In the Oresteia—the only trilogy in Greek drama which survives from antiquity— Aeschylus took as his subject the bloody chain of murder and revenge within the royal family of Argos. Moving from darkness to light, from rage to self-governance, from primitive ritual to civilized institution, it's spirit of struggle and regeneration is eternal.
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Aeschylus was born of a noble family near Athens in 525 BC. He took part in the Persian Wars and his epitaph, said to have been written by himself, represents him as fighting at Marathon. At some time in his life he appears to have been prosecuted for divulging the Eleusinian mysteries, but he apparently proved himself innocent. Aeschylus wrote more than seventy plays, of which seven have survived: The Suppliants, The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, Prometheus Bound, Agamemnon, The Choephori, and The Eumenides. (All are translated for Penguin Classics.) He visited Syracuse more than once at the invitation of Hieron I and he died at Gela in Sicily in 456 BC. Aeschylus was recognized as a classic writer soon after his death, and special privileges were decreed for his plays.
Robert Fagles is Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He is the recipient of the 1997 PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His previous translations include Sophocles’s Three Theban Plays, Aeschylus’s Oresteia (nominated for a National Book Award), Homer’s Iliad (winner of the 1991 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award by The Academy of American Poets) and Homer’s Odyssey.
Robert Fagles is Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He is the recipient of the 1997 PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His previous translations include Sophocles’s Three Theban Plays, Aeschylus’s Oresteia (nominated for a National Book Award), Homer’s Iliad (winner of the 1991 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award by The Academy of American Poets) and Homer’s Odyssey.
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Dear gods, set me free from all the pain, the long watch I keep, one whole year awake .. propped on my arms, crouched on the roofs of Atreus like a dog. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Dear gods, set me free from all the pain, the long watch I keep, one whole year awake .. propped on my arms, crouched on the roofs of Atreus like a dog. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By Mark H
Format:Paperback
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.
Format:Paperback
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.
By Jan Dierckx
Format:Paperback
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.
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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4.5 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
"The house breathes with murder"
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... Read more
Published on May 22 2003 by grapabo
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Readable, but not the best
Robert Fagles is an excellent translator generally, and if you have never read the Greek classics before, I would recommend this one. Read more
Published on Mar 9 2002 by Joyce M. Sico
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Worthy Translation
With his recent translations of Aeschylus, Sophocles and especially Homer, Robert Fagles assumes the status of the finest Greek translator of the age. Read more
Published on Feb 24 2002 by Bay Gibbons
4.0 out of 5 stars
From the Blood Feud to Democracy
The Oresteia is the only extant Greek trilogy. Made up of Agememnon, The Libation Bearers, and the Eumenides the trilogy presents man's progress from blood feud to the beginnings... Read more
Published on Dec 7 2001 by Bryan A. Pfleeger
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't believe the Ted Hughes hype
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... Read more
Published on Aug 30 2001 by (m)
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Civic Masterpiece
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... Read more
Published on April 29 2001 by R. Albin
4.0 out of 5 stars
The End of An Eye for an Eye?
One of the funny things about ancient Greek literature, as in our lives today and human life in general, is that sometimes situations can be so harshly unforgiving, and at other... Read more
Published on Nov 18 2000 by oh_pete
5.0 out of 5 stars
This could easily be a modern thriller!
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. Read more
Published on Aug 4 2000 by A Petri
5.0 out of 5 stars
Erm... correction to an above 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. Read more
Published on May 24 2000 by Jessica Liotta
5.0 out of 5 stars
So what if he borrowed from Sophocles?
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. Read more
Published on May 8 2000 by Matt Barnes
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