n sleep.In the second play, “The Libation Bearers”, awareness occurs during sleep rather than during waking hours. When Clytaemestra dreams Orestes is a snake that draws blood from her breast, the chorus says, “She woke screaming out of her sleep, shaky with fear…” (The Libation Bearers 535) Her fear came as a result of the realization that Orestes, her son, would harm her. This image of evil came to her in sleep, rather than while she was awake. Because she was aware of potential harm, Clytaemestra was able to act more cautiously. But despite efforts to protect herself, Orestes ultimately takes his revenge on Clytaemestra. Though dreams are not representative of perception in the first play, in the second part of the trilogy, they are seen as a definite type of awareness. Although contrary to the original meaning of sleep, a clear division is still shown between consciousness and ignorance. Though sleep serves as a division between awareness and obliviousness in the first two plays, in the final play of The Oresteia, “The Eumenides”, the role of sleep becomes more ambiguous. The ghost of Clytaemestra evokes the Furies from their sleep. She addresses them, “You would sleep then? And what use are you, if you sleep?” (The Eumenides 94) Clytaemestra makes them aware of her matricide though they sleep, and as she wakes them, the Furies are still aware of the existing situation. Thus sleep no longer sets the boundary between awareness and ignorance—the Furies are aware both in and out of sleep. As Clytaemestra addresses them, sleep becomes more of a barrier for action. Though they are aware already, she must wake them up so that they can take revenge for her matricide. No longer denoting a level of awareness, sleep instead represents a course of action. Just as Clytaemestra calls the Furies out of their sleep, Athene asks them to return to their “sleep” and...
