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The Oresteia

Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides; Introduction by Richard Seaford

Part of Everyman's Library Classics Series

Author Aeschylus
Introduction by Richard Seaford
Translated by George Thomson
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Hardcover
$22.00 US
Knopf | Everyman's Library
On sale Jan 20, 2004 | 176 Pages | 978-1-4000-4192-3
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Translation by George Thomson

Introduction by Richard Seaford

Still powerful after 2,500 years, the three plays of The Oresteia portray the bloody chain of family murder and vengeance that follows the return of the victorious King Agamemnon from the Trojan War.

In Aeschylus’s hands, the killing of Agamemenon by his wife Clytemnestra for having sacrificed their daughter Iphigeneia to the gods, Clytemnestra’s subsequent death at the hands of their son Orestes with the encouragement of his sister Electra, and Orestes’s resulting trial and acquittal, becomes a dramatic parable of justice and civilization that has been reinterpreted in every age.

It is presented here in the classic translation by George Thomson, renowned for its accuracy and readability as well as for preserving the rhythms and multi-layered richness of the original Greek.
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. View titles by Aeschylus

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Translation by George Thomson

Introduction by Richard Seaford

Still powerful after 2,500 years, the three plays of The Oresteia portray the bloody chain of family murder and vengeance that follows the return of the victorious King Agamemnon from the Trojan War.

In Aeschylus’s hands, the killing of Agamemenon by his wife Clytemnestra for having sacrificed their daughter Iphigeneia to the gods, Clytemnestra’s subsequent death at the hands of their son Orestes with the encouragement of his sister Electra, and Orestes’s resulting trial and acquittal, becomes a dramatic parable of justice and civilization that has been reinterpreted in every age.

It is presented here in the classic translation by George Thomson, renowned for its accuracy and readability as well as for preserving the rhythms and multi-layered richness of the original Greek.

Author

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. View titles by Aeschylus

Additional formats

  • The Oresteia
    The Oresteia
    Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides; Introduction by Richard Seaford
    Aeschylus
    978-0-375-71268-5
    Ebook
    Everyman's Library
    Aug 06, 2014
  • The Oresteia
    The Oresteia
    Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides; Introduction by Richard Seaford
    Aeschylus
    978-0-375-71268-5
    Ebook
    Everyman's Library
    Aug 06, 2014

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