num_pages: 208
description: In the last year of his life, Ted Hughes completed translations of three major dramatic works: Racine's Phedre, Euripedes' Alcestis, and the trilogy of plays known as at The Oresteia, a family story of astonishing power and the background or inspiration for much subsequent drama, fiction, and poetry.The Oresteia--Agamemnon, Choephori, and the Eumenides--tell the story of the house of Atreus: After King Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, their son, Orestes, is commanded by Apollo to avenge the crime by killing his mother, and he returns from exile to do so, bringing on himself the wrath of the Furies and the judgment of the court of Athens. Hughes's "acting version" of the trilogy is faithful to its nature as a dramatic work, and his translation is itself a great performance; while artfully inflected with the contemporary, it has a classical beauty and authority. Hughes's Oresteia is quickly becoming the standard edition for English-language readers and for the stage, too. 
language: English
title: The Oresteia
titlecomplete: The Oresteia
characters: Clytemnestra (wife of Agamemnon), Cassandra, Orestes, Agamemnon, Electra
genres: Mythology, Theatre, School, Drama, Plays, Poetry, Literature, Classics, Fiction, Ancient
ratings_count: 43217
places: Greece, Argos
series: Oresteia
awards: awardedAt: 220953600000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Translation
publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux