TY - JOUR
TI - All about My Mother… Cilissa, Apollo and the Unity of the Oresteia
AU - Pypłacz, Joanna
TI - All about My Mother… Cilissa, Apollo and the Unity of the Oresteia
AB - 
	The aim of this article is to reveal the connection between Cilissa’s speech in the Choephoroi and the infamous speech made by Apollo in the Eumenides. The analysis shows that if these two passages are treated separately, the former would seem to be a comic interlude that has been randomly inserted into the text, while the latter would seem to be weird, convoluted and even downright outrageous. However, if they are juxtaposed and analysed together as two chapters of Aeschylus’ explanation of the nature of motherhood, they become one sensible statement about the fact that mother is much more than a parent in the technical sense of the term.

	While the speeches of Cilissa and Apollo simply cast light on the issue of responsible motherhood and also on the harmful effects of ‘outsourcing’ the care of newborn children in ancient Greece, the fact that the link between these two speeches has been overlooked makes their interpretation very problematic, as do the failings of contemporary criticism, these being the anachronic approach and also the fact that translations are treated on a par with (or, sadly, given preference to) the original text, thus giving Aeschylus the undeserved reputation of being a ‘sexist’ or ‘misogynistic’ poet.
VL - 2022
IS - Volume 17, Issue 4
PY - 2022
SN - 1897-3035
C1 - 2084-3933
SP - 241
EP - 253
DO - 10.4467/20843933ST.22.020.17186
UR - https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/studia-litteraria-uic/artykul/all-about-my-mother-cilissa-apollo-and-the-unity-of-the-oresteia
KW - Aeschylus
KW - Oresteia
KW - Cilissa
KW - Orestes
KW - Clytemnestra
KW - Apollo
KW - motherhood; Aejschylus
KW - Oresteja
KW - Kilissa
KW - Klitajmnestra
KW - macierzyństwo