Review: The Oresteia by Aeschylus

The Oresteia by Aeschylus
Translated by: Hugh Lloyd-Jones
Published: August 1, 1993
Publisher: Public Domain
Pages: 288

The most famous series of ancient Greek plays, and the only surviving trilogy, is the Oresteia of Aeschylus, consisting of Agamemnon, Choephoroe, andEumenides. These three plays recount the murder of Agamemnon by his queen Clytemnestra on his return from Troy with the captive Trojan princess Cassandra; the murder in turn of Clytemnestra by their son Orestes; and Orestes' subsequent pursuit by the Avenging Furies (Eumenides) and eventual absolution.

Hugh Lloyd-Jones's informative notes elucidate the text, and introductions to each play set the trilogy against the background of Greek religion as a whole and Greek tragedy in particular, providing a balanced assessment of Aeschylus's dramatic art.

 Greek plays are far superior to Greek philosophy.

Okay, maybe that's not true, Greek philosophy is pretty dang cool (if barely relatable) once you understand it. But the issue is it takes a lot to understand Greek philosophy, whereas the plays are straight forward and easy to read in comparison.
This particular set of plays is a great deal of fun to read, especially after Homer. Aeschylus raises quite a few questions that the Homeric Age took for granted - in this tragedy and others, you can feel the Greeks questioning the almighty power of the gods, free will, love, the role of women. Women especially are prominent in these works. My class had quite a number of arguments over Clytemnestra and whether she was actually a progressive or regressive character for female empowerment. The beauty of the works, of course, is that you can argue both. It's hard to say in the end what the message is, but I definitely consider nebulous themes a step up from the die-hard backward themes of Homer.

And forgive me, but that's all I have to say for this work. I know this is a short review for me, but sometimes there's nothing more to be said, and there's no point pretending to say more.