The Oresteia (collective work) (edit title/settings)

Characters/People edit see section history

• Agamemnon: Agamemnon, King of Argos, returns from the Trojan War. He believes his wife Clytemnestra is waiting for him. Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigeneia ten years prior to Artemis in order to advance his campaign against Troy; Clytaemnestra then kills Agamemnon to avenge this sacrifice. He is central figure in the plays due to the fact that all of the acts of vengeance committed in the play stem directly from his sacrificial murder of Iphigineia.
• Clytemnestra: Wife of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra is the only character to appear in all three plays of the trilogy. She is the sister of Helen of Troy. She is also the mother to Agamemnon's three children Iphigenia, Orestes and Electra. Clytemnestra became bitter and angery over the death of their eldest daughter Iphigenia; who was sacrificed to allow her father and his troops to leave for the Trojan War. During Agamemnon's ten year absence, she planned murderous revenge. Clytemnestra has also engaged in an adulterous affair with Aegisthus, Agamemnon's first cousin and the sole survivor of a dispossessed branch of their family, who is determined to regain the throne he believes should rightfully belong to soley him. Once Agamemnon returns, she plays the loving, waiting wife and attempts to persuade Agamemnon to step on a purple (sometimes red) tapestry or carpet to walk into "his" palace as a true returning conqueror. Clytemnestra later kills Agamemnon and Cassandra. In "The Libation Bearers" Clytemnestra and Aegisthus are murdered by Orestes in retribution for Agamemon's death. In "The Eumenides" Clytemnestra appears as a ghost to the Erinyes, urging them to continue hunting Orestes.
• Iphigenia: In Greek mythology, she is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Sacrificed by her father to the goddess Artemis. Her story was first told by Euripides, and has been retold in plays by Goethe and Racine.
• Orestes: The son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra he seeks to exact vengeance for his father's death. Orestes is intelligent and determined, just like his mother and strong and willful like his father. Orestes is well spoken and quick to do whatever is necessary to do justice to his father's memory, even though he knows that he will have to face the consequences. Orestes is then presented with a difficult situation: in order to avenge his father, he must kill his mother. Orestes' familial duty to his father is fundamentally opposed to his familial duty to his mother. At the end of the "Libation Bearers" he carries out this vengeance by killing Aigisthos and Clytamnestra. But as soon as that is done is becomes haunted by the the Erinyes. He must absolved of his crimes in court. The the Erinyes prosecuting while Athena and Apollo defending. He is clear of his blood guilt and goes back to Mycaene.
• Electra: Orestes' other sister, Electra cared for him as a child and loves him dearly. Since Agamemnon's death, Electra has been treated like a slave in the palace, and tells Orestes also that Clytamnestra is about to marry her off in order to break her bond with the house. Like most Greek woman, Electra was totally under the power of her father until she was married, at which point she joined her husband's household and was no longer considered part of her original family. Electra is fiercely devoted to her father's memory. She loathes her mother and is quick to transfer all of her love to Orestes when he reappears. After going into the palace in silence at Orestes' command, she does not reappear again in the play.
• Menelaus: King of Sparta and husband of Helen
• Cassandra: An enslaved Trojan princess and priestess of to the god Apollo, is she brought back by Agamemnon as his slave and concubine. Cassandra has been cursed by Apollo. He had given the gift of clairvoyance to Cassandra so she would be his paramour. But she renegged, and in retribution for rejecting his advances he cursers her. While she has the ability to forsee the future, no one who hears her prophesies believes them to be true. In her soliloquy, she runs through many gruesome images of the history of the House of Atreus as if she had been a witness of them, and eventually enters the palace knowing that her fate is preordained and unavoidable.
• Priam: King of Troy
• Paris: One of Priam's sons whose abduction of Helen (wife of Agamemnon's brother Menelaus) started the Trojan War
• Helen of Troy: Wife of Menelaus and Queen of Sparta. The most beautiful woman in the world and cause of the Trojan War.
• Aegisthus: Aegisthus is the brother of King Agamemnon and uncle of Orestes, who has a adulteress relationship with Clytemnestra.
• Thyestes: Add a description of this character.
• Pallas Athene: Goddess
• Hera: In Greek mythology, Hera is the mother-goddess. She is the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage.
• Zeus: In Greek mythology, Zeus is the "Father of Gods and men" who rules the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father rules the family. He is the god of sky and thunder.
• Hephaestus: In Greek mythology, the Greek god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. Hephaestus' Roman equivalent was Vulcan. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera, the King and Queen of the Gods.
• Apollo: In Greek mythology, Apollo is the god of light and the sun, truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music, poetry, and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis.
• Euripides: Ancient Greek playwright.
• Sophocles: Ancient Greek playwright.

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Heaven
• Oresteia
• Eumenides
• Hades
• Libya
• Greece
• Pythia
• Athens
• Troy: The site of the Trojan War which took place before the action of these plays.

First Sentence edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Social Justice: Describe this theme.
• Shift from old to new social order
• Violation of family ties
• Matricide
• Omens, dreams, signs

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Aeschylus (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Frederic Raphael (Translator)
2. Robert W. Corrigan (Introduction)
3. Richmond Lattimore (Translator) - English
4. Kenneth McLeish (Translator) - English
5. Philip Vellacott (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 882.0108

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( A ) › Aeschylus
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Drama › Classical & Early
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Drama › Greek & Roman

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history