The Oresteia

Oresteia, The (Agamemnon; Libation-Bearers; Eumenides)

    Author: Aeschylus

    First Performance: 458 BC, Athens

    First English Translation: 1777

    Genre: Greek trag; trilogy in verse

    Setting: Mycenae, Delphi, and Athens after the Trojan War

    Cast: 4m, 4f, extras, and 3 choruses (1m, 2f)

    (1) Agamemnon

. After ten years, the Trojan War has at last ended, and the palace of Mycenae prepares to welcome home their victorious king Agamemnon. His wife Clytemnestra, who has entered into an adulterous relationship with Aegisthus, plots to kill her husband. She dissembles pleasure at his return, even when she finds he has brought home as a trophy of war the young seer Cassandra, priestess of Apollo. Cassandra foretells the terrible end that awaits her and Agamemnon. After entering the palace,...

[The entire page is 733 words long]

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