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The Oresteian Trilogy by Aeschylus (Patron Only Early Access / Ad-Free) (Patreon)

Published:
2024-08-29 01:01:10
Edited:
2024-08-29 19:29:09
Imported:
2026-09
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Content

The Oresteia by Aeschylus is the only surviving trilogy from Ancient Greece. It's composed of the three plays Agamemnon, The Choephori, and The Eumenides.

It is part of the foundation of our concept of Tragedy in Western Literature.

Chaotic, disturbing, and timeless. Essential Reading.

Files

The Oresteia - Aeschylus BOOK REVIEW (Patron-Only Early Access/Ad-Free)

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Comments

Lukas K.

I am currently reading many ancient classics, just recently started the Iliad. The Oresteia I read in the beginning of the year, it is a truly great work of art and so dark and beautiful. It inspired Francis Bacon to paint his famous "Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion", apparently his version of the Erinyes. He was particularly fascinated by the line "The reek of human blood smiles out at me".

Craig

Very nice! Thanks for another excellent review. You captured the darkness of the play admirably! Just my own preference: Before starting any old Greek play or epic poem, I generally read up on the plot and background of the story (in introductions, in Wikipedia, etc.). The old Greeks knew these myths intimately, similar to the way that Westerners today know the basic story of Moses and Jesus Christ; the Greeks attending the plays were already deeply familiar with the plot and background material. So when consuming that old material myself, I want to put myself in the same position as the ancient Greeks when tackling it, that is, in a position of knowing the basic plotline at the start. For example, in your video you ask why Aeschylus didn't make more use of the death of Iphigenia to justify Clytemnestra. But the average Greek attending the "Oresteia" would know the background on that: Before going off to the war, Agamemnon inadvertently committed sacrilege against the goddess Artemis by killing one of her prized deer in a hunt. Artemis demanded that Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia before she would allow Agamemnon to sail; and once the sacrifice was made, then Agamemnon was allowed to sail with no further debt to the gods or stain on his honor. It was simply a normal transaction between gods and men. And if Clytemnestra couldn't "get over it," then that was her own problem. (See the Wikipedia article entitled "Iphigenia" for more.) At least that's the way that other ancient writers have handled the story. For example, Agamemnon's murder by Clytemnestra is a running subplot in Homer's "The Odyssey," written 250 years before Aeschylus. Agamemnon's story comes up repeatedly in "The Odyssey," and Odysseus even encounters the ghost of the recently-deceased Agamemnon himself in Hades. As Homer tells it, Agamemnon is an honored hero; and Clytemnestra is simply a disloyal wife who allowed herself to be seduced into murder by taking on Agamemnon's enemy Aegisthus as a lover while Agamemnon was away. Historically, the sacrifice of Iphigenia was only a problem insofar as it fit into the larger curse of the House of Atreus: A pattern of intra-family murders and atrocities stretching through the generations all the way back to Zeus castrating and imprisoning his own father in order to claim Olympus. The House of Atreus was doomed, and Agamemnon was simply the latest and most prominent victim of the curse. But the sacrifice of Iphigenia wasn't the main reason for Agamemnon's demise. Agamemnon was ultimately doomed by the blood feud between him and Aegisthus (Clytemnestra's lover). Technically Agamemnon's death was a revenge-killing for the sin committed by Agamemnon's father against Aegisthus' father: In Homer's version of the myth it was Aegisthus who kills Agamemnon, while Clytemnestra kills Cassandra. In other words, Clytemnestra's main crime is that of disloyalty: Delivering Agamemnon over to an enemy for execution. Clytemnestra is basically a Greek version of Delilah from the Old Testament or Salome from the New Testament. Aeschylus subsequently displaces the murder of Agamemnon onto Clytemnestra in his later play (presumably for dramatic effect) and justifies it to some extent by calling it revenge for Agamemnon's sacrifice of their child. But that justification wouldn't have much standing with the gods or society at large. After all, in sacrificing his daughter Agamemnon was carrying out an order from the goddess Artemis and could claim that he was just as victimized by Artemis' demand for a sacrifice as Clytemnestra was. So I imagine that, when writing the "Oresteia," Aeschylus was constrained by tradition on this point. Here's the chronology: Agamemnon fought in the Trojan War which occurred around 1200 BC; Homer wrote his rendition around 700 BC; Aeschylus wrote his version around 450 BC. Aeschylus is "modern" enough (writing in the High Classical Greece period) to give Clytemnestra a voice of her own and even to use the murder of Iphigenia as a justification for her actions. But still, Clytemnestra's grudge over the murder of Iphigenia doesn't carry enough historical weight to figure in the trial in the third part of the "Oresteia" or even in her argument with Orestes before he kills her. In effect, Agamemnon was an honorable man and a war hero, and the sacrifice of Iphigenia didn't represent any kind of public stain on Agamemnon's honor; it was just a private grudge of Clytemnestra's. That's my spin on it, anyway. :) Meantime the real crux of the play is, as you described, Orestes and the position that Clytemnestra's murder of his father puts him in. He and Elektra basically become two more victims of Clytemnestra's misdeeds, hence their fury and implacability toward her. Iphigenia was their sister, and they are certainly aware of what their father did to her. But Agamemnon's sacrifice of Iphigenia didn't bring any dishonor on the family, whereas Clytemnestra's actions threaten them all with not only dishonor but eternal damnation. As you said: Orestes is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. The competing claims of his father, honor, and the gods put Orestes in an untenable position with no clear path to justice... Speaking of parents who murder their own children, here's a recommendation for the future: Read "The Argonautica" by Apollonius Rhodius. It tells the tale of how Jason sailed with the Argonauts to Colchis (modern-day Georgia, on the Black Sea), seduced the heathen sorceress Medea, and used her to steal the Golden Fleece and bring it (and her) back to Greece. Then read the play "Medea" by Euripides, which details what happens when Jason tries to abandon Medea upon their return to Greece: Medea murders the children that she and Jason have had together. But as was the case with Agamemnon, no dishonor accrues to her for murdering her own children. After the murder her grandfather, the sun-god Helios, sends down his chariot to take her away from the carnage to safety. She is honorable; whereas Jason is dishonorable and he eventually dies ignominiously. In "Sexual Personae" Paglia says the following about Medea: "Male-willed Medea, who slaughters her children, dismembers her brother, and dupes Pelias’ daughters into killing their father, spreads perversion like a plague. As a Scythian witch, she can violate the unconscious of her victims. [...] Medea is Athens’ worst nightmare about women. She is nature’s revenge, Euripides’ dark answer to the beautiful boy." (p. 109) But Medea still manages to preserve her honor by ancient standards. :) The myth of Jason and Medea was supposed to take place a generation before the Trojan War. In other words, like the myth of Agamemnon, it dates from ancient Greece; and in ancient Greece, children were often just pawns to be used and disposed of by parents. And vice versa. Kill or be killed. :)

