Aeschylus

E. D. A. Morshead

Aeschylus is one of the 3 most famous ancient Greek playwrights, along with Sophocles and Euripides, and together, they all but established and invented Western drama. As the Father of Tragedy, Aeschylus was famous even among the ancient Greeks, including Aristotle, and his plays made other Greeks famous, like Orestes. Aeschylus authored dozens if not hundreds of plays, but only a few survive today, including The Oresteia (a trilogy of the plays Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides). Other surviving works include The Persians (the oldest surviving tragedy in history), The Suppliant Maidens, and Seven Against Thebes. He's also recognized as the author of Prometheus Bound, though scholars still debate that. The first in the Oresteia trilogy, Agamemnon, is about the famous Greek king of the Trojan War, and how he returns home only to be murdered by his wife. The second play, The Libation Bearers, reunites Orestes and his sister Electra, with the two plotting revenge for their father's murder. The final play in the trilogy, The Eumenides, tells the story of Orestes getting his revenge, but then subsequently being consumed by the Furies and having to face charges of murder.

The Oresteia Trilogy

The Oresteia

Ceej Manaloto

Black and white and everything in between!

Would've loved to have witnessed Aeschylus' plays (esp this) at firsthand.

First performed in 458BC, Aeschylus's trilogy of plays - known collectively as The Oresteia - remains perhaps the great masterpiece of Ancient tragic drama. Telling the bloody story of the House of Atreus, Aeschylus's tragedy stages an eternal debate about justice and revenge that remains relevant more than two millenia later. Now available in the Bloomsbury Revelations series in this classic and authoritative translation by Hugh Lloyd-Jones, this book contains the text of all three plays - Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides - with extensive scholarly annotation throughout.

Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides

Zeke Taylor

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.

Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides

vera

reread (220622)  /  how do you even rate greek tragedies? simply, you don't, so i will not (five stars in my heart). anyway, the oresteia: what did i just read and why does it resonate with me so much? do we ever have a choice in our fates or are they really so predetermined? if my father's father is cursed, what does that mean for my own bloodline? are we able to make our own choices or do we live as the gods demand us to? thinking of u, aeschylus. 

Euripides

Sophocles

A Bold, Iconoclastic New Look at One of the Great Works of Greek Tragedy In this innovative rendition of The Oresteia, the poet, translator, and essayist Anne Carson combines three different visions—Aischylos' Agamemnon, Sophokles' Elektra, and Euripides' Orestes—giving birth to a wholly new experience of the classic Greek triumvirate of vengeance. After the murder of her daughter Iphegenia by her husband Agamemnon, Klytaimestra exacts a mother's revenge, murdering Agamemnon and his mistress, Kassandra. Displeased with Klytaimestra's actions, Apollo calls on her son, Orestes, to avenge his father's death with the help of his sister Elektra. In the end, Orestes, driven mad by the Furies for his bloody betrayal of family, and Elektra are condemned to death by the people of Argos, and must justify their actions—signaling a call to change in society, a shift from the capricious governing of the gods to the rule of manmade law. Carson's accomplished rendering combines elements of contemporary vernacular with the traditional structures and rhetoric of Greek tragedy, opening up the plays to a modern audience. In addition to its accessibility, the wit and dazzling morbidity of her prose sheds new light on the saga for scholars. Anne Carson's Oresteia is a watershed translation, a death-dance of vengeance and passion not to be missed.

Agamemnon by Aiskhylos; Elektra by Sophokles; Orestes by Euripides

An Oresteia

madina

my ENAMOR...something with this play gradually lessened each play because damn that agamemnon translation will never top any of the other two. i will forever remember poor kassandra, ugh, im so.

"Where I come from people say bad shit
happening
when they mean death.
Another quaint barbarian idiom is real bad
shit happenin--
that covers blood on the floors
and a houseful of swords."

Christine Joelle Valisno Manaloto

aybüke

Liam Holbrook

peyton mckenzie

Oliver Taplin

The most renowned of Aeschylus' tragedies and one of the foundational texts of Western literature, the Oresteia trilogy is about cycles of deception and brutality within the ruling family of Argos. In Agamemnon, afflicted queen Clytemnestra awaits her husband's return from war to commit a terrible act of retribution for the murder of her daughter. The next two plays, radically retitled here as The Women at the Graveside and Orestes in Athens, deal with the aftermath of the regicide, Orestes' search to avenge his father's death, and the ceaseless torment of the young prince. A powerful discourse on the formation of democracy after a period of violent chaos, The Oresteia has long illuminated the tensions between loyalty to one's family and to the greater community. Now, Oliver Taplin's "vivid and accessible translation" (Victoria Mohl) captures the lyricism of the original, in what is sure to be a classic for generations to come.

The Oresteia Trilogy

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