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A review by bkoser
The Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides by Aeschylus
5.0
The only surviving trilogy of ancient Greek plays. The main players are the king and queen, Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, and their son, the eponymous Orestes. In "Agamemnon", Agamemnon returns from the Trojan Wars (the subject of the Iliad) and is killed by his wife. In "The Libation Bearers", Orestes comes home and kills his mother to revenge his father. In "The Eumenides", the Furies put Orestes on trial for matricide.
These stories are short since they're plays. I did read the commentary and some of the footnotes which were interesting background but not essential (unlike e.g. Dante's Inferno, where footnotes are a must for a first-time reader).
Not as enjoyable as The Iliad and The Odyssey, but an interesting comparison. There's less action, less travel, more moralizing, more character development. I'm guessing these differences are mostly because these are plays rather than just written or oral stories.
Recommended if: you read The Iliad and The Odyssey and want to read more Greek classics (with the awareness that these are a different style).
Fagles translation
These stories are short since they're plays. I did read the commentary and some of the footnotes which were interesting background but not essential (unlike e.g. Dante's Inferno, where footnotes are a must for a first-time reader).
Not as enjoyable as The Iliad and The Odyssey, but an interesting comparison. There's less action, less travel, more moralizing, more character development. I'm guessing these differences are mostly because these are plays rather than just written or oral stories.
Recommended if: you read The Iliad and The Odyssey and want to read more Greek classics (with the awareness that these are a different style).
Fagles translation