American Journal of Philology

Abstract:

This article explores Aeschylus’ thematic use of metoikia in the Oresteia. Appearing in each of the three plays of the trilogy, the compound metoikos brings the sense of movement and one of shared experience—both indicated by the prefix meta—together with the word for house (oikos), and Aeschylus’ strategic use of metoikia over the course the trilogy reveals the complicated relationship between mobility and domesticity that is fundamental to the mid-fifth-century Athenian experience both at home and in the city. The Agamemnon explores the range of domestic issues embodied by the physical house on stage while the following two plays interrogate the different ways we relate to home—living with family within it as well as leaving and returning to it as strangers.