“.. this snip of hair could give you wings;
And when you looked upon it you saw me”
~ ‘Choephoroe’ by Aeschylus (G. M. Cookson translation. p72. line 226)
The play opens with Agamemnon’s son, Orestes, at his father’s tomb in Argos along with his friend Pylades. Orestes prays to Hermes, asking for support for taking revenge for his father’s death. He cuts off a lock of his hair and offers it to Inachus for help. They hear footsteps and hide. Electra, Orestes’s sister and a chorus of slaves arrive to pour libations at the tomb. Electra and the Chorus have a lengthy discussion about their misfortune and whether they would be able to avenge her father’s murder. Electra has been asked by her mother to make these offerings to appease Agamemnon’s spirit. She grapples with the idea of defiance of not doing anything or simply performing the act as an empty ritual since she is reminded that her father was killed by her mother. However, she decides to go ahead with the offerings by praying to her father for guidance. She finds the lock of hair left by Orestes on the tomb and is struck by its resemblance to her hair. Orestes reveals himself, and both are overjoyed to be with each other. But soon, they are overcome with the sadness around their current state and not being able to avenge their father’s death. Orestes describes the haunting visions and supernatural punishments that await him if he fails to avenge his father’s murder.
Electra discovering the lock of hair left by Orestes is a moment of joy, wonder and hopefulness, at a moment of despair and hopelessness. I was wondering if siblings do have similar hair or not. I doubt if two siblings can be identified by just their hair. Though, in general, humans have broadly different categories of hair like blonde, black, red, brown, etc, in terms of color and straight, curled, etc., in terms of patterns, when you look closely, each person’s hair is different from another’s. It is one of those things that work at a macro scale rather than at close range. For e.g., you could look at someone’s hair and kind of say which region on Earth they, or their ancestors, are from with more than 50% confidence, but you probably cannot find out if two people are related. You can probably do it by doing DNA analysis, not by merely looking though. What do you think?