The Oresteia

Synopsis

The Oresteia by Aeschylus, the only extant trilogy among the Greek tragedies, is one of the great foundational texts of Western culture. Beginning with Agamemnon , which describes Agamemnon's return from the Trojan War and his murder at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra, and continuing through Orestes' murder of Clytemnestra in Libation Bearers and his acquittal at Athena's court in Eumenides , the trilogy traces the evolution of justice in human society from blood vengeance to the rule of law. The story of the house of Atreus is a tale of incest, adultery, human sacrifice, cannibalism, and political intrigue. It is also a story in which human action is simultaneously willed and determined. In this new translation the strangeness of the original Greek and its enduring human truth come alive in language that is remarkable for its unrelenting poetic intensity, its rich metaphorical texture, and a verbal density that can at times modulate into the simplest expressions. The precise but complicated rhythms of this translation honor the music of the original Greek, bringing into unforgettable English the Aeschylean vision of a world fraught with spiritual and political tensions, a world in which justice is a cosmic balance that inevitably rights itself both by means of and despite the evil deeds of characters who claim to act on justice's behalf.