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Summary: Erm... correction to an above review.
Review: "Aeschylus borrowed from Sophocles when...."Uh, I don't know 'bout the rest of you, but I seem to recall that Aeschylus lived AND died decades before Sophocles wrote. So that wouldn't really be possible. If anything, it was the other way around. And anyway, Greek literature is all about borrowing from other writers and Coloring Within the Lines.
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Summary: Did Orestes kill his mother ?
Review: Aeschylus ( 525-456 B. C.) is one of the greatest poets in history and is the oldest of the three Tragedy Poets ( the others are Sophocles and Euripides).
The Oresteia is the only Greek trilogy that survived.
In the first part - Agamemnon - he tells how the Greek commander is murdered by his wife Clytaimnestra an her lover Aigisthus short after his homecoming. His wife wanted to revenge the death of her daughter Iphigeneia, sacrificed by Agamemnon ten years earlier ( at the very beginning of the Trojan war ).
The second part - The Libation Bearers - Orestes helped by his sister Electra, kills his mother and her lover Aigistus.
In the third part - The Eumenides - Orestes is pursued by the three goddesses who seek revenge in their turn, urged by his mother.
I like this trilogy mainly because at a given moment you could say that Orestes is only imagening things. I don't want to spoil so I guess you have to read this work to know what I mean.
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Summary: A Civic Masterpiece
Review: Aeschylus is claimed to have written approximately 70 plays. Of these, only seven survive. Among the survivors is this trilogy, based on the myth of the House of Atreus, and it is a masterpiece. Most readers today probably read only the first and most famous play, Agamemnon. This is a mistake because Agamemnon, a great play in isolation, is even more impressive when viewed in the context of the trilogy as a whole. Much has been made of the nature of these plays as psychological family dramas, and this is correct but limiting. Reading the whole series of plays reveals Aeschylus' intention to depict an important social phenomenon, the replacement of traditional Greek religion and aristocratic society by the more humanistic ethos of the Athenian polis. The trilogy begins with the working out of the inherited curse of the House of Atreus and its bloody consequences, and concludes with the incorporation of the embodiment of passion and traditional religion, the Furies, into the state of Athens. Aeschylus contrasts the aristocratic ideals of revenge, unfettered passion, and primitive religion with the idea of human justice, the polis, and the more rationalistic worship of Apollo, Athena, and the Olympian Gods. This is a superb adaptation of myth to a theme of the greatest interest to his audience, the citizens of democratic Athens. This translation has been praised widely and contains a great deal of powerful writing.
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Summary: From Gods' caprices to the rule of law
Review: Aeschylus is the oldest of the three classical Greek tragedians, the other two being Sophocles and Euripides. In this trilogy, the only one surviving from Ancient Greek times, we see the development of human thought, from ascribing it all to the whims of the Gods, to the inauguration of popular jury and the Rule of Law. In "Agamemnon", we see the return of the Greeks' leader to his home, after ten years of war in Troy. Before the war, he had sacrificed his daughter Ifigenia to the Gods in order to have good winds, a deed which his wife, Clitmenestra, resented ever after (understandably). During the time he's been at war, Clitemnestra has taken Aigisthus, his husband's cousin, as her lover. When he comes back, Clitemnestra receives him and when he's takin his bath, she kills him in revenge for her daughter's murder (and because now she has a lover).
In "The Libation Bearers", Orestes, son to Agamemnon and Clitemnestra, comes back to kill his mother, and then in "The Eumenides", he is put to trial. The last of the three plays is, in my opinion, the best. Three female monsters are after Orestes to punish him for having killed his mother, on orders from Zeus. But then Apollo stands up to defend him, on the grounds that he had foreseen and ordered him to do so. Orestes flees to Athena's temple to find refuge, and so the Godess intervenes. The Gods are thus trapped in a hard dilemma: What to do with Orestes? He has certainly killed his mother, but in revenge for his mother having killed his father for having killed their daughter (there was no Geraldo at the time to go to). Athena decides to try a new thing: she calls Athens's best citizens to act as popular jury, and the trial starts, with the Eumenides (the monsters) as prosecutors, Apollo as Orestes's counselor, Athena as judge and the citizens as jury.
To me, this was fascinating because it describs the mythical way in which the capricious intervention of the Gods in human affairs was substituted by the Rule of Law. Aeschylus's style is easy to approach to, and this set of three tragedies should be read by everybody who wants to understand how we humans came to develop an idea of Law instead of Divine rule. Illuminating,.
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Summary: A superb presentation of the three plays of Aeschylus.
Review: An excellent presentation of the trilogy. Way back in 1970, Sir Lloyd-Jones had come out with the three plays in individual format and filled with annotations. Now, all three plays are together. And all three plays should be required reading for new students at a university. The first play in the Oresteia trilogy (the only extant Greek trilogy) is "Agamemnon." 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", Pindar 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 second play is "The Libation Bearers." It 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. The final play is "The Eumenides." The Eumenides are daughters of Night who avenge crimes committed by offspring against parents and who punished people who fail to keep their oaths. In this last play, 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. This play is the earliest known drama containing a complete change of scene.
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Summary: A Great Tragedy- A Great Translation
Review: Before we had courts and rule of law, justice went by a different name- revenge. The greek playwrite Aeschylus mythologizes the creation of law and justice through allegorical representation, using the events of the Trojan war and the intercession of the gods as a basis for understanding the ancient Greek system of justice, on which all European courts are based. This translation is a very fluid interpretation of the original greek, and much less stilted than other's I've seen. Highly recommended to fans of ancient literature.
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Summary: A Great Tragedy- A Great Translation
Review: Before we had courts and rule of law, justice went by a different name- revenge. The greek playwrite Aeschylus mythologizes the creation of law and justice through allegorical representation, using the events of the Trojan war and the intercession of the gods as a basis for understanding the ancient Greek system of justice, on which all European courts are based. This translation is a very fluid interpretation of the original greek, and much less stilted than other's I've seen. Highly recommended to fans of ancient literature.
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Summary: This could easily be a modern thriller!
Review: I guess themes never change. This book has a thrilling plot, filled with bloodbaths and revnge- and it's all part of one family's journey to utter godlessness and back. teh furies make a great chorus, filthy hags set on avenging the in-family wrongs. Only problem is it's all written in somewhat confusing rhyme. I recommend this.
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Summary: This is the Real McCoy of fine Greek Literature
Review: I read the Oresteia, and felt it opened my eyes to not only Greek Tragedy, but Greek Literature at it's finest. In schools, one reads the Odyssey, the Illiad, the Aeneid, Wharton's version of Mythology. And, perhaps those are the most famous, or done by Homer, but they honestly aren't shining works of literature. Each of the plays is very different in style, but all are equally good. I especially enjoy the Liberation Bearers, which shows how much we've changed in these thousands of years, and yet how little. A must read.
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Summary: Translation is OK, but probably not the best...
Review: I read this for an ancient political theory class, and while the translation is lucid, it seems awkward in many places and not very poetic. My teacher uses both this translation and another (the Lattimore, I believe) in class, and the latter is more poetic. I couldn't say which is more accurate, however. This trilogy is a classic, though, and is definitely worth reading.
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