Bang! You're Dead./Greek Tragedy

[artcase]

No: HPFGUIDX 86063

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Robert Shaw" <Robert at s...> 
wrote:
...
> Harry will feel guilty either way, but killing Voldemort will
> benefit more people.
> 
Art here:
Guilt used to be explained as a punishment from the gods.

...Robert again:
> It's the diffference between looking at the moral maze
> from above, and from the inside.
> 
> More generally, sometimes there are no good choices, only 
> lesser evils, and failing to choose is itself a choice.
> 
> Moral codes that can't cope with such dilemmas might work
> in a community of saints but are not robust enough for real life.
> 
> -- 
> Robert

Art again:
Which brings me to a parallel post, the concept of Greek tragedy. 
Being a research nut, I am going through the story of 
Orestes/Electra. For those who have not delved so far into tragedy 
this story does not end well until the poets changed the story. 
Orestes killed his uncle because his uncle killed his father and 
started sleeping with his mother. Orestes also killed his mother 
because she betrayed his father. According to Greek tradition, (and 
later carried through Roman values) Patricide and Matricide are two 
most henious crimes. The penalty is death no matter what the 
circumstance unless (later according to Plato) the death is 
accidental and the parent has time to forgive the child before they 
die. 

I'm relating this as it applies to Voldemort. He is guilty of 
patricide. 

In the same code (Plato) a person cannot strike/kill a person more 
than twenty years their senior - out of respect for their elders. 
Penalty ranges (dependant on circumstance) from death to exile for 
three years (the same amount of time for the killing of a stranger). 

Relating this to Harry's position, even to defend his life 
(according to Greek tragedy) he cannot kill Voldemort without 
suffering the wrath the Furies. Dumbledore ideally would be in a 
position to defeat Voldemort and choses not to. Interesting. IF 
Harry is being set up as an agent of the Furies, he is still walking 
on the edge of a slippery sword. Orestes had a similar fate and 
until public opinion shifted and the poets re-wrote the tragic tale, 
he died, and his sister, Electra, committed suicide for her part in 
the murder of thier mother.

Historical reference and western law aside, I am inclined to wonder 
how in a children's story you can accurately build this complex of 
an issue to fruition without alienating readers. I sincerely hope 
the model of a tragedy continues with questionable outcomes. But, I 
fear the rather new notion of "Love conquers all" may prevail. This 
is just conjecture on my part. 

Thoughts?