Play written by the great
Athenian playwright
Aeschylus in 458
BC. Considered by many to be the greatest of
Greek plays, it was FAR ahead of its time with respect to theater. The main subject is the events that befall the house of
Atreus after the
Trojan War. The play is written in 3 acts, titled
Agamemnon,
The Choephori, and
The Eumenides.
The main plot behind the play is that Agamemnon's wife
Clytemnestra and her lover kill Agamemnon and his slave girl, the prophetic
Cassandra, on his return to
Argos. In the first act of the play she murders him because he
sacrificed their daughter,
Ipheginia, in order to gain
favorable winds for his
battle fleet sailing to
Troy. Agamemnon's son,
Orestes with support from his sister
Electra, then murders Clytemnestra and her lover in the second act. In the 3rd act, Orestes is pursued by the
Eumenides (
furies)m, who demand
retribution for the murder of his mother. This cycle was typical in
bronze age Greek
literature, and is, in fact, a continuation of the
original sins of the house of Atreus. The Oresteia, however, departs from the old pattern by having Orestes, with help from
Athena (the patron
deity of
Athens), purify himself and live happily ever after in Athens. The propaganda message of the ending is
unmistakable. Athens is a new place, not tied to to the old world. It is a fresh start where anyone can prosper.
Perhaps someday the whole thing can be noded here, but it is far too large an undertaking for me.