Literary notes about Matricide (AI summary)
In literature, the term "matricide" is deployed as a powerful emblem of transgression, evoking both mythic tragedy and harsh societal judgment. It appears in classical narratives—most notably in the story of Orestes, whose act of matricide becomes a touchstone for themes of guilt and divine retribution ([1], [2], [3])—as well as in more modern polemics where the crime is framed as an ultimate betrayal of familial duty and moral order ([4], [5]). The word is also used rhetorically to escalate the dramatic tension of a scene, whether in the bitter condemnations of state oracles and choral pronouncements ([6], [7], [8]) or in contexts where it symbolizes the internal decay of familial and societal structures. This diverse employment of "matricide" underscores its enduring capacity to encapsulate the horror of violating nature's most sacred bond.
- 1039 The matricide Orestes is said to have polled his hair after appeasing the angry Furies of his murdered mother.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 03 of 12) by James George Frazer - Introduction Orestes is tried as a Matricide before the Court of the Areopagus at Athens.
— from Specimens of Greek Tragedy — Aeschylus and Sophocles by Sophocles - Orestes, on trial at Athens for matricide, is acquitted, the votes being even, by the decision of Athene, who thereupon founds the tribunal, 485 foll.
— from The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 1 by Emperor of Rome Julian - When Seneca sanctioned, and then defended on political grounds, the matricide of Nero, from that moment his own doom was sealed.
— from Roman Mosaics; Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood by Hugh Macmillan - [5] The great blot on his character is his having composed a justification of Nero's matricide on the plea of state necessity.
— from The History of Roman Literature From the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus Aurelius by Charles Thomas Cruttwell - Thou then, O old man, by begetting a bad daughter, hast destroyed me; for through her boldness deprived of my father, I became a matricide.
— from The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I. by Euripides - After a while his breast rose, his ribs were visible, and he cried: “Matricide! woe to thee!”
— from Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero by Henryk Sienkiewicz - To the Erinnys, matricide is the foulest of all crimes, for man is more nearly related to the mother than to the father.
— from The Evolution of Love by Emil Lucka
