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

Father kills daughter so mother kills father so son kills mother. Son is found not guilty cos mother deserved it.

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.

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.

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!!)

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.

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.

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⭐️

سه‌گانه‌ای منسجم و شکوهمند با ترجمه‌ای هنری و شگفت‌انگیز


نمایشنامه‌ی آگاممنون: چیزی که اینجا متوجه نمی‌شدم این بود که چرا هیچ‌کس به این‌که خود آگاممنون هم آدم خوبی نبود اشاره نمی‌کرد (به‌جز کلوتمنسترا که حرفش اهمیتی نداشت). اگر اورستس فکر می‌کنه جنایتش با جنایتکار بودن مقتول پاک می‌شه، کلوتمنسترا هم همین رو می‌تونه بگه. اگه الاهگان انتقام سر اورستس فرو اومدن که همخونش رو کشته، چرا سر آگاممنون فرو نیومدن که بازم همخونش رو کشته؟ آگاممنون خیلی بیش از حد لیاقتش خوب جلوه داده شد.

نمایشنامه‌ی نیازآوران: محتوای این نمایشنامه تقریباً مشابه نمایشنامه «الکترا» اثر سوفوکلس بود که من اون رو بیشتر دوست داشتم.

نمایشنامه‌ی الاهگان انتقام: چطوریه که اسم زئوس تو یک نمایشنامه انقد نشان قدرت و احترام و عدالت و «دیگه حرفی نزنی اسم زئوس رو آوردم» عه ولی یه نمایشنامه بعد (پرومتئوس در بند» نشونه‌ی شر و بدی و بی‌عدالتیه؟ :/

The Oresteia is a series of plays about the war of the sexes, law and order, and vengeance. It is tough to read in the modern day, because a lot of it is predicated on a very sexist view of women, and I think that view is inextricably tied to how the play is written.

Probably my favorite of the plays is Agamemnon, the first of the Oresteia. I think this play is the greatest out of the set- certainly it seemed the strongest to my modern sensibilities. Agamemnon, I am convinced, actually questions the value of the Trojan wars and the greatness of the king. The chorus spends a lot of time talking about the horrors of war, the sin of greed, and the absolute pointlessness of fighting a bloody war over a woman dismissed as a whore. Connecting the dots, it’s easy to see this as a critique of Agamemnon himself. Already obscenely wealthy and powerful, what does he need to sack and plunder Troy for? And yet, in his pursuit of glory and riches, he murders his own daughter simply so he can go fight abroad. As he comes back from the war, he brings his concubine/slave Cassandra in tow back to his home to greet his wife.

It is almost impossible for me not to empathize with Clytemnestra here. She possesses patience, nerve and strength- but as a woman, her fitness to rule will always be second guessed. Take the very first scene of the play where she finds out about the fall of Troy before everyone else. Thanks to a series of towers with pyres in them that act as a telegraph, she knows about it almost instantly. Yet her claims are met with complete skepticism- first the old men ascribe them to visions, then when they hear of the system Clytemnestra contrived, they retain an ironic distance, using scare quotes around the term “proof.” Finally, public opinion turns against her, dismissing her claim as the whims of a foolish woman. But what is so outlandish about her claim, backed not by visions, but by proof? Only when a male messenger arrives does the general public accept that the war is over. In fact, the old men are generally pretty dense- unable to understand the fairly straightforward explanation of how the flame towers work, and later unable to decipher a very straightforward prophecy that frames the rest of the play. People are inclined to see her as a tyrant, but this is never borne out by her behavior. In fact, at the end of the play she shows a great deal of mercy toward a group of people who hold her in contempt.

The Libation Bearers is the worst of the plays, completely eradicating all of Agamemnon’s wrongs and turning Clytemnestra into a villain. And yet she still has her good qualities, mourning over the death of her son and attempting to make some amends. Orestes, namesake of the trilogy makes his first appearance, but he’s really a dime a dozen Greek hero, something of a blank, boring character. This may be the first trilogy in history to exhibit the tendency of trilogies to have a weak middle chapter.

The Eumenides is not quite as strong as Agamemnon, but it has its values, as it is almost certainly the first courtroom drama in history. For the first time, I could see what Aeschylus was getting at. The true point of these plays as intended by their author is almost certainly about cycles of revenge and the rule of law. It’s not a mistake that the final problem is not resolved by bloody conflict but by persuasive negotiation. Murder upon retaliatory murder is no way to run a city, no matter how justified the reasons. Vengeance leads to more vengeance- each is justified in its own way. The only way out of such a cycle of blood is a system of justice- a jury to decide and render its verdict.

Unfortunately, Aeschylus makes up for his earlier proto-feminism in Agamemnon with a dismally sexist showing here. The case culminates in a preposterous proof that “the woman you call the mother is not the child’s true parent. She’s a nurse, rather, a stranger who shelters a stranger for the true parent, the male who mounts and sows the seed.” Astonishing. Maybe even astonishing for that era. The woman, who carries a child for nine months, and nurses it as a child, is not even a parent according to Apollo, divine fount of truth and god who cannot lie. Women are denied even their maternity. The outcome of the case provides conclusive evidence that at least 6 men in ancient Greece are wiser than the goddess of wisdom. The losing side throws a hissy fit, but eventually submits to Athena’s powers of persuasion (oh yes, and some bribery too).

All of this is a pretty political reading of a set of plays written by thousands of years ago. I’ve always tried to separate the politics of a work of art from its aesthetic qualities. I still think that’s a good way to read plays, whenever possible. Unfortunately, I find it impossible to do so with the Oresteia. When these political views inform the structure of the book to this extent, they form an integral part of the book. These views come under our scrutiny as readers as a result. All of the murders in the book are between genders. They form a clear pattern. The heroes of the plays are mostly men. The villains are mostly women. There are exceptions, but this is largely a tale of male agency prevailing over female agency. The vengeance stuff gets kind of pushed out of the way.

A note on translation: Do not read the Mueller translation of these plays. It sucks. The introduction explains that some literalness has been exchanged for poetic force- so we are not even assured of its accuracy. Generally we get a lot of swear words and no real poetic rhythm to speak of. Irritating exclamations like “E! E!”, “IOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”, “PATAI!”, “OTOTOOTOTOOTOTOOTOI! “are left in, or maybe even invented for all I know. Different cultures have different onomatopoeias, but try to imagine someone screaming OTOTOTOTOTOTI. What does that even sound like? And who would make such a noise? Lines like “The two-legged lion-bitch fucks with the wolf” are just really, really badly translated. Another nuisance is the ridiculous fucking formatting of the play in general. This pretty clearly is not only original but also extremely annoying, especially when the prophecies get going and every word gets indented differently. Translators take note: Each word does not need a new line, no matter how much you need to fill up the page count.

A dramatic trilogy for both Gods and men. Aeschylus' ability to weave and connect his tragedies seems second nature in today's world of sequels, trilogies, and Star Wars prequels, but Aescheylus' genius existed both in the original form and the brilliant substance of his surviving plays. I can understand how Swinburne could call the Oresteia trilogy the "greatest spiritual work of man." The Oresteia is at once brilliant, creepy, and infinitely tragic (only family dramas can be so damn full of pathos). As I was reading it, I was constantly thinking of the influences the Oresteia had on everyone from Shakespeare (think Lady Macbeth) to our current crop of TV police procedurals.

Foreword
Acknowledgements
A Reading of 'The Oresteia': The Serpent and the Eagle

--Agamemnon
--The Libation Bearers
--The Eumenides

The Genealogy of Orestes
Select Bibliography
Notes
Glossary