Monday, July 6, 2020

The Oresteia: An Aeschylus Trilogy -- July 6, 2020

Written in 458 BC.

About the Atreid family. It begins with the old man Atreus.

Remember, this all started ten years earlier when Agamemenon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to get the wind blowing to move the Greek ships out of harbor to Troy.

Unlike the Theban trilogy, this trilogy takes place in Argos.

From wiki:

Orestes: son of Agamemnon and Klytemnestra, both parents killed by their son, Orestes. So, both Oedipus and Orestes both killed their fathers.
The Oresteia (Ancient Greek: Ὀρέστεια) is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus in the 5th century BC, concerning the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra, the murder of Clytemnestra by Orestes, the trial of Orestes, the end of the curse on the House of Atreus and the pacification of the Erinyes.
The trilogy—consisting of Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides —also shows how the Greek gods interacted with the characters and influenced their decisions pertaining to events and disputes.
The only extant example of an ancient Greek theatre trilogy, the Oresteia won first prize at the Dionysia festival in 458 BC.
The principal themes of the trilogy include the contrast between revenge and justice, as well as the transition from personal vendetta to organized litigation.
Oresteia originally included a satyr play, Proteus, following the tragic trilogy, but all except a single line of Proteus has been lost.
As soon as I read that Orestes killed his mother for killing his father, I immediately thought of HamletIt turns out others have had the same thought. Google it.
Background.

The women:
Helen and Klytemnestra were stepsisters -- same mother; different fathers
Klytemnestra: father/mother, King/Queen of Sparta; Tyndareus/Leda
Helen: father/mother, Zeus/Leda (Queen of Sparta); the King was cuckolded;
Penelope: cousin of those two

The men:
Helen and Klytemnestra: marry brothers, Menalaos and Agamemnon.
Orestes: son of Agamemnon and Klytemnestra

The Oresteia.

Revenge:
Klytemnestra has two reasons to kill her husband:
Agamemnon sacrificed their daughter, Iphigenia
Agamemnon returns with a new mistress, Kassandra (who is killed at same time as Agamemnon is killed
Klytemnestra, herself, has a new lover, the no-goodnik, Aigisthos, a cousin of Agamemnon's



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