Rating: 
Summary: "The house breathes with murder"
Review: This book consists of three major parts -- first, the long essay, "The Serpent and the Eagle", which is a very good narrative of what is going on for those who are not immediately familiar with the work (like me). Those who have extensive experience in studying this trilogy might find this unnecessary, but it is helpful to the lay reader trying to connect with vague high school or college recollections of this play.The second part is the trilogy itself, and it still doesn't lose any potency. If Fagles' thesis is to be believed, then the play is a meticulous journey from savagery and blood-feud into civic identity and suppression of the personal vendettas, leading to the ascendency of Athens after the war with the Persians. Aeschylus lived from 525 to 456 B.C., so that would put him in the pre-Socratic period and prior to the period of Athens' decline, so this civic victory over the furies that governed the blood-feud might be dimiinished by subsequent events. However, as a theatrical device to bring the vendetta (which, as the end of "Agamemnon" details, started a generation prior to the play with a grotesque feast of children) to its ultimate dilemma -- Clytemnestra avenging her daughter's death on the battlefield by killing the perpetrator, her husband -- Orestes having to avenge his father's death by killing his mother -- and the trial among the gods that resulted -- isn't any less relevant as a curb to seeking the most savage retribution at the expense of possibly a higher justice. The last part of Fagles' version is a line-by-line commentary that helps explain certain translated phrases. All in all, for both the layman and the expert, there are parts of this book worth keeping on the library shelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Only read this if you want to re-read a few times..
Review: This book was boring, and poorly setup....It consists of too much stupid diction, and the tone fails it in many places. If you have to read this for a class, or are considering a form of suicide, then turn to this book..
Rating: 
Summary: Great plays written centuries ago.
Review: This is a trilogy of plays written by a man who lived around 500 B.C. Each of these plays is a classical tragedy, and each is wonderful in its own right. They are about the doomed descendents of the cruel and bloody Atreus. The atmosphere of each of the plays is doom and revenge. In the first play - "Agamemnon" - Agamemnon returns home after ten years of the Trojan war and he no sooner sets foot on his own soil, and his wife kills him in order that she may rule with her lover. In the second play - "The Libation-Bearers" - Agamemnon's son Orestes returns home after he was driven away by his mother and her lover. He returns in order to revenge his father's death. He kills both his mother and her lover. In the third play - "The Furies" - Orestes is facing the Furies who claim that he must be punished for his mother's murder. Orestes gets the approval of the gods that the matricide was necessary. These plays are wonderfully written. They portray divine justice and show the cumulative power of evil. Aeschylus believed that man must learn from suffering, and his character Orestes is the only character in this trilogy that learns from agony. These are truly classics.
Rating:
Summary: Don't believe the Ted Hughes hype
Review: Unlike most of the reviewers, I'm not an Aeschylus fan- I find his drama the least developed and least effective of the Greek tragedians, (and I think Aristotle would agree with me, critics of Euripides simply need to understand him as the first post-modern writer) the Orestia as the perpetuation of a mythological cycle damaging to women and forming a cornerstone for the misogynistic civilization of the last 2,500 odd years, not to mention the characterizations contained within misguided at best, ridiculous at worst. With that said, Fagles is extraordinary. I recently read the Ted Hughes version of this trilogy, and although it had some interesting imagery (mostly from the modern poet's mind,) the shallowness of the adaptation and orientation on poetry (as opposed to drama,) made it completely ineffective. (I have to say, I have a similarly low opinion of the Seamus Heaney's Philocetes (Cure at Troy,) which won the Nobel prize for a message put more meaningfully and to a far broader audience in Star Trek II & III.) Fagles on the other hand, aside from bringing a clear, no-nonsense poetic style that affords ultimate readability, has the crucial scholar's depth of understanding that makes these plays breath with life and meaning. If you really want the effect of these important plays, this is the translation for this generation, bar none. Recommended reading: "Orestes" by Charles L. Mee (available in his "History Plays".)
Rating:
Summary: A Worthy Translation
Review: With his recent translations of Aeschylus, Sophocles and especially Homer, Robert Fagles assumes the status of the finest Greek translator of the age. The grandeur, excitement and triumph of this beautiful translation cannot be overstated. The Oresteia is truly one the most monumental and enduring legacies from the Golden Age. Here is a translation which befits the greatness of the subject. Some additional random musings: 1. This is one of the many books I was "forced" to read in graded courses at the University, but only really first discovered when I was long graduated and freed from all compulsory studies. In the meantime I have also had the time and passion to study -- very slowly and with great delight -- the originals. 2. As with other "great" works of literature, my advice is to ignore what the "experts" have to say about the work and go straight to the work itself. Thus, skip the intimidating intro and dive right into the text, doubling back later only if the muse strikes you. 3. After reading and then rereading Fagles' new translation of the Agamemnon, Libation Bearers and Eumenides I am struck by the similarities of the Oresteia in both tone, theme and mien to the greatest Shakespearean tragedies, especially Hamlet. My dogeared copy of this Aeschylus is now bristling with notes and crossreferences to the Bard.
Rating:
Summary: A Worthy Translation
Review: With his recent translations of Aeschylus, Sophocles and especially Homer, Robert Fagles assumes the status of the finest Greek translator of the age. The grandeur, excitement and triumph of this beautiful translation cannot be overstated. The Oresteia is truly one the most monumental and enduring legacies from the Golden Age. Here is a translation which befits the greatness of the subject. Some additional random musings: 1. This is one of the many books I was "forced" to read in graded courses at the University, but only really first discovered when I was long graduated and freed from all compulsory studies. In the meantime I have also had the time and passion to study -- very slowly and with great delight -- the originals. 2. As with other "great" works of literature, my advice is to ignore what the "experts" have to say about the work and go straight to the work itself. Thus, skip the intimidating intro and dive right into the text, doubling back later only if the muse strikes you. 3. After reading and then rereading Fagles' new translation of the Agamemnon, Libation Bearers and Eumenides I am struck by the similarities of the Oresteia in both tone, theme and mien to the greatest Shakespearean tragedies, especially Hamlet. My dogeared copy of this Aeschylus is now bristling with notes and crossreferences to the Bard.
Rating:
Summary: So what if he borrowed from Sophocles?
Review: Yes, Aeschylus borrowed from Sophocles when he abandoned the idea of having only 2 actors speaking at once, Aeschylus is even better writing with a third actor. I suppose Sophocles and Aeschylus need me "reviewing" them about as much as Shakespeare or Leonardo da Vinci do. At any rate, the Oresteia is an excellent piece, and who else but Robert Fagles to translate them? Fagles makes a readable translation, with a lyrical quality at times. Buy this book, you won't regret it. If you have read the Theban plays(Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone), and liked them, then you will feel right at home here. If you haven't read the Theban plays(by Sophocles BTW), do so, Fagles translated those as well.
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