The Choephoroe [Paperback]

Aeschylus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1997 | ISBN-10: 0887347711 | ISBN-13: 978-0887347719

Aeschylus (525 BC-456 BC) was an ancient Greek playwright. He is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays survive, the others being Sophocles and Euripides. Many of Aeschylus' works were influenced by the Persian invasion of Greece, which took place during his lifetime. His play The Persians remains a quintessential primary source of information about this period in Greek history. He wrote some 70 to 90 plays, but only seven tragedies have survived intact: The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, The Suppliants, the trilogy known as The Orestia, consisting of the three tragedies Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides, and Prometheus Bound (whose authorship is disputed).

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Greek (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 55 pages
• Publisher: Players Pr (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887347711
• ISBN-13: 978-0887347719
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,003,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Part 2 of Aeschylus' Masterpiece, May 22, 2000

By 

Sean Ares Hirsch - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Libation Bearers (Prentice-Hall Greek drama series) (Paperback)

Who says that sequels never live up to the original? Part 2 of this phenomenal trilogy does just that! All seems well for the detestable Clytemnestra and her lover. Agamemnon's son Orestes IMMEDIATELY grabs our attention when he makes his plans to avenge the death of his father Agamemnon. What makes this such a masterpiece is that Aeschylus grabs us in phases that get more and more intense. First Orestes kills Clytemnestra's lover. Then he grabs us with a dramatic confrontation between Orestes and his wicked mother. Orestes kills her, but Aeschylus DOES NOT stop here! Orestes is then tormented by the Furies! (Furies to Greek Mythology would be like Demons to the Church.) When I finished part 2, I NEEDED some cigarettes to calm down, before I DARED TO open part 3!

5.0 out of 5 stars Sequels Can Match the Original!, August 1, 2006

By 

Bradley Headstone "Sean ARES Hirsch" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Libation Bearers (Prentice-Hall Greek drama series) (Paperback)

Who says that sequels never live up to the original? Part 2 of Aeschylus's masterpiece does just that! For those of you who don't know this, "The Libation Bearers" (Part 2) picks up a few years after "Agamemnon" (Part 1) left off. Clytemnestra killed her husband Agamemnon, and she is now with her lover Aegisthus. All seems well for them, but it will not remain so.

Orestes (Agamemnon's son) comes out of exile with plans to avenge his father's death (under the orders of Apollo). An interesting side note is that the great and glorious King Edward III had a similar experience. His father (Edward II) was killed by his mother, so she could be with her lover Mortimer. And at the age of 17, Edward III flipped the tables. He was to reign for 47 more years. But I am digressing.

In this 2nd chapter, the chorus is some Trojan women who don't have a problem with Orestes plotting against his mother and her lover. Well, Orestes goes to his mother's house, and Clytemnestra does not recognize him. The nurse gives Orestes up for dead and has abandoned all hope that Agamemnon will be avenged. In a comical moment, the chorus tells the nurse that she need not abandon hope. Aegisthus suspects that Orestes may still be alive, and it isn't long before Orestes accomplishes the 1st part of his task and kills Aegisthus. (The lover was the easy part.)

Orestes does not find phase 2 of his revenge so easy. He does hesitate to kill his mother, and it is only with his friend Pylades's prompting that he can do so: "Better men should hate you than the gods." But of course, this makes for better writing. Rather than portraying Orestes as a simple killer, the next phase of his revenge is difficult. After killing his mother, all is not so well. he is tormented by the furies. Only he can see them. The chorus can not. The furies bear a striking resemblance to the ghost of Banquo in "Macbeth." Banquo's ghost puts Macbeth into a psychological turmoil, and the fact that only he can see the ghost makes it worse. (The other characters in "Macbeth" can not understand why Macbeth falls into a psychological frenzy.)

It is even possible to wonder if this 2nd chapter of Aeschylus's masterpiece inspired that scene Shakespeare wrote in "Macbeth." Why not? Shortly before Shakespeare wrote his plays, there was a reactivation of Greek and Roman classics. So, what of Orestes now? Well, that will be answered in Part 3. ("The Eumenides") And worry not! Part 3 maintains the power of parts 1 and 2!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The second play in the Orestia trilogy of Aeschylus, August 9, 2004

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Choephoroe (Paperback)

"The Choephoroe" ("The Libation Bearers") is the second play in the Orestia trilogy of Aeschylus. It takes place a few years after the events covered in "Agamemnon," which tells of how Agamemnon returned victoriously from the Trojan War only to be slain by his wife Clytemnestra, who never forgave her husband for having their daughter Iphigenia sacrificed so the Achean fleet could sail for Troy ten years earlier. "The Choephoroe" finds Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, living in exile in the nearby kingdom of Phocis. However, in obedience to a command given him by the god Apollo, Orestes returns to Argos to avenge his father. Seeking out his sister Electra, Orestes disguises himself to enter the palace where he kills Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Orestes attempts to justify his act of matricide but in the final scene of the play becomes consumed by madness and flees from the Furies, the punishing spirits of the gods who will hound him for his hideous crime. The Orestia concludes in "The Eumenides," where Orestes is expiated of his crime and Aeschylus completes his dramatic argument for the civilized notion of justice.

The story of the murder of Clytemnestra by Orestes is a unique tale from ancient mythology because it is the one story which serves as the subject for plays by all three of the great Greek tragic poets; both Sophocles and Euripides called their versions of the tale "Electra." All three have their own perspectives on the tale and what makes the Aeschylus version stand out, besides being the middle part of the only extant trilogy from these ancient dramatic competition, is the confrontation between mother and son. After hearing that Aegisthus has been slain, Clytemnestra knows that Orestes has returned and sends her servants to get the ax with which she slew his father. But when they confront each other she reminds him that she gave him birth and nursed him through infancy. Then she argues that she was justified in killing Agamemnon. Finally she threatens him, saying Orestes will be tormented forever if he kills his mother. Orestes replied he would be tormented by his father's curse if he spares her.

This scene in the play's fourth episode is arguably the most powerful ever written by Aeschylus. Notice that neither Sophocles nor Euripides try to compete with this scene and pretty much avoid the fatal confrontation in their "Electra"s. But ironically "The Choephoroe" is the one play in the Orestia that gets the least attention (for example, it is reduced to a synopsis in Moses Hadas's "Greek Drama" collection while the other two plays are presented complete). There might be a tendency to seeing the play as the flip side of "Agamemnon," setting up the stage for the climax of "The Eumenides." Obviously I want to make an argument that this play stands on its own, even when separated from the Orestia. Note: Several years ago the Guthrie Theater did a fascinating version of the curse on the house of Atreus by doing Euripides's "Iphigenia at Aulis," Aeschylus's "Agamemnon," and Sophocles's "Electra."