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

by Aeschylus (Author), Philip Vellacott (Translator, Introduction) "It is night, a little before sunrise..." (more)
Key Phrases: good prevail, Lord Apollo, Cry Sorrow

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Product Description
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.

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: 7.5 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #212,928 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars awesome, December 13, 2005

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

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Kurt A. Johnson (Marseilles, Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The only surviving Greek trilogy., June 12, 1999

By	R. D. Allison ([e-mail]) (Gainesville, Florida, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

"Agamemnon" is the first of the Oresteia trilogy (the only extant Greek trilogy) and should be required reading of all university students. The trilogy won First Prize at the Greater Dionesia in 458 B. C. Agamemnon returns to Argos from the Trojan War. He is killed by his wife Clytemnestra and his first cousin Aegisthus. Clytemnestra's reasons for the murder of both Agamemnon and Cassandra were questioned even in ancient Greece: was it for revenge for the death of her daughter Iphigenia or was it for her adultery with Aegisthus? In one of Pindar's odes (c. 474 B. C.), "Pythia 11", he asks: "Was it Iphigeneia, who at the Euripos crossing was slaughtered far from home, that vexed her to drive in anger the hand of violence? Or was it couching in a wrong bed by night that broke her will and set her awry?" The Oresteia trilogy is a study in justice. Agamemnon's death must be avenged; but, this means matricide. Orestes, in the next play, should not have been the hand of vengence. "The Libation Bearers" (or, "The Choephoroi"), the second play in the trilogy, is the earliest known play containing an intrigue as the main plot. Electra, sister of Orestes, has been sent to the grave of Agamemnon to offer a libation. Clytemnestra is attempting to placate the spirit of her dead husband. When she and Aegisthus are killed by Orestes, Orestes finds that now the Furies will pursue him rather than his mother. In the last play, the Eumenides (or the Erinyes), daughters of Night who avenge crimes committed by offspring against parents and who punished people who fail to keep their oaths, seek Orestes. Apollo purifies Orestes by washing him in pigs' blood. But the Erinyes reject Apollo's order to leave Orestes alone. The conflict is resolved via a trial overseen by Athena. Athena succeeds in restraining the Erinyes who are persuaded to make their home in Athens and will now be able to punish violence done within the polis. This play is the earliest known drama containing a complete change of scene.