None of the other books have these, so I think it is worth our while to look at them at least a little bit. I confess I am more familiar with Aeschylos than Penn, and this piece is from the period just before Orestes kills his mother to avenge his father. While the whole vengeance theme is obviously something the two texts have in common, there isn't all that much else that comes to mind. There is of course the problematic nature of killing in the Harry Potter universe, which we have discussed before: Orestes, by avenging his father, is haunted by the furies for the killing of his mother, but is ultimately freed from them. Similarly, Harry, by killing Voldemort, must lose part of his soul. The fact that this does not seem to happen is perhaps the most problematic part of the book (and I say this having read it only a couple of times and therefore having a somewhat a very vague notion that there is no way Harry can regret killing Voldemort -- we can perhaps discuss this later on). Perhaps this is a way of pointing out why this must be so, that the person who brings things back to order, to the way they were supposed to be, cannot be punished for doing the right thing because you cannot regret that? Am I confusing everyone?

But it is also fun to look at the words alone, without the Greek context, but introduced into the new one of Harry Potter. I am not sure who the dark gods would be, but the grief, the curse, the scream of death, all fit very well within this last book, if not all the foregoing. I am also terribly tempted to read the "torment bred in the race" as a sly kick at the pureblood nutters, but that may be taking it too far.

"Bless the children, give them triumph now" obviously resonates with (I assume) how we all felt when we first picked up the book? I know I was excited beyond words, waiting for the children to finally kick some Voldemort [euphemism].

Penn sounds like Dumbledore.