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jasonfurman 's review for:
An Oresteia
by Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles
One could review three aspects of this book:
1. The pairing of Aeschylus's Agamemnon with Sophocles' Electra and Euripides's Orestes. I loved this grouping and calling it "An Oresteia". In doing this it upends THE Oresteia is by Aeschylus (a trilogy), starting with the original about the return of Agamemnon after the Trojan war and his murder by his wife Clytemnestra but then going to Sophocles' alternate version of the second about the events following the murder as Agamemnon's son Orestes returns, joins his sister Electra, and they murder Clytemnestra and her lover and finally going to Euripides' Orestes which covers a very alternate version of the events around/after the third play in the original Aeschylus trilogy. The three work well together because they are the same characters, the same story, and one follows from the next. But they provide different perspectives, both a growing maturity of theater able to depict multiple characters and actors and, more importantly, a darker and more complex vision of politics, revenge, and murder, perhaps mirroring Athens falling from its golden age into defeat by Sparta (the short introductory essay speculates on this).
2. The translation. I mostly hated the translation. It took too much license, had too many contemporary idioms, too many made up words that were formed from smashing other words together (in Agamemnon), and overall found it really distracting. Something like this worked fine with [a:Anne Carson|34336|Anne Carson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1621477490p2/34336.jpg]'s [b:Antigonick|13305951|Antigonick|Anne Carson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597593225l/13305951._SX50_.jpg|59618794] which was meant to be a reinterpretation but really wasn't what I wanted here. I much preferred [a:Oliver Taplin|170771|Oliver Taplin|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s translation of [b:The Oresteia: Agamemnon, Women at the Graveside, Orestes in Athens|36236155|The Oresteia Agamemnon, Women at the Graveside, Orestes in Athens|Aeschylus|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1510349677l/36236155._SX50_.jpg|2378] (which had Agamemnon) and have not read other translations of Electra and Orestes but suspect that I would prefer many of them to this.
3. The plays themselves. I already reviewed Agamemnon (in the Taplin translation). I liked Electra with its timeless themes of revenge, individually administered justice. But did not think it was better than Aeschylus's version which had the amazing scene with Orestes and his mother. I also did not love Electra which dwelled too much on her sitting around being depressed and mostly passive while speaking a lot but mostly being manipulated and directed by others, particularly her brother's dead-alive-dead-alive sequence with her. But obviously a lot to like and it created a certain amount of action/thrills with the way in which he kills Aegisthus. I found Orestes to be the most novel of the plays, less of a simple timeless story but richer theatrically in the way it develops. It focuses on Orestes' madness as he is pursued by the Furies (not acquittal for him like in the third play in the original Oresteia), his sister plays a much bigger role, and it is also set in the complicated politics of Argos as Menelaus and Helen return and people blame Helen for all of the death and destruction caused by the Trojan war. The plot gets more complicated as they attempt to murder Helen but don't succeed. And I found it fun that Apollo shows up as a deux ex machina to resolve all of the plot strands--something that doesn't actually happen as much as you would think in Greek tragedy.
1. The pairing of Aeschylus's Agamemnon with Sophocles' Electra and Euripides's Orestes. I loved this grouping and calling it "An Oresteia". In doing this it upends THE Oresteia is by Aeschylus (a trilogy), starting with the original about the return of Agamemnon after the Trojan war and his murder by his wife Clytemnestra but then going to Sophocles' alternate version of the second about the events following the murder as Agamemnon's son Orestes returns, joins his sister Electra, and they murder Clytemnestra and her lover and finally going to Euripides' Orestes which covers a very alternate version of the events around/after the third play in the original Aeschylus trilogy. The three work well together because they are the same characters, the same story, and one follows from the next. But they provide different perspectives, both a growing maturity of theater able to depict multiple characters and actors and, more importantly, a darker and more complex vision of politics, revenge, and murder, perhaps mirroring Athens falling from its golden age into defeat by Sparta (the short introductory essay speculates on this).
2. The translation. I mostly hated the translation. It took too much license, had too many contemporary idioms, too many made up words that were formed from smashing other words together (in Agamemnon), and overall found it really distracting. Something like this worked fine with [a:Anne Carson|34336|Anne Carson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1621477490p2/34336.jpg]'s [b:Antigonick|13305951|Antigonick|Anne Carson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597593225l/13305951._SX50_.jpg|59618794] which was meant to be a reinterpretation but really wasn't what I wanted here. I much preferred [a:Oliver Taplin|170771|Oliver Taplin|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s translation of [b:The Oresteia: Agamemnon, Women at the Graveside, Orestes in Athens|36236155|The Oresteia Agamemnon, Women at the Graveside, Orestes in Athens|Aeschylus|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1510349677l/36236155._SX50_.jpg|2378] (which had Agamemnon) and have not read other translations of Electra and Orestes but suspect that I would prefer many of them to this.
3. The plays themselves. I already reviewed Agamemnon (in the Taplin translation). I liked Electra with its timeless themes of revenge, individually administered justice. But did not think it was better than Aeschylus's version which had the amazing scene with Orestes and his mother. I also did not love Electra which dwelled too much on her sitting around being depressed and mostly passive while speaking a lot but mostly being manipulated and directed by others, particularly her brother's dead-alive-dead-alive sequence with her. But obviously a lot to like and it created a certain amount of action/thrills with the way in which he kills Aegisthus. I found Orestes to be the most novel of the plays, less of a simple timeless story but richer theatrically in the way it develops. It focuses on Orestes' madness as he is pursued by the Furies (not acquittal for him like in the third play in the original Oresteia), his sister plays a much bigger role, and it is also set in the complicated politics of Argos as Menelaus and Helen return and people blame Helen for all of the death and destruction caused by the Trojan war. The plot gets more complicated as they attempt to murder Helen but don't succeed. And I found it fun that Apollo shows up as a deux ex machina to resolve all of the plot strands--something that doesn't actually happen as much as you would think in Greek tragedy.