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Classics
The Oresteia
By Aeschylus
Translated by Ian Johnston
$14.95
William von Humbolt wrote of Aeschylus' The Oresteia that "among all the products of the Greek stage, none can compare with it in tragic power; no other play shows the same intensity and pureness of belief in the divine and good; none can surpass the lessons it teaches and the wisdom of which it is the mouthpiece." A sequence of three plays, The Oresteia relays the final tragedies which befall the House of Atreus following the end of the Trojan War. The first play, "Agamemnon," tells of the return of King Agamemnon from Troy and of his murder by his wife and her lover. The second, "The Libation Bearers," details the revenge exacted by Agamemnon's son, Orestes, and daughter, Electra, for their father's death. In the third play of the trilogy, "The Eumenides," Orestes and Apollo go before an Athenian jury to determine their ultimate fate. The only full trilogy to have survived from the ancient Greek playwrights, The Oresteia was first performed at a festival in Athens in 458 B.C. where it won first prize. The Oresteia today remains one of the most popular plays of all time. These new dramatic releases provide us once again with that powerful and direct style of translation for which Professor Johnston has become known
- Category
- Classics
- ISBN (softcover)
- 978-0-9776269-7-7
- e-ISBN
- 978-1-935238-10-2
- Author
- Aeschylus
- Translator
- Ian Johnston
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For my Classical Literature class, I have made great use of your translation of Agamemnon, its considerably easier and more understandable language helped me a lot regarding it more correctly than the version we were given.
— Ankara, Turkey
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An adult Shakespeare Group . . . in Melbourne, Australia, of which I am the tutor, sometimes, as a break from Shakespeare, looks at other major dramas. Last year I was very keen that we should take on Aeschylus' "The Oresteia Trilogy" but we had difficulty in finding a suitable translation. Our Group . . . came across your translation...and was very taken with it. So it was... read to great effect. A former Melbourne headmaster and also a classicist followed the original text as we read and was full of admiration for the translation.
— Melbourne, Australia
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I have found your very good translation of "Agamemnon" which, if you allow me, I would like to quote (just the first 30 verses) in my work on Clement of Alexandria.
— University College, Chichester, UK
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Thank you for such a wonderful translation of the Agamemnon and for making it so accessible.
— St Andrews, Scotland
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I read "The Libation Bearers". Thanks, I really like your translation. Sometimes I think Mr. Lattimore and I are on different wavelengths :).
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Resources for The Oresteia
GREEK LITERATURE & CULTURE
Greek Literature and the Tragic Vision
Ian Johnston explores how Greek ideas of justice, divine power, and human freedom shaped the heroic and tragic vision of ancient Greek literature.
Read resource →Introduction to Ancient Greece
A concise guide to the geography, history, political life, and cultural development of ancient Greece, from the Bronze Age civilizations of Crete and Mycenae through the rise of the city-states, Classical Athens and Sparta, and the age of Alexander the Great.
Read resource →GREEK MYTH & TRAGEDY
The House of Atreus - A Note on the Mythological Background to the Oresteia
Ian Johnston traces the violent history of the House of Atreus, from Tantalus and Pelops through the rivalry of Atreus and Thyestes to Agamemnon, Clytaemnestra, Orestes, and Electra, providing the mythological background to some of the most important stories of Greek tragedy.
Read resource →The Trojan War
Who Really Won the Trojan War?
The Greeks destroyed Troy—but victory proved far more complicated. Achilles was dead, Agamemnon returned home only to be murdered, Odysseus wandered for another ten years, and the defeated Trojans lived on in legend. The ancient stories leave us with a surprisingly modern question: if war devastates victors and vanquished alike, what does it really mean to win?
Read resource →Book Trailer
The Oresteia Book Trailer
A visual introduction to Aeschylus’ Oresteia, a tragic trilogy tracing cycles of vengeance toward justice, law, and civic order.
Read resource →
The Oresteia
$14.95