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The Oresteian Trilogy: Agamemnon; The Choephori; The Eumenides (Penguin Classics) Paperback – December 30, 1956

by Aeschylus (Author), Philip Vellacott (Editor, Translator, Introduction)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 76 ratings
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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.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    208 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin Classics
  4. Publication date
    December 30, 1956
  5. Dimensions
    5.1 x 0.47 x 7.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0140440674
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0140440676
  8. Lexile measure
    NP
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Aeschylus was born of noble family near Athens in 525 BC. He took part in the Persian Wars, and his epitaph represents him as fighting at Marathon. He wrote more than seventy plays, of which only seven have survived.

Philip Vellacott has translated Aeschylus and Euripides for the Penguin Classics. He taughts classics at Dulwich College for twenty-four years and lectured on Greek Drama in the USA. He was also a Visiting Lecturer in the University of California. He died in 1997.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics (December 30, 1956)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0140440674
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140440676
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ NP
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.1 x 0.47 x 7.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 76 ratings

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Aeschylus

Aeschylus

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Aeschylus (/ˈiːskᵻləs/ or /ˈɛskᵻləs/; Greek: Αἰσχύλος Aiskhulos; Ancient Greek: [ai̯s.kʰý.los]; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian. He is also the first whose plays still survive; the others are Sophocles and Euripides. He is often described as the father of tragedy: critics and scholars' knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in theater to allow conflict among them, whereas characters previously had interacted only with the chorus.

Only seven of his estimated seventy to ninety plays have survived, and there is a longstanding debate regarding his authorship of one of these plays, Prometheus Bound, which some believe his son Euphorion actually wrote. Fragments of some other plays have survived in quotes and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyrus, often giving us surprising insights into his work. He was probably the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy; his Oresteia is the only ancient example of the form to have survived. At least one of his plays was influenced by the Persians' second invasion of Greece (480-479 BC). This work, The Persians, is the only surviving classical Greek tragedy concerned with contemporary events (very few of that kind were ever written), and a useful source of information about its period. The significance of war in Ancient Greek culture was so great that Aeschylus' epitaph commemorates his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon while making no mention of his success as a playwright. Despite this, Aeschylus' work – particularly the Oresteia – is acclaimed by today's literary academics.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Unknown [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
76 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Alexander Rolfe
5.0 out of 5 stars Stay away from the Kindle version
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2016
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The Penguin edition is riddled with errors on the Kindle. 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 Kindle content is this way, but thought I could trust a Penguin classic on Kindle.

It's a great set of plays, if you get a version you can read.
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RAB
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic must read
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2020
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Quite simply a classic piece that shows one of the earliest examples of a two or in this case 3 act play
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Stanley L. Kerns
5.0 out of 5 stars Oresteian Trilogy
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2016
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With Greek plays you live and die by your translation--Vellacott is as good as it gets
Stan
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Primal Amazonian
4.0 out of 5 stars Good book!
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2018
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Product was in good condition!! The book was just not the one I needed.
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Gendun
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, with minor reservations
Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2009
It's easy to see why Aeschylus is still revered as one of the great dramatists of the ages. 2500 years later The Oresteia still presents poetical problems of great urgency, probing the darkest depths of the human psyche. While Agamemnon, the first work in this trilogy, is the most lauded, all three are of nearly equal value.

I'm of two minds regarding Vellacott's translation. For the most part the language is vivid and the verse is spacious and eloquent, though his fixed rhyme (which has no analog in the original Greek) is sometimes distracting -- particularly as he is in the all-too-frequent habit of forcing rhyme with ostentatious enjambment. That really breaks the flow.

With a verse translation this admittedly free in its rendering, I'm always left with the nagging question of which images belong to the author and which to the translator. When I want to experience a great work of the canon that can be a bit troubling.

These quibbles aside, Vellacott's translation does an outstanding job of framing the vital images of Aeschylus' trilogy with vigor, and overall my reading experience was first rate.
11 people found this helpful
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Hunain
3.0 out of 5 stars Book is good though
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2019
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Bad condition
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cheryl hancock
5.0 out of 5 stars Best translation of The Oresteian Trilogy that I have Read
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2013
Not being able to read the original Greek, I had picked up several translations of Aeschylus in the past, all of which left much to be desired. This was the first translation to truly begin to open up the grandeur of Aeschylus' works for me.
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R. D. Allison (dallison@biochem.med.ufl.edu)
5.0 out of 5 stars The only surviving Greek trilogy.
Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 1999
"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.
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Top reviews from other countries

Desdemona
5.0 out of 5 stars How do you review Aeschylus?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 4, 2022
Verified Purchase
I've intended to read these for years, and was nudged into finally doing so by a reference in another book. I'm not going to attempt to review Aeschylus - that is way beyond my capacity, and has already been done by thousands of others over the intervening millennia. Suffice to say that the question of vengeance vs. justice is still relevant today. This edition is particularly good for its preface and notes, which are invaluable for inexperienced readers of Greek tragedy (like me).
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Kaye
5.0 out of 5 stars this remains the best.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 2, 2016
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Of all the translations of the Greek tetralogy I have read, this remains the best.
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Mr. Gergely Somogyi
5.0 out of 5 stars Good product.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 10, 2017
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Quick delivery. Good product.
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