Chronos on the threshold : time, ritual, and agency in the Oresteia / Marcel Andrew Widzisz.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Introduction. Time in classics; Ritual structure and temporality; Liminal time in anthropology and at Athens; Time, ritual, and debate in Iliad I, agonistic temporal framing Oresteia -- Agamemnon. The omen of sacrifice; The hymn to Zeus; The watchman; Parodos II; The herald; Agamemnon; The third stasimon; Cassandra; Regicide; Aegisthus -- Choephoroi. Ritual at the tomb; The mourning chorus; Reversing ritual polarity; Kommos; Nostos; The first stasimon; Deception at the gates, Orestes' nurse; Mother and son; The third stasimon; Temporal frames and re-sacralization -- Eumenides. Staging suspension at Delphi; Time in the Pythia's prologue; Time, ritual, and agency; The ghost of Clytemnestra; The first debate; Orestes' second supplication; The "binding" song; Athena and Athens; The second stasimon; Juridical temporality; Verdict and aftermath; Manifold desacralization -- Epilogue.