Aeschylus
Subtitle: Agamemnon (Duckworth Companions to Greek & Roman Tragedy) (Duckworth Companions to Greek & Roman Tragedy)
Publisher: Duckworth Publishers; Duckworth
Published: October 26, 2005
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 158
ISBN-13: 9780715633854
Subjects: Plays & playwrights: classical, early & medieval; Literature - Classics / Criticism; Literary Criticism; Ancient (Classical) Greek; Classics; Performing Arts / Theater / Playwriting; Drama
First sentence: Agamemnon is the first play of the Oresteia, our only surviving ancient Greek trilogy.
Description: "Aeschylus' Agamemnon, opening play of the Oresteia trilogy, with its brilliant theatrical effects, is a masterpiece. The revenge plot - a murder - is simple, the language and imagery complex and thrilling. The play features two extraordinary women: the powerful, dissembling queen Clytemnestra and the frenzied prophetess Cassandra. It als features another original Aeschylean creation, the omni present helpless chorus, who are forced to bear witness to Agamemnon's path to death. Through the chorus, the action is seen in the problematic context of justice, destiny, and the role of the gods. The play is a serious investigation of man's problematic ethical nature. This detailed study gets the measure of Aeschylus' innovative genius as poet, storyteller and theatrical wizard by setting the play against the rich traditions of archaic poetry from which drama had only recently sprung. It considers the ethical dilemmas of the plot against contemporary fifth-century Athenian religious and political thinking, and its attitude to women. It engages with the play's great influence on later Attic tragedy and then considers Seneca's Roman Agamemnon and some revenge dramas of Elizabeth an England."--Bloomsbury Publishing

Aeschylus' Agamemnon, opening play of the Oresteia trilogy, with its brilliant theatrical effects, is a masterpiece. The revenge plot - a murder - is simple, the language and imagery complex and thrilling. The play features two extraordinary women: the powerful, dissembling queen Clytemnestra and the frenzied prophetess Cassandra. It als features another original Aeschylean creation, the omnipresent helpless chorus, who are forced to bear witness to Agamemnon's path to death. Through the chorus, the action is seen in the problematic context of justice, destiny, and the role of the gods. The play is a serious investigation of man's problematic ethical nature. This detailed study gets the measure of Aeschylus' innovative genius as poet, storyteller and theatrical wizard by setting the play against the rich traditions of archaic poetry from which drama had only recently sprung. It considers the ethical dilemmas of the plot against contemporary fifth-century Athenian religious and political thinking, and its attitude to women. It engages with the play's great influence on later Attic tragedy and then considers Seneca's Roman Agamemnon and some revenge dramas of Elizabethan England