The play libation bearers by Aeschylus, gives a narration of the death and finally revenge of his death by his son as a command from the gods. King Agamemnon had been murdered by his wife and Aigisthos, her new lover who wanted to inherit the throne. Orestes, his son has been exiled for a long time now and comes back home in secret so as to revenge his father's death. Orestes is on a mission, commanded by the Apollo to kill those who killed his father or else he would face dreadful punishments. While at the grave yard, Orestes sees a group of women, among them his sister Electra, coming to decant some libations on the grave. The two reunite since they had last seen each other when they were young. Encouraged by the singing women, Orestes and his sister organize a plan that would help to get him entrance into the palace so that he can have revenge on Aigisthos. Orestes goes to the palace and lie to Clytamnestra that Electra is dead and that Aigisthos should come out and hear the news. Aigisthos comes without his bodyguard and he is killed together with his wife and their bodies are wrapped in one shroud. Meanwhile, the chorus express joy as this is happening and disappears as Orestes becomes mad and leaves the stage to seek help from Apollo.Throughout this play, it is evident that Electra and Orestes were being motivated by certain forces to perform the revenge. Before the death of their father, these two had been separated by their evil mother. Orestes had been taken into exile while Electra was living like a slave in her own home. The two hate their mother with passion but loved their father very much. So when the old man dies, they both feel that they had lost something very precious in their lives. Since his death was not genuine, the gods got disturbed and felt that revenge should be carried out on the killers of King Agamemnon. As a result, Orestes was commanded by Apollo to perform this task meanwhile, the chorus was always there to encourage him throughout this exercise. Therefore it is evident that the motivation was religious since it involved the Apollo the god, and supernatural powers that comprise the chorus.
Since every society has its own social values and expected morals, Orestes's society is not an exception. This society lives to fear and obey the gods as part of their moral practices since religious is all about faith. Thus by obeying the gods and do what is expected by the society has improved their moral lives. Morally speaking, taking revenge after their father's death was right since it was a plan of the gods and they only acted as messengers. Even though Orestes commits murder, his killing is considered to be morally right since he is just but a messenger of the gods and that is what matters most. Religion is very relevant and all actions performed under religious have greater weight especially when they are approved. This practice was very common with the ancient Greeks who only did things that they could approve; without which the action would be considered morally wrong.
However, different communities view situations from different angles. For instance, if Orestes and Electra's social and religious values were different from the Greek ancients, then moral relativism would still be correct since it is in these differences that relativism comes about. According to Blackburn, relativism is all about not having a central standardized practice that is common in all the societies, i.e. in criteria used in judging depend on the situations and people involved. This is because, every society has the right to set and follow certain norms which are relatively different from the other society, thus individuals can only be judged right or wrong depending on where they are and what they believe in.
