I have been thinking a lot about Greek Tragedies. I love them as they are so real and unreal, so historical and mythical at the same time. A perfect combination for a wandering mind. Anyway, Agamemnon (sic)( I am glad I don't have to know how to spell these names) led the Greek troops against the Trojans in that war. When he came home, his wife, Clytemestra and her lover killed him. It was then left for Orestes, the son to avenge his father's death. That was an absolute moral responsibility. Not to do so would have been unthinkable. It was also an absolute moral law never, under any circumstances to kill ones mother. What is Orestes to do? He must obey the ancient laws of retribution and also the law of mother protection. Well, he kills his mother as that I guess seemed the less of two evils. Imagine making a choice like that. This was one dysfunctional family. Theoretically, I suppose, Orestes murder of his mother should be avenged by someone, ad infinitum. Where does it end? As a flash back the reason Clytemestra killed Agamemnon, aside from the new lover, was because he killed their daughter in order to assure fair winds to Troy. It was his moral responsibility to lead those troops to battle, blah, blah. The ancient laws were difficult to live with. The good thing about this whole mess is that Athena intervenes on behalf of Orestes and instead of allow retribution to continue unabated forever she set up a court with a a jury of Orestes' peers. This is about the birth of civil law replacing the ancient one that may have worked for a while but as you can see could become very, very cumbersome. I like the idea of moral obligation and responsibility. I think we have lost too much of that. We depend on the law to such a degree that we abdicate our duty of others. I think too that I can understand a little better the motivation of the muslim fundamentalist that hate us. It is the ancient law that they obey. I don't know exactly what we did or when, maybe it was the crusades, or later colonizations that they are mad about but it seems to me that continuing the idea of retribution, eye for an eye, may not be the most intelligent way to handle it all. We just create another reason to hate us. Another reason for retribution. Tomorrow I want to think about immortality and the warrior. This may relate to the suicide bombers.