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679 reviews for:
Aeschylus I: Oresteia, Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers & The Eumenides
Richmond Lattimore, Aeschylus, David Grene
3.91 AVERAGE
679 reviews for:
Aeschylus I: Oresteia, Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers & The Eumenides
Richmond Lattimore, Aeschylus, David Grene
3.91 AVERAGE
Getting more into greek tragedies/plays/stories. I recommend this if you read the odyssey. It talks about agamemno being killed by clytemnestra more in depth in this which is alluded to in the odyssey
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Omg fuck all of these people. Clymnestra was so in the right 1 and 2 fuck off oedipus rex was so much better.
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Clytaemnestra was literally right, eternally grateful that the first stab didn't kill Agamemnon so he'd have to get stabbed again. Very interesting depiction of ancient international law and justice!
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.8 - she was right to kill her husband but he was right to kill his mom
Til welcome night opens her mantle of stars,
And welcome then, after a keen frost, the morning,
While centuries of grief eat out your heart
I was expecting to be moved by the sheer force of tragedy but I was not. In Agamemnon, the death of the eponymous character by the hands of his wife and her lover is told; in The Libation Bearers, Orestes’ fate and vengeance for his father is told; and Eumenides tells the story of early notions of the justice system in Athens as a mean to resolve Orestes’ innocence. Surprisingly, my favorite is Prometheus Bound for its moving story, interesting character, unfairness of the gods, and the main character’s selflessness.
I found the Oresteia to be not nearly tragic as the other tragedies I’ve read and too neatly resolved. There is no real sense of danger except for Orestes’ fate and the ambiguity of his moral corruption but even that is tied up in a bow. In Eumenides especially it seems to be a mythmaking method around the early justice system of Athens, like a sense of divine origin. I appreciate having read it for its value in the Western literary canon but it is not personally moving to me. Lovely language all the same. 3.5 stars.
And welcome then, after a keen frost, the morning,
While centuries of grief eat out your heart
I was expecting to be moved by the sheer force of tragedy but I was not. In Agamemnon, the death of the eponymous character by the hands of his wife and her lover is told; in The Libation Bearers, Orestes’ fate and vengeance for his father is told; and Eumenides tells the story of early notions of the justice system in Athens as a mean to resolve Orestes’ innocence. Surprisingly, my favorite is Prometheus Bound for its moving story, interesting character, unfairness of the gods, and the main character’s selflessness.
I found the Oresteia to be not nearly tragic as the other tragedies I’ve read and too neatly resolved. There is no real sense of danger except for Orestes’ fate and the ambiguity of his moral corruption but even that is tied up in a bow. In Eumenides especially it seems to be a mythmaking method around the early justice system of Athens, like a sense of divine origin. I appreciate having read it for its value in the Western literary canon but it is not personally moving to me. Lovely language all the same. 3.5 stars.