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INTRODUCTION
The trilogy Oresteia:
Agamemnon, The Choephori, and The Eumenides
THE only trilogy in Greek tragedy which has come down to us complete
is the so-called Oresteia, made up of the three plays, Agamemnon,
The Choephori, and The Eumenides. Each individual play therefore
must be regarded as a single large act of the whole tragedy. The trilogy
is in all probability the last work which Aeschylus composed, and won
the first prize in the tragic contest held in 458 B.C. There can be little
question that it is Aeschylus' masterpiece and it deservedly holds its position
at the forefront of Greek tragedy along with the great Oedipus plays
of Sophocles.
In the Oresteia Aeschylus studies again a curse upon a house. This
time he turns to the legends of the House of Atreus which told how
Atreus and Thyestes, sons of Pelops, became enemies, how Thyestes
wronged Atreus' wife, