The Oresteia: Agamemnon, the Libation Bearers, the Eumenides

  Fury works her will.

  FURIES:

  And the lightning stroke

  that cuts men down before their prime, I curse,

  but the lovely girl who finds a mate’s embrace,

  the deep joy of wedded life - O grant that gift, that prize,

  you gods of wedlock, grant it, goddesses of Fate!

  Sisters born of the Night our mother,

  spirits steering law,

  sharing at all our hearths,

  at all times bearing down

  to make our lives more just,

  all realms exalt you highest of the gods.

  T-ATO-K

  ATHENA:

  Behold, my land, what blessings Fury kindly,

  gladly brings to pass -

  I am in my glory! Yes, I love Persuasion;

  she watched my words, she met their wild refusals.

  Thanks to Zeus of the Councils who can turn

  dispute to peace - he won the day.

  To the FURIES.

  Thanks to our duel for blessings;

  we win through it all.

  FURIES:

  And the brutal strife,

  the civil war devouring men, I pray

  that it never rages through our city, no

  that the good Greek soil never drinks the blood of Greeks,

  shed in an orgy of reprisal life for life -

  that Fury like a beast will never

  rampage through the land.

  Give joy in return for joy,

  one common will for love,

  and hate with one strong heart:

  such union heals a thousand ills of man.

  ATHENA:

  Do you hear how Fury sounds her blessings forth,

  how Fury finds the way?

  Shining out of the terror of their faces

  I can see great gains for you, my people.

  Hold them kindly, kind as they are to you.

  Exalt them always, you exalt your land,

  your city straight and just -

  its light goes through the world.

  FURIES:

  Rejoice,

  rejoice in destined wealth,

  rejoice, Athena’s people -

  poised by the side of Zeus,

  loved by the loving virgin girl,

  achieve humanity at last,

  nestling under Pallas’ wings

  and blessed with Father’s love.

  ATHENA:

  You too rejoice! and I must lead the way

  to your chambers by the holy light of these,

  your escorts bearing fire.

  Enter ATHENA’S entourage of women, bearing offerings and victims and torches still unlit.

  Come, and sped beneath the earth

  by our awesome sacrifices,

  keep destruction from the borders,

  bring prosperity home to Athens,

  triumph sailing in its wake.

  And you,

  my people born of the Rock King,

  lead on our guests for life, my city -

  May they treat you with compassion,

  compassionate as you will be to them.

  FURIES:

  Rejoice! -

  rejoice - the joy resounds -

  all those who dwell in Athens,

  spirits and mortals, come,

  govern Athena’s city well,

  revere us well, we are your guests;

  you will learn to praise your Furies,

  you will praise the fortunes of your lives.

  ATHENA:

  My thanks! And I will speed your prayers, your blessings -

  lit by the torches breaking into flame

  I send you home, home to the core of Earth,

  escorted by these friends who guard my idol

  duty-bound.

  ATHENA’S entourage comes forward, bearing crimson robes.

  Bright eye of the land of Theseus,

  come forth, my splendid troupe. Girls and mothers,

  trains of aged women grave in movement,

  dress our Furies now in blood-red robes.

  Praise them - let the torch move on!

  So the love this family bears towards our land

  will bloom in human strength from age to age.

  The women invest the FURIES and sing the final chorus. Torches blaze; a procession forms, including the actors and the judges and the audience. ATHENA leads them from the theatre and escorts them through the city.

  THE WOMEN OF THE CITY:

  On, on, good spirits born for glory,

  Daughters of Night, her children always young,

  now under loyal escort -

  Blessings, people of Athens, sing your blessings out.

  Deep, deep in the first dark vaults of Earth,

  sped by the praise and victims we will bring,

  reverence will attend you -

  Blessings now, all people, sing your blessings out.

  You great good Furies, bless the land with kindly hearts,

  you Awesome Spirits, come - exult in the blazing torch,

  exultant in our fires, journey on.

  Cry, cry in triumph, carry on the dancing on and on!

  This peace between Athena’s people and their guests

  must never end. All-seeing Zeus and Fate embrace,

  down they come to urge our union on -

  Cry, cry, in triumph, carry on the dancing on and on!

  THE GENEALOGY OF ORESTES

  ACCORDING TO AESCHYLUS

  SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

  The factual notes on mythology, history and language are mainly by W.B.S., those on imagery and symbolism mainly by R.F. Only samples of themes and image-patterns have been cited. Our choice of variant readings in the text has not been specified in the notes. We hope that in most places it will be clear from the translation. As in the introduction, we have drawn from the work of others, and a brief list of their writings may be useful to the general reader. Certain more recent works have been included as well. The list is limited to books; separate articles have been omitted, though several of the most important may be found in the McCall collection, and others are referred to in the notes.

  COMMENTARIES

  Conacher, D. J. (ed.), Aeschylus’ Oresteia: A Literary Commentary, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987.

  Denniston, J. D., and Page, Sir Denys (eds.), Agamemnon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957.

  Fraenkel, Eduard (ed.), Agamemnon, 3 vols with a Commentary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950.

  Garvie, A. F. (ed.), Choephori: Introduction and Commentary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.

  Lloyd-Jones, Sir Hugh (trs.), Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides, 3 vols with Commentary, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970.

  Podlecki, Anthony J. (ed.), Eumenides, Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1989.

  Rose, H. J., A Commentary on the Surviving Plays of Aeschylus, 2 vols, Amsterdam: N. V. Noord-Hollandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij, 1958.

  Sidgwick, A. (ed.), Agamemnon, Choephoroi, Eumenides, 3 vols with Introduction and Notes, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900-1905.

  Smyth, Herbert Weir (trs.), Aeschylus, 2 vols, inc. Fragments, ed. Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones, The Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Mass., and London: Harvard University Press, 1971.

  Sommerstein, Alan. H. (ed.), Eumenides, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

  Thomson, George, (ed.), The Oresteia, 2 vols, with an Introduction and Commentary, in which is included the work of the late Walter Headlam. New Ed., Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, 1966.

  CRITICAL WORKS

  Burke, Kenneth, The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action (3rd ed.), Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1973.

  Chioles, John, Aeschylus: Mythic Theatre, Political Voice, Athens: University of Athens Publications, 1995.

  Dodds, E. R., The Greeks and the Irrational, Sather Classical Lectures, Vol. 25, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California P
ress, 1964.

  Earp, Frank Russell, The Style of Aeschylus, Cambridge University Press, 1948.

  Easterling, P. E., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997.

  Else, Gerald E, The Origin and Early Form of Greek Tragedy, Martin Classical Lectures, Vol. 20, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1965; Oxford University Press, 1965.

  Fergusson, Francis, The Idea of a Theatre: A Study of Ten Plays, the Art of Drama in Changing Perspective, Oxford University Press, 1949; New York: Doubleday, 1953.

  Finley, J. H., Jr, Pindar and Aeschylus, Martin Classical Lectures, Vol. 14, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1955.

  Gagarin, Michael, Aeschylean Drama, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.

  Girard, René, Violence and the Sacred, trs. Patrick Gregory, Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977.

  Goldhill, Simon, Aeschylus: The Oresteia, Landmarks of World Literature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

  Language, Sexuality, Narrative: The Oresteia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

  Harrison, Jane, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (2nd ed.), Cambridge, 1908; re-published The Merlin Press, 1961.

  Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion (2nd ed.), Cambridge, 1927; re-published The Merlin Press, 1963.

  Herington, John, Aeschylus, Hermes Books, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.

  The Author of the Prometheus Bound, Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1970.

  Jaeger, Werner, Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, trs. Gilbert Highet, 3 vols, Oxford: Basil Blackwell and Matt, Ltd, 1939-44; New York: Oxford University Press, 1945.

  Jones, John, On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy, New York: Oxford University Press, 1962; Chatto and Windus, 1962.

  Kaufmann, Walter, Tragedy and Philosophy, New York: Doubleday, 1968.

  Kitto, H. D. F., Form and Meaning in Drama: A Study of Six Greek Plays and of Hamlet (2nd ed.), Methuen, 1964; New York: Barnes and Noble, 1968.

  Greek Tragedy: A Literary Study (2nd ed.), New York: Doubleday, 1954; (3rd ed.), Methuen, 1966.

  Kuhns, Richard, The House, the City, and the Judge: The Growth of Moral Awareness in the Oresteia, Indianapolis: Bobbs Merrill, 1962.

  Lattimore, Richmond, (trs.) The Oresteia, with Introduction in The Complete Greek Tragedies: Volume I, Aeschylus, ed. David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1953.

  Lebeck, Anne, The Oresteia: A Study in Language and Structure, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971.

  Lenson, David, Achilles’ Choice: Examples of Modern Tragedy, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975.

  Lloyd-Jones, Sir Hugh, The Justice of Zeus, Sather Classical Lectures, Vol. 41, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971.

  McCall, Marsh H., Jr, Aeschylus: A Collection of Critical Essays, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972.

  Méautis, Georges, Eschyle et la trilogie, Paris, 1936.

  Murray, Gilbert, Aeschylus: The Creator of Tragedy, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940.

  Nussbaum, Martha, The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy (Chapter 2), Cambridge, England, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

  Owen, E. T., The Harmony of Aeschylus, Toronto: Clark, Irwin, 1952; G. Bell, 1952.

  Podlecki, Anthony J., The Political Background of Aeschylean Tragedy, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1966.

  Roberts, Patrick, The Psychology of Tragic Drama, Boston and London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975.

  Romilly, Jacqueline de, La crainte et l’angoisse dans le théâtre d’Eschyle, Paris: ‘Les Belles Lettres’, 1958.

  Time in Greek Tragedy, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1968.

  Rosenmeyer, Thomas G., The Art of Aeschylus, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, University of California Press, 1982.

  The Masks of Tragedy: Essays on Six Greek Dramas, Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1963.

  Sheppard, John T., Aeschylus and Sophocles, New York: Longmans, Greene, 1927; G. G. Harrap, 1927.

  Smyth, Herbert Weir, Aeschylean Tragedy, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1924.

  Solmsen, Friedrich, Hesiod and Aeschylus, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1949.

  Stanford, W B., Aeschylus in His Style: A Study in Language and Personality, Dublin, 1942; re-published New York: Johnson Reprint, 1972.

  Ambiguity in Greek Literature: Studies in Theory and Practice, Oxford, 1939; re-published New York: Johnson Reprint, 1972.

  Greek Metaphor: Studies in Theory and Practice, Oxford, 1936: re-published New York: Johnson Reprint, 1972.

  Steiner, George, The Death of Tragedy, New York: Knopf, 1961; Faber and Faber, 1961.

  Taplin, Oliver, The Stagecraft of Aeschylus: The Dramatic Use of Exits and Entrances in Greek Tragedy, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1977.

  Thomson, George, Aeschylus and Athens: A Study in the Social Origins of Drama (2nd ed.), Lawrence & Wishart, 1966.

  Vickers, Brian, Towards Greek Tragedy: Drama, Myth, Society, London: Longman, 1973.

  Whallon, William, Problem and Spectacle: Studies in the Oresteia, Heidelberg, Winter, 1980.

  Winnington-Ingram, R. P, Studies in Aeschylus, Cambridge, England, Cambridge University Press, 1983.

  Zeitlin, Froma, Playing the Other: Gender and Society in Classical Greek Literature, Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 1996.

