Editing Oresteia (section)

=== Mother-right and father-right ===
To the anthropologist [[Johann Jakob Bachofen]] (''Das Mutterrecht'', 1861), the ''Oresteia'' shows Ancient Greece's transition from "hetaerism" ([[polyamory]]) to [[monogamy]]; and from "mother-right" ([[matriarchal]] lineage) to "father-right" ([[patriarchal]] lineage). According to Bachofen, religious laws changed in this period: the Apollo and Athena of ''The Eumenides'' present the patriarchal view. The Furies contrast what they call "gods of new descent" with the view that matricide is more serious than the killing of men. With Athena acquitting Orestes, and the Furies working for the new gods, ''The Eumenides'' shows the newfound dominance of father-right over mother-right.<ref name="Origin"/>

Bachofen's interpretation was influential among [[Marxists]] and [[feminists]]. Feminist [[Simone de Beauvoir]] wrote in ''[[The Second Sex]]'' (1949) that the tribunal saw Orestes as son of Agamemnon before being son of Clytemnestra.<ref name="Goldhill"/> In ''[[The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State]]'' (1884), Marxist [[Friedrich Engels]] praises Bachofen's "correct interpretation". Nonetheless, he sees it as "pure mysticism" by Bachofen to see the change in divine perspectives as the cause of the change in Greek society.<ref name="Origin">{{cite book|title=[[The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State]]|edition=4th|year=1891|chapter=Preface (4th ed.)|last=Engels|first=Friedrich|author-link=Friedrich Engels}}</ref> Instead, Engels considers economic factors—the creation of [[private property]]—and the "natural sexual behaviour" of men and women. For the feminist [[Kate Millett]], the latter factor is mistaken, and ''The Eumenides'' is important in documenting the state's arguments for repression of women.<ref name="Goldhill">{{cite book|title=Reading Greek Tragedy|last=Goldhill|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Goldhill|year=1986|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|pages=52–54|isbn=9780521315791}}</ref>