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Title: The Oresteia: A New Translation for the Theater by David Grene and Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty by Aeschylus, Wendy D. O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger ISBN: 0-226-00772-3 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: March, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (21 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Murder, Punishment, Redemption
Comment: The Oresteia (the only extant complete Greek trilogy) consists of three plays: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and the Eumenides. It begins with Agamemnon returning home triumphant from the Trojan war only to be struck down (together with the tragic Cassandra) by his wife Clytaemnestra. Her motives while just (he sacrificed their daughter Iphigeneia to calm the winds) are impure because of her adultery with Aegisthus.
The second play is the vehicle for Clytaemnestra's punishment, as her son Orestes returns to kill both her and Aegisthus with the help of his sister Electra.
Finally, the Eumenides has the trial of Orestes by Athena, as she stops the furies from taking him in return for the blood-guilt he incurred for killing his mother. The Eumenides provides the way to end the cycle of revenge by banishing the furies from active participation in the world of men.
The cycle can be read in any number of ways. The introduction to the Penguin/Fagles translation contains a summary of the various readings. I kept wondering what Proteus, the missing fourth satyr-play would have provided. We read it so clearly as a trilogy and the Eumenides has such a harmonious ending that I can't help but wonder if the circle closed in the third play reopens in the fourth or if it was something else entirely.
My only complaint about the book is that in the Fagles translation the notes are at the back of the book rather than assigned per page, and I find that a cumbersome style to read.
Rating: 4
Summary: From the Blood Feud to Democracy
Comment: 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 of democracy.
Agememnon is the traditional and essential Greek tragedy. This play show mankind at its most savage. (...) It is the second generation of the curse on the house of Atreus. (...) Clytaemnestra is one of literature's great creations and a memorable character known for her cunning and ruthlessness.
The Libation Bearers continues the story. Agememnon's son Orestes plots revenge with his sister, Electra. The message here seems to be that blood begets blood. (...)
The Eumenides is the first courtroom drama. Here we witness the birth of the democratic process. (...) Man has moved from the age of the blood feud to the dawn of democracy in less than 300 pages.
On the whole the trilogy is not light reading. The Fagles translation attempts to preserve the poetry of the work to a large extent. However Aeschylus was never easy to relate to even in the 5th Century B.C. he was considered archaic. The trilogy deserves a read just on the strength of its importance to western civilazation. The reader needs a good bit of patience but will find himself rewarded if he sticks with this work.
If reading the Fagles translation it may be helpful to read the lengthy introduction "The Serpent and the Eagle" for a good guide to the work. The intro is long and somewhat tedius but it places the work in an historical perspective that is helpful as one gets deeper and deeper into the text. The textual notes are inconvieniently placed at the end of the work which make them a chore to read except for the most interested scholars.
Try this one you won't regret it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Translation is OK, but probably not the best...
Comment: 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.
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Title: Three Theban Plays, The by Sophocles, Robert Fagles, Bernard MacGregor Walke Knox ISBN: 0140444254 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 03 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Iliad by Homer, Robert Fagles, Bernard MacGregor Walker Knox, Bernard MacGregor Walke Knox ISBN: 0140275363 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Odyssey by Homer, Robert Fitzgerald, D. S. Carne-Ross ISBN: 0374525749 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: November, 1998 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Ten Plays by Euripides by Euripides, Euripides, Moses Hadas ISBN: 0553213636 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 February, 1984 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: The History: Herodotus by Herodotus, David Grene ISBN: 0226327728 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: February, 1988 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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