The Oresteian Trilogy: Agamemnon; The Choephori; The Eumenides (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Aeschylus (Author), Philip Vellacott (Translator, Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: December 30, 1956

Aeschylus (525-c.456 bc) set his great trilogy in the immediate aftermath of the Fall of Troy, when King Agamemnon returns to Argos, a victor in war. Agamemnon depicts the hero's discovery that his family has been destroyed by his wife's infidelity and ends with his death at her callous hand. Clytemnestra's crime is repaid in The Choephori when her outraged son Orestes kills both her and her lover. The Eumenides then follows Orestes as he is hounded to Athens by the Furies' law of vengeance and depicts Athene replacing the bloody cycle of revenge with a system of civil justice. Written in the years after the Battle of Marathon, "The Oresteian Trilogy" affirmed the deliverance of democratic Athens not only from Persian conquest, but also from its own barbaric past.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Aeschylus was born of noble family near Athens in 525 BC. He took part in the Persian Wars, adn his epitahp represents him as fighting at Marathon. He wrote more than seventy plays, of which only seven have survived. Philip Vellacott has translated Aeschylus and Euripides for the Penguin Classics. He taughts classics at Dulwich College for twenty-four years and lectured on Greek Drama in the USA. He was also a Visiting Lecturer in the University of California. He died in 1997.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (December 30, 1956)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140440674
• ISBN-13: 978-0140440676
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #118,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #47 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > Classical & Early

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, with minor reservations, May 29, 2009

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Barnaby Thieme (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Oresteian Trilogy: Agamemnon; The Choephori; The Eumenides (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

It's easy to see why Aeschylus is still revered as one of the great dramatists of the ages. 2500 years later The Oresteia still presents poetical problems of great urgency, probing the darkest depths of the human psyche. While Agamemnon, the first work in this trilogy, is the most lauded, all three are of nearly equal value.

I'm of two minds regarding Vellacott's translation. For the most part the language is vivid and the verse is spacious and eloquent, though his fixed rhyme (which has no analog in the original Greek) is sometimes distracting -- particularly as he is in the all-too-frequent habit of forcing rhyme with ostentatious enjambment. That really breaks the flow.

With a verse translation this admittedly free in its rendering, I'm always left with the nagging question of which images belong to the author and which to the translator. When I want to experience a great work of the canon that can be a bit troubling.

These quibbles aside, Vellacott's translation does an outstanding job of framing the vital images of Aeschylus' trilogy with vigor, and overall my reading experience was first rate.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars awesome, December 13, 2005

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ct reader "logos.hfd" (ct) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Oresteian Trilogy: Agamemnon; The Choephori; The Eumenides (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

This is the quintessential tale of ritual sacrifice (homicide), blood debt, self-conflicted justice, patricide, guilt, and (ultimately) the divinely bestowed rule of law (reason). Written 2500 years ago, perhaps it's where respect for law originated. If before clan/society/religion (honor) demanded unthinking sacrifice and revenge, Aeschylus advocates divinely endorsed law as a mediator of the irrational (and emotional): reason alone can tame the madness.

Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Iphigenia, Electra, Orestes, and Aegisthus have since appeared in millions of derivative venues as dramatic models under different names. None approach the power of this work. I read this translation 30 years ago: it remains vivid and memorable.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent trilogy, August 24, 2007

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Oresteian Trilogy: Agamemnon; The Choephori; The Eumenides (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) is the father of Greek tragedies (one legend reports that Dionysus himself commanded Aeschylus to write them). Of the seventy tragedies that he wrote, only seven have survived to the present day. These three plays form the most complete tetralogy that we have (a tetralogy contained three tragedies and one satyr play - a semi-religious, semi-mocking performance that acted as a postlude to the tragic trilogy) - only the satyr play is missing.

In Agamemnon, the Greek king returns from the Trojan War, with his prize of the Trojan prophetess Cassandra. Cassandra knows that Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, will kill them, but she is fated to be not be believed. And so, the deed is done.

In The Libation Bearers, Clytemnestra has a nightmare that she gave birth to a snake, and so she sends her daughter Electra to Agamemnon's grave to pour out a libation. However, Electra meets her brother, Orestes, and the two plot revenge upon their mother, and her loved. And so, murder begets murder.

In The Eumenides, Orestes is fleeing the Furies, who are pursuing him for murdering his mother. Orestes flees to Apollo, who sends him on to Athens, to be judged by Athena herself.

This is an excellent trilogy. Even though it is over 2,000 years old, it still makes an interesting read. In particular, I enjoyed The Eumenides, with its battle of supernatural beings, and its showcasing of the development of Western jurisprudence. Overall, I found this to be an interesting and informative book, one that I do not hesitate to recommend to everyone.