The Oresteia of Aeschylus

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Lester Bernstein: Critique of The Flies, in: The New York Times, April 18, 1947, cf. Thomas George Evans: Piscator in the American Theatre. New York, 1939–1951. Ann Arbor: University of Wisconsin Press 1968, p. 298.

The Oresteia of Aeschylus by Jeffrey Scott Bernstein

The adept working of the final Stichomythia brings tentative accord to the Agon, before the solemnised and ritualistic release of harmony and plenteousness in an Athens whose embryonic democracy is a not unreasonable mirror to Aeschylus’ own. Bernstein’s rendering of the efflorescent comity between Athena and the Chorus of Furies is stately in language, and attuned in timbre. The softening of the Erinyes into agents of good, now Eumenides, enacts a reversal whose tone is resonant in its simplicity: However, that’s not the whole story, as we soon learn from Clytemnestra’s lover (and Agamemnon’s cousin) Aegisthus, who unexpectedly appears on stage. He is in on the murder plot as well, as a way to avenge his brothers, who had been not only slaughtered by Agamemnon’s father, Atreus, but also cooked and served as dinner to Aegisthus’ parent, Thyestes. The Argive Elders bemoan this sudden turn of events and warn that Agamemnon’s son, Orestes, will inevitably return to look for vengeance. Libation Bearers Bury, J. B.; Meiggs, Russell (1956). A history of Greece to the death of Alexander the Great, 3rd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp.347–348, 352. Agamemnon ( Ἀγαμέμνων, Agamémnōn) is the first of the three plays within the Oresteia trilogy. It details the homecoming of Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, from the Trojan War. After ten years of warfare, Troy had fallen and all of Greece could lay claim to victory. Waiting at home for Agamemnon is his wife, Queen Clytemnestra, who has been planning his murder. She desires his death to avenge the sacrifice of her daughter Iphigenia, to exterminate the only thing hindering her from commandeering the crown, and to finally be able to publicly embrace her long-time lover Aegisthus. [3] Trousdell, Richard (2008). "Tragedy and Transformation: The Oresteia of Aeschylus". Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche. C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. 2 (3): 5–38. doi: 10.1525/jung.2008.2.3.5. JSTOR 10.1525/jung.2008.2.3.5. S2CID 170372385.Smyth, H. W. (1930). Aeschylus: Agamemnon, Libation-Bearers, Eumenides, Fragments. Harvard University Press. p.455. ISBN 0-674-99161-3. The Spaghetti Western The Forgotten Pistolero, is based on the myth and set in Mexico following the Second Mexican Empire. Ferdinando Baldi, who directed the film, was also a professor of classical literature who specialized in Greek tragedy. [33] [34] [35] [36] A wretched piteous dove, in quest of food, dashed amid the winnowing-fans, its breast broken in twain." [16] This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by

Oresteia by Aeschylus - Greek Mythology Oresteia by Aeschylus - Greek Mythology

The Dramatic Workshop's skillful production takes this dramatic history of the play into full account by employing several theatrically effective devices, including a newsreel curtain-raiser depicting the Nazi heyday. [14] Compared to the Oresteia [ edit ] a b Engels, Friedrich (1891). "Preface (4th ed.)". The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (4thed.). Becoming conscious of the identity of the guests, Clytemnestra begs her son not to kill the woman who has breastfed him. However, in his only words of the play, Pylades reminds Orestes of Apollo’s directive, and he slays Clytemnestra. It is no more than a brief triumph: shortly after the murder, Orestes starts hallucinating, seeing in his mind’s eye the Erinnyes, the infernal goddesses of vengeance, swarming around him and thirsty for his blood. Fearing for his sanity, he rushes off to find protection in Apollo’s temple at Delphi. Eumenides The New American Library, Inc.: From Lucretius: On the Nature of Things, translated by Palmer Bovie and published by The New American Library. Reprinted by permission of The New American Library.Beneath the war for justice, there’s another war going on throughout Oresteia: the gender conflict between males and females of power.

Oresteia | Penguin Random House Higher Education The Oresteia | Penguin Random House Higher Education

However, we can guess, with reasonable certainty, that it dramatized the adventures of Agamemnon’s brother Menelaus in Egypt, for two reasons. Firstly, in the second episode of Agamemnon, the Herald mentions specifically that he does not know whether or not Menelaus’ ship has survived; and secondly, in the fourth book of Homer’s Odyssey, we are informed that Menelaus ends up on the island of Pharos, the home of the “unerring old man of the sea, the immortal Proteus of Egypt.”In 2002, Theatre Kingston mounted a production of The Oresteia and included a new reconstruction of Proteus based on the episode in The Odyssey and loosely arranged according to the structure of extant satyr plays. [ citation needed] Themes [ edit ] Justice through retaliation [ edit ] I could not have done my part without the help of many people. Bedell Stanford first, of course. He offered me what I have needed most, Ionic tolerance and Doric discipline. So much patience with my questions, so many cautions to revise - he has been the brake to my locomotive, in his phrase, and the conscience of Aeschylus in mine. Before they met their deaths in June 1971, my friends Anne and Adam Parry often came to my rescue with their knowledge, comradeship and warmth. Robert Fitzgerald helped me on many points, even as late as the galleys of the first edition, with his Homeric magnanimity and tact. Kenneth Burke taught me that The Eumenides is less tragic than I had thought, and less transcendental than he would like. And the one who led me to translate the Oresteia gave me his painstaking, strenuous criticism of the opening play, its notes and introduction. He would rather not be named; I owe him more than I can say. Once again set before the palace of Argos, the Libation Bearers starts where Agamemnon leaves off – only several years into the future. The Oresteia, a trilogy of plays ( Agamemnon, Choephori, Eumenides) written some 2500 years ago by Aeschylus, is a founding text of world dramatic literature, still widely read and performed. Set in the time of the Homeric epics, its three plays tell the story of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, leader of the Greek forces at the Trojan War, moving from conflict and revenge through expiation to resolution and peace. It’s extraordinary to recall that these plays were performed in daylight hours to an audience of many thousands, a truly communal experience for the Athenian populace. Tom Phillips’ haunting, asymmetric masks on the cover and throughout the text, remind us that this was the manner in which these pays were originally performed, and recent directors and actors of Greek tragedies have had the opportunity to rediscover the freedom which the wearing of a mask can afford the performer. Cassandra’s fate is met with an accordingly visceral relish in Clytemnestra’s later reaction to her murderous spree, and Bernstein delivers her interchange with the Chorus with a sanguine swagger which is somehow neatly consonant with the blindness of Tragic necessity:

