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Oresteia #1-3

The Oresteia: Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides

aeschylus george thomson richard seaford

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One of the founding documents of Western culture and the only surviving ancient Greek trilogy, the Oresteia of Aeschylus is one of the great tragedies of all time.

The three plays of the Oresteia portray the bloody events that follow the victorious return of King Agamemnon from the Trojan War, at the start of which he had sacrificed his daughter Iphigeneia to secure divine favor. After Iphi-geneia’s mother, Clytemnestra, kills her husband in revenge, she in turn is murdered by their son Orestes with his sister Electra’s encouragement. Orestes is pursued by the Furies and put on trial, his fate decided by the goddess Athena. Far more than the story of murder and ven-geance in the royal house of Atreus, the Oresteia serves as a dramatic parable of the evolution of justice and civilization that is still powerful after 2,500 years.

The trilogy is presented here in George Thomson’s classic translation, renowned for its fidelity to the rhythms and richness of the original Greek.

127 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1,-0458
Series
Oresteia
Literary awards
national book award finalist, 
Places
greece, argos, 

This edition

Format
127 pages, Hardcover
Published
January 20, 2004 by Everyman's Library
ISBN
9781400041923
ASIN
1400041929
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Orestes

    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...

  • Electra

    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...

  • Clytemnestra (wife Of Agamemnon)

    ...

  • Cassandra

    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...

  • Agamemnon

    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...

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About the author

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aeschylus

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Greek Αισχύλος, Esquilo in Spanish, Eschyle in French, Eschilo in Italian, Эсхил in Russian.

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.

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Rating(4 / 5.0, 99 votes)
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99 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Supercali
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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First acquaintance with Aeschylus. This is oral poetry with minimum action. Themes: man has to be faithful to the gods, who goes against the law and against human traditions has to deal with inevitable doom, that curse shall pass on to the next generations. Eventually Zeus appears as the caretaker of the world. Full of symbolism. Difficult to digest
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vidriol
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Father kills daughter so mother kills father so son kills mother. Son is found not guilty cos mother deserved it.
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BernieSorbet
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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For people who didn't notice Marina Hyde's column in today's Guardian:
Having been instrumental in forcing the last two prime ministers out of office, Boris Johnson is on a hat-trick. Can he do it? Can Big Dog play his cards in such a way that a third prime ministerial scalp will be his – his in more ways than one? The answer feels like a hard yes, but this never-ending Greek tragedy is certainly taking its time. How’s your stamina? Like me, you maybe feel the Boristeia is dragging on a bit. Seemingly three plays in, Shagamemnon is still with us.
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Yael-sama
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Era costumbre en la Antigua Grecia que cada autor trágico presentase tres obras a concurso en los festivales en honor a Dioniso. La Orestíada (compuesta por las obras Agamenón, Las coéforas y Las Euménides), de Esquilo, es la única trilogía que ha pervivido hasta nosotros.
tLa guerra de Troya ha terminado. Sin embargo, el regreso a casa de los vencedores griegos dista mucho de ser triunfal. Agamenón, el caudillo que ha encabezado la flota expedicionaria, vuelve a Micenas únicamente para ser asesinado por su esposa, Clitemnestra, en venganza por el sacrificio de su hija Ifigenia. Después, Orestes, el hijo de ambos, decide hacer justicia alentado por Apolo, y mata fríamente a su propia madre. Pero el asesinato de Clitemnestra no queda impune, y las Erinias, deidades de la antigua justicia, persiguen a Orestes por su crimen. Finalmente, la cadena de muerte y venganza se rompe cuando el Areópago, tribunal de Atenas presidido por Atenea, decide absolver a Orestes.
tMás allá de la sublimidad trágica de los propios textos de Esquilo, la Orestíada simboliza el paso del mundo antiguo al nuevo, de la justicia homérica de los héroes, basada en la venganza y el ojo por ojo, a la sociedad racional de Atenas, basada en los tribunales imparciales del Areópago. La Grecia tribal ha quedado atrás, y la edad de oro de la democracia se abre paso.
tLa representación de estas tres tragedias en un ciclo único en los teatros atenienses debió ser un espectáculo sin parangón. Su lectura, más de dos mil quinientos años después de su concepción, supone una de las experiencias literarias más gratificantes que he tenido la oportunidad de disfrutar.
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Hlebka
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Ma io povera stolta cosa posso mai scrivere di questa Opera? mi sono veramente sentita super ignorante, non ricordo piu' niente di ciò che ho studiato ....... ho fatto una fatica bestia, ma ho veramente goduto ogni passaggio della tragedia di Clitennestra e soprattutto della povera Ifigenia...
Agamennone, mi spiace, l'ho odiato da subito....( ragionando da madre del 21°sec.!!)
Per la seconda e la terza parte.....ho dovuto chiedere aiuto ovunque, persino alle figlie liceali, che fatica!! Le Coefore e Le Eumenidi le ho trovate complicate e piene di incastri e personaggi a cui il mio povero cervello non riusciva proprio a stare dietro....
Mia figlia, presa da pietà, mi ha allungato la dispensa facilitata per il Liceo...
Ho detto tutto!!
( ho proprio dimenticato tutto quello che ho studiato al Classico... che vergogna!!)
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serjohn01
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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So the boys asked the Sibyl, "What do you want?"
And the Sibyl said, "I want to die!"
Petronius, Satyricon.