Michael Masiello

Oh, you are venturing into the deep places now. If you review the Iliad, I recommend Richmond Lattimore—closest to the Greek, though nothing compares to the original. My favorite Oresteia in English is Robert Fagles’, but there is, again, no way to carry the power of the Greek across. Imagine what this is like in the original; it’s better than that. I have had a novel title looking for a plot for many years now; it comes from one of the great choral passages in the Agamemnon. αἴλινον αἵλινον εἰπέ. Reading Paglia was a good idea. I wonder how these encounters with the past, sometimes the deep past, the old treasures of darkness, will inflect your sense of the modern. As usual, your treatment if this is perceptive and acute. Your engagement with literature is authentic and profound, my man. Great stuff. Glad you and Aeschylus are friends.

Darius

Cliff, you're constantly bringing the BTF channel up to the highest levels. Great review, and a challenge to us followers. What a coincidence: just a week before your review I stumbled over a wonderful edition of the Orestia at a book flea market in Berlin and immediately started to read this little treasure. And interestingly, I found it very helpful to have all the Aeschylus background in my head, when I then began to explore Homer's Odissey. As Craig already mentions in his comment, the Orestia lingers through the story as sort of a substory. So for example when Athena motivates Telemachos to start the quest for the whereabouts of his father Odysseus, you can connect the dots of her speech, which brings more depths to the reading. Awful and frightening experience. Who knows what lurks inside of you or me?! I guess I don't wanna know...