  NOTES

  AGAMEMNON

  SCENE: THE HOUSE OF ATREUS IN ARGOS. When Aeschylus refers to Argos he may mean the entire Argolid in the north-eastern Peloponnese (including the cities of Argos and Mycenae) or the city of Argos in particular. The first is the more frequent meaning of ‘Argos’ in the Homeric poems; the second is the usual meaning in classical Greek. The Homeric poems specifically locate the murder of Agamemnon in Mycenae. But this city had been destroyed by its rival, Argos, about four years before the Oresteia was produced; and soon after its destruction Argos had become an ally of Athens (as alluded to elsewhere in the trilogy; see Eumenides n. 289). Probably, then, Aeschylus deliberately used ‘Argos’ ambiguously so that modernists in his audience might take the scene of the tragedy to be the city of Argos and traditionalists could continue to place it in Mycenae, then, no doubt, as now, much the more awesome setting for the terrible crimes of the House of Atreus. Vincent Scully has described the citadel and its surroundings eloquently: ‘To the left and right the flanking peaks form one huge pair of horns, so that the site as a whole rises as a mighty bull’s head above the valley. Yet the horns also suggest here the raised arms of the Mycenaean goddess as she is shown in the many terracotta figurines found at Mycenae and elsewhere . . . the formation as a whole can be seen as rising out of the earth like the goddess herself appearing in majesty: the mounded hill, the now terrible horns or arms above it, and in the place of the goddess’ head the fortress of the lords . . . Upon this most devouring of thrones the king dares to put himself, and the built-up cone of his citadel occupies its center.’ (The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods: Greek Sacred Architecture [New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1962], pp. 37-8.) See n. 309.

  WATCHMAN. A figure drawn from Homer, but in the Odyssey (Book IV, lines 524-8) he serves as a simple hireling of Aegisthus; here, an unwitting agent of the assassins, he is loyal to his king.

  Throughout the introduction and the notes we refer to the Homeric background of the Oresteia, especially to those events from the House of Atreus which Homer narrates in the Odyssey. Taken in sequence, these passages begin with the successful vengeance of Orestes: chosen by Zeus as a strong example of justice (Book I, lines 29-43), then used by Athena to raise the spirits of Telemachus (Book I, lines 298-302), then by Nestor (Book III, lines 248-316) not only to encourage him but also to caution him with the added stories of Clytaemnestra’s infidelity and the wanderings of Menelaus, absent from Argos when Agam
emnon was assassinated. Next Menelaus tells Telemachus how Proteus informed him of his brother’s murder by Aegisthus (Book IV, lines 511-47); and the crime expands when the ghost of Agamemnon tells Odysseus how both he and Cassandra were murdered by his wife together with her lover (Book XI, lines 385-439). However optimistic the sequel of Orestes’ vengeance, in other words, each version of Agamemnon’s death presents a greater darkness, and so a starker foil for the luminous reunion of Odysseus and Penelope; until, at the end of the Odyssey (Book XXIV, lines 191-202), Agamemnon’s ghost calls for a song to immortalize Penelope and another for the notorious Clytaemnestra. Homer has provided the first, and Aeschylus, in effect, the second. Adapting Homer more and more freely throughout the Oresteia, he reverses the events and carries them from the darkness to the light - from the bloody return of Agamemnon to the triumphant return of Athena to Athens. The last is Aeschylus’ ultimate expansion of Homer and departure from his master. See Introduction, pp. 14, 21, 24f., 37, 51, 53, 66f., 93f.

  1 Dear gods, set me free from all the pain: for relationships between the Mysteries of Eleusis and the Oresteia, see Introduction, pp. 71f., 85f., 96. The watchman’s appeal for deliverance - the typical appeal of the candidate for initiation - is answered by increased anxiety; see 1059, n. 1605; Libation Bearers n. 950, Eumenides n. 494.

  8 Our great blazing kings: dominant stars or constellations that demarcate the seasons. According to tradition Troy fell in the tenth year of the siege, at the setting of the Pleiades (812) that occurs before sunrise in the late autumn and signals the approach of winter, storms at sea and danger to human health.

  18 I mustn’t sleep. a sentry’s Nemesis, death for sleeping at the post.

  25 Dawn of the darkness: the watchman’s word for light, phaos, can mean hope and safety and may recall the word for man, phôs, though here the man is about to be eclipsed. Solar imagery will recur throughout the trilogy and reflect the light of human achievement emerging from the night of barbarism, but in A appeals to the sun will usher in a greater darkness, while the dawn of Orestes’ coming remains a distant possibility; see 264f., 596ff., 970f., 1183ff., 1605ff.; LB n. 950, E n. 7.