Aeschylus
Monarch Notes
01-01-1963
The Oresteia (458 B.C.)
Background:
This is the only complete Greek tragic trilogy extant. Aeschylus won the
prize with it. The individual plays are Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and
The Eumenides. They were originally followed by a satyr-play, Proteus, which
has been lost. The first play deals with the murder of Agamemnon, the second
with the vengeance of his son Orestes for that murder, and the third with the
results of that vengeance. Several years elapse between the first and second
plays, and several days between the second and third. The central character
of the trilogy as a whole is Orestes, who, though he does not appear in
Agamemnon, is referred to ...