Agamemnon, The Choephori, The Eumenides (Cliffs Notes)

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Summary: Understanding Aeschylus' "Orestia" Trilogy
Review: Robert Milch has authored several Cliffs Notes dealing with Greek plays besides this one looking at the "Orestia" of Aeschylus. This means that one thing all of Milch's volumes share is an excellent introductory section consisting of a Background of Greek Tagedy and Aristotle on Tragedy, which develops dozens of literary concepts using the original Greek vocabulary (e.g., protagonist, eccyclema, stasimon, harmartia, anagnorisis). Following a look at the Life of Aeschylus and his Extant Dramatic Works, Milch looks at the Mythological Background of the "Orestia" trilogy. Milch then provides an introductory note of the trilogy setting up the main idea that civil legal procedures are necessary for civilization to rise above a primitive state, after which he looks at the three plays--"Agamemnon," "The Choelphori" ("The Libation Bearers"), and "The Eumenides"--following the classical structure of Greek Tragedies he established at the start and providing Summary/Commentary for each distinct unit. Finally, he looks at the main characters of the play (Clytaemestra, Orestes, Electra, Agamemnon and Aegisthus), although you will find that the main analysis comes in looking at the specific episodes of the three plays. Because he is looking at an entire trilogy Milch has a lot of ground to cover, versus those Cliffs Notes which are devoted to a single work, but the strength of this volume is in setting up the specific elements of a Greek play and following through on it in the Summary/Commentary section. No matter what Greek tragedies you might be teaching/reading, the introductory section of Milch's books are well worth your time and lend themselves towards fascinating cookie-cutter criticism.