried, apparently on Areopagus—(the scene probably representing both the Acropolis and the adjacent Areopagus)—Athena presiding, Apollo pleading Orestes' part, the Furies impeaching him of matricide. The votes are cast, and found equal, for acquittal and condemnation; and this result, as Athena has previously ruled, gives Orestes the benefit of the doubt. The Furies, wroth at being thus defrauded of their victim, vow vengeance on Athena's land and nation: but she appeases them by promising them honourable worship for ever, as gracious and fostering Powers of Earth, from her own Athenians: and so, solemnly escorted by torches and processions, they pass down into their subterranean cave beneath Areopagus, with words of blessing upon Attica; and the third and last part of the Trilogy closes with joy and with extinction of the curse.
It will appear by a glance at this plot that the Agamemnon and The Libation-Bearers are both of them Tragedies in the accepted modern sense; the one closing with the death of Agamemnon and the triumph of murder and adultery; the other, with the death of Clytemnestra and with madness as
