Ebook The Oresteian Trilogy Agamemnon The Choephori The Eumenides Penguin Classics Aeschylus Philip Vellacott Books
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The only surviving trilogy from ancient times - a story of murder, madness and justice
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.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Ebook The Oresteian Trilogy Agamemnon The Choephori The Eumenides Penguin Classics Aeschylus Philip Vellacott Books
"With Greek plays you live and die by your translation--Vellacott is as good as it gets
Stan"
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The Oresteian Trilogy Agamemnon The Choephori The Eumenides Penguin Classics Aeschylus Philip Vellacott Books Reviews :
The Oresteian Trilogy Agamemnon The Choephori The Eumenides Penguin Classics Aeschylus Philip Vellacott Books Reviews
- The Penguin edition is riddled with errors on the . They didn't bother to proofread what the scanner spit out, so you get "bahn" for "balm," "hing" for "king," etc. One of my students wasn't sure what to make of Clytemnestra's retort "Is feet so great a burden?" He had no trouble understanding it when we showed him the print version "Is fact so great a burden?" I know some content is this way, but thought I could trust a Penguin classic on .
It's a great set of plays, if you get a version you can read. - With Greek plays you live and die by your translation--Vellacott is as good as it gets
Stan - Product was in good condition!! The book was just not the one I needed.
- Daughter needed for school .
- The story of Orestes is known less to the general public than is the stories of the Trojan War that appear in Iliad and The Odyssey of Homer (Bantam Classics). Recent film features such as Troy and Helen of Troy have omitted the character of Orestes altogether for the sake of simplicity.
Aeschylus' trilogy is about the culmination of the curse of the house of Atreus, which is the the most dysfunctional family in Greek mythology. The founder of the house was a fellow by the name of Tantalus. One day, Tantalus invited over Zeus, Apollo and Demeter for dinner. Before they arrived, he murdered his son, Pelops, and offered his entrails as the repast. Basically, he wanted to "get one over" on the gods.
Demeter was the only one who was fooled as this happened around the time that Persephone was abducted to the underworld & the goddess was thus distracted. She immediately knew something was kahooey when she bit into the meat. She felt so bad that she brought Pelops back to life. As she had bitten into his shoulder, she gave him a prosthetic one as recompense.
Zeus was not amused. The earth opened up underneath Tantalus and he fell down into Tartarus. There, he was up to his neck in water and had gorgeous branches of fruit all around him. However, each time he reached for the fruit, it receded JUST out of his reach. And, each time he tried to take a drink, the water would always be just beyond his dry & vapid lips. Such was his punishment to forever suffer the pangs of hunger & thirst whilst having fruits & water just out of his grasp. If you're scoring @ home, you know that this is from whence we get the term "tantalize."
Such was the beginning of the curse of the house of Atreus. Through the generations, the family encountered infantcide, matricide, cannibalism, incest, adultery and just about everything you'd like to jettison from a "normal" household. Of course, it's not as though the family always "set out" to commit despicable acts.
Before leaving for Troy, Agamemnon is faced with a dillema he can either abandon the expedition and send the Greeks home, OR he must sacrifice his young daughter, Iphigenia, to the gods. Doing the latter will cause Artemis to unlock the winds. Doing nothing will equate to the 1st option as the fleet is restless and about to give up on the idea of sailing to Troy. Agamemnon, with a heavy heart, chooses to make the sacrifice.
Ultimately, this is one of the many facets of the story that compel his wife, Clytemnestra, to take vengeance upon her husband. This much is covered in Helen of Troy. However, the story does not end there. Agamemnon & Clytemnestra also have a son Orestes.
Orestes, then, is faced with a conundrum of his own if he murders his mother to avenge his father, then he will be haunted by the furies. If he does not avenge his father, then his mother will never face punishment for her crime. What would YOU do? That's a tough one!!
Such is the backdrop of The Oresteian Trilogy Agamemnon; The Choephori; The Eumenides (Penguin Classics). The 1st play recounts Agamemon's return to Troy & his subsequent murder. The 2nd play is about Orestes & his sister, Electra, plotting revenge against their mother and uncle (Aegisthus). The 3rd and final play is the tale of poor Orestes being chased by the furies and Apollo acting as his "defense counsel" at what the Greeks believed to be the first trial by judge & jury. This is a rather important feature, given that the current judicial structure of the United States is loosely based upon the blueprint of the Greeks, which they in turn traced back to Orestes!
So, for people who want to know the more complete story of the Trojan war, this book is a must. People who are curious about the end of "clan justice" and the beginning of a "civilized" judicial system will also be inclined to read their Aeschylus. - I originally began reading this translation by Vellacott, and I almost gave up on this trilogy. I am not a fan of translations that attempt to keep a rhyming scheme in English. The sentence structure was awkward as well, reminding me of the days long ago when I was struggling through my first readings of Shakespeare in high school.
Switching to Fagles' translation made all the difference for me! I'd highly recommend that translation (titled "The Oresteia," and also published by Penguin) over this one. The beginning commentary by Fagles, The Serpent and the Eagle, is wonderful as well. The two translations are only 10 tens apart, but it feels more like there are 100 years between them. - "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.