The God Apollo, speaking through the mouth of the Sibyl, is decrying Rome's corruption. So here, Orestes bewails his father, the King's sin. But he quickly learns you can't fight Sin with sin.

Orestes was so ME, in the Seventies. Calamity followed calamity for me, as for him. The Eumenides that Fate followed up with kept me "pinned and wriggling" on a Procrustean bed for fifty long years afterward.

That Agenbite of Inwit, in my seventies, has nearly abated, down to a faint feeling of being ill at ease. I had to sacrifice fun to find love.

The Oresteia is no fun either. Neither is life - excepting, for some, their toys, and for a few, the enduring legacy of love in their lives.

And Orestes has sinned and must do penance. As must we all.

My Prof in that Freshman Year at uni was the eminently and affably unassuming Head of the tiny Classics Department. Pity, that. Ancient Lit has much to tell us if we only had the ears to hear it.

Things about the tragedy of life, for example.

If you're not acquainted with tragedy in your life you're cruising for a bruising! Sooner or later. Tragedy breeds humility, another thing we don't believe in any more. Alas again.

So Orestes learns humility the hard way.

The hard way, unfortunately, for many of us who'd never learn about tragedy any other way, is also the best way.

And your misfortune will finally turn to love, as mine did.

There ARE Happy Endings.

But to get there, like Goldilocks, we must first go through a Dark, Evil Forest:

A LONG, LONG, LONG way from our loving Grandmother's House.
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K4tsuoKun
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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At the beginning of the fifth century, it was customary for each of the tragedians competing at the festival of Dionysus to present a trilogy of three plays on a related theme, followed by a satyr-play. The Oresteia is the only surviving example of a Greek tragic trilogy, so it has immense importance in the history of drama.

Each of the plays is self-contained; however, the endings of the first two plays transition naturally into the following plays. Each play has its own chorus and an almost separate cast of characters, but the trilogy is united by the basis of the plots and the cycle of legends. There are also underlying themes which continue throughout the cycle of plays and reach their full resolution at the conclusion of The Eumenides.

The main idea of The Oresteia is that injustice and the blood-feud must be eliminated if society is to attain a high level of social organization, which can only be achieved through the introduction of public morality and civic legal processes. The city of Athens, whose patron goddess is the spirit of wisdom, is exalted as the model which men should emulate.

The Oresteia focuses on the legend of the family of Atreus as raw material for examination of different aspects of the theme such as questions about the nature of justice, methods of establishing and maintaining justice, the relationship of justice to vengeance, mercy, the gods, fate, and the social order. It also deals with the related theories that wisdom can be learned only through experience and suffering, that one crime invariably leads to another if the criminal is not punished, that blood, once shed, can never be truly atoned for, and that authority is the foundation of civilization.

After reading Homer, Aeschylus is a logical next step and truly engrossing. Aeschylus's plays hold age-old truths and pose questions about man and his quest for vengeance or justice that ring true today.
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veemon23
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Agamemnon 4⭐️ - god the memories I have of being a young kid whilst my dad was directing this at our local theatre ❤️

Libation Bearers 5⭐️

Eumenides 4⭐️
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