Oresteia #1-3
Aeschylus, 1: The Oresteia: Agamemnon/The Libation Bearers/The Eumenides
178 pages, paper
First published January 1,-0458
This edition
- Format
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178 pages, paper
- Published
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November 1, 1997 by University of Pennsylvania Press
- ISBN
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9780812216271
- ASIN
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081221627X
- Language
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English
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Orestes
In Greek mythology, Orestes (Greek: Ὀρέστης) was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. When his father returned from the Trojan War, he was murdered by Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus. Orestes went into exile and swore to get revenge. After he reac...
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Electra
In Greek mythology, Electra (Greek: Ἠλέκτρα, Ēlektra) was an Argive princess and daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra. She and her brother Orestes plotted revenge against their mother Clytemnestra and step father Aegisthus for the murder of t...
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Cassandra
In Greek mythology, Cassandra (Greek Κασσάνδρα, also Κασάνδρα) was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her beauty caused Apollo to grant her the gift of prophecy. When Cassandra refused Apollos attempted seduction, he placed a curse...
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Agamemnon
In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (Ancient Greek: Ἀγαμέμνων; modern Greek: Αγαμέμνονας, "very resolute") is the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope; the brother of Menelaus and the husband of Clytemnestra; different mythological versions make him t...
About the author
Aeschylus (c. 525/524 BC – c. 456 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is largely based on inferences made from reading his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in the theatre and allowed conflict among them. Formerly, characters interacted only with the chorus.
Only seven of Aeschylus's estimated 70 to 90 plays have survived. There is a long-standing debate regarding the authorship of one of them, Prometheus Bound, with some scholars arguing that it may be the work of his son Euphorion. Fragments from other plays have survived in quotations, and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyri. These fragments often give further insights into Aeschylus' work. He was likely the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy. His Oresteia is the only extant ancient example. At least one of his plays was influenced by the Persians' second invasion of Greece (480–479 BC). This work, The Persians, is one of very few classical Greek tragedies concerned with contemporary events, and the only one extant. The significance of the war with Persia was so great to Aeschylus and the Greeks that his epitaph commemorates his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon while making no mention of his success as a playwright.