The Oresteia of Aeschylus by Jeffrey Scott Bernstein

Sartre's idea of freedom specifically requires that the being-for-itself be neither a being-for-others nor a being-in-itself. A being-for-others occurs when human beings accept morals thrust onto them by others. A being-in-itself occurs when human beings do not separate themselves from objects of nature. Zeus represents both a moral norm, the Good, and Nature. Freedom is not the ability to physically do whatever one wants. It is the ability to mentally interpret one's own life for oneself—to define oneself and create one's own values. Even the slave can interpret his or her life in different ways, and in this sense the slave is free. This is so far from the underlying reality of the situation that the speech may even have raised a laugh from its audience. For Clytemnestra’s eagerness is not to welcome her lord, but to murder him. And she is certainly not ‘just as he left her.’ She has taken a lover, Aegisthus, and spent ten long years brooding over her beloved daughter’s untimely death. Clytemnestra is no Penelope, the wife of Odysseus who spent twenty years weaving away her life till his return from Troy. She is a bold and resolute woman who wreaks what she sees as rightful revenge on Agamemnon. In this play, the Chorus are neutral observers of the action, responding with apparent belief and trust in what she says – a counter-weight to the dramatic irony of the exchanges between the central characters with their, ‘Lady, you speak the good sense of a wise man.’ And they are ambivalent towards Agamemnon: In this “eye for eye” moral universe, it is difficult to make the distinction between those who wrong and those who are wronged. Clytemnestra cannot be blamed for thinking that the death of Agamemnon is neither ignoble nor unjust, because, after all, it was he who “by treachery brought ruin on his house,” willingly sacrificing his “much lamented” daughter Iphigenia only so that he is able to earn immortal fame and become the conqueror of Troy. But, as we learn through the words of the Chorus, neither did Agamemnon have a choice: he sacrificed Iphigenia to make amends to Artemis for killing her sacred deer. The matters get even more complicated in Libation Bearers when Orestes chooses to act as Apollo’s divine agent and avenge the murder of his father by killing his mother. Unfortunately, even Apollo’s intrusion doesn’t bring an end to the vicious circle of violence, as almost immediately after killing his mother, Orestes sees the Furies, the ancient parricidal retaliators. Cassandra, a prophetess cursed by Apollo not to be believed by anyone, senses this outcome. Even so, she decides to enter the palace as well, believing this to be her inevitable fate. Indeed, it is: Clytemnestra murders both Agamemnon and her, and defends this decision before the Chorus of Argive Elders as a just act of revenge for Agamemnon having sacrificed their daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the gods for a transgression of his own – killing Artemis’ sacred deer. a b Mace, Sarah (2004). "Why the Oresteia's Sleeping Dead Won't Lie, Part II: "Choephoroi" and "Eumenides" ". The Classical Journal. The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc. (CAMWS). 100 (1): 39–60. JSTOR 4133005.

This is a new edition of the book, and I want to thank the ones who made it possible. Primarily my editor, Will Sulkin, for his precision and concern, and the good people at Penguin Books who believe that Aeschylus should have a broad appeal. Georges Borchardt and Richard Simon poured the wine and sped the work once more. And my first hosts in England, Dieter Pevsner and Oliver Caldecott of Wildwood House - like my host in America, Alan Williams of The Viking Press - cared for this Oresteia as if it were their own. Without their kindness it might never have seen the light. AeschylusA sense of anxiety is beautifully realised here. At the mercy of impulses both innate, and driven – by the god Apollo – Bernstein yields the fleeting suggestion of Hamlet, if only by definition of existential uncertainty. Apollo’s tribunal defence of Orestes against the Furies in the Areopagus is cravenly inconsistent but the judgement is never in doubt; Bernstein remains resolutely aware of the capriciousness of the entire pantheon of Greek gods, and of the subjection of the earthly players in a drama of bloody revenge. Choephori, or The Libation Bearers, has a very different tone and pace to Agamemnon. As Bernstein himself comments, it feels like the middle slow movement, the adagio, of a symphony, with the other two plays carrying the driving force of the narrative. In this play, which takes place some years after the action of the first, the siblings are reunited after Orestes’ exile, and the heart of the piece is a dirge, the mournful kommos, spoken by Orestes, Electra and a Chorus who are now very evidently sympathetic to Orestes and his plight. As the son of a murdered father, it falls to him to exact vengeance, and Choephori presents a slow reveal of what Orestes has been told by Apollo’s Oracle at Delphi: