ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at three classic tragedies that deal with the problem of constraint but do so by taking the side of the transgressor. The first play, Euripides's Hecuba, explores the terrible tragedies that befall the Queen of Troy, forcing her to embrace an uncivilized rage. The second, Homer's Iliad, equally takes a motivational view of Achilles's classic rage that led to the defeat of Troy. Both instances deal with Greek figures that leave the civilized confines of nomos behind but do so for clear and justified reasons. The myth of the Erinyes crystallizes the foregone discussion on nomos. Aeschylus's Oresteia provides the Greek solution to the problem of "uncivilized" rage by forcing the horrid Erinyes to transform into civilized, almost elegant, creatures. The particulars of this transformations provide the Greek corollary to the concept of an in-group bias. In ancient Greece, the line between civilized anger and uncivilized rage was drawn by nomos.
