Los elementos cómicos en la Orestía de Esquilo

Abstract

The present article endeavours to investigate the presence, nature and function of certain comic elements in the Oresteia of Aeschylus. These are to be found in all three parts of the tragic trilogy, for example in the prologue of Agamemnon, where the watchman exhibits many comic traits; in the recognition scene of Choephori, where Orestes and Electra are victims of an absurd misunderstanding; also in that scene of Eumenides where the ghost of Clytemnestra attempts to waken the drunken Erinyes. Other important comic moments in the Oresteia are the entrance of the nurse in Choephori and the kommos in Eumenides, both of which are seen by scholars as being borrowings from the Old Comedy. The primary function of these comic or quasi-comic scenes would seem to be to relieve dramatic tension by means of a momentary departure from the main direction of the plot, thus greatly enhancing the impact of the sudden rise in suspense that invariably follows them.