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The Oresteia

by Aeschylus

Summary

Though Aeschylus specialized in the tragic trilogy, "Oresteia" is the only surviving example by an ancient playwright. A form that was not picked up by his successors, the trilogy traditionally consists of three connected tragedies followed by a satyr play. ("Proteus", the satyr play in this work, is lost.) "Oresteia" follows the life of Agamemnon from the end of the Trojan War, tracing the cycle of violence that plagues his family. After Atreus, Agamemnon's father, fools his brother Thyestes into eating his own children, revenge is exacted by Aegisthus, Thyestes' son, who kills Agamemnon after taking his wife as a lover. Agamemnon's son Orestes then avenges his father's death by killing both Aegisthus and his own mother. Orestes then becomes the object of revenge himself, set upon by the Furies at the orders of his mother's ghost. Only Athena can stop the bloodshed by holding a trial that acquits Orestes and eventually placates the Furies.

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Media Reviews

"[T]his vivid free-verse translation of Aeschylus' dark and bloody tragic trilogy...evinces Hughes's wide range of interests and mastery of classic literatures....[A]n essential further installment in the always interesting oeuvre of a gifted poet who was also a diligent scholar."

   -- Kirkus

"The problem is not that Hughes adapts or adds to the poem....But Hughes's changes move out and away from the text rather than deeper into it."    -- Garry Wills

   -- New York Times Book Review

"Ted Hughes's free-verse ORESTEIA, posthumously published, stands to Aeschylus roughly as Pope's ILIAD does to Homer. It has that kind of dependence and that kind of autonomy, both reusing and changing phrases, images, whole speeches; and though unlikely to be thought of in quite the same breath as Pope's version, it is, at its best, the most powerful and compelling English version of Greek tragedy in existence."    -- Michael Silk

   -- Times Literary Supplement

Bibliographic Details

Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Published date: 1984
Size: 5.25 x 8 inches
Weight: 0.5 pounds

Publisher's Notes

This book is a play that has been translated into English. 'The Oresteia'

Other Editions

• Paperback Reprint - Penguin USA (1984) - from $3.95
• Hardcover - Random House Inc (2004) - from $5.00

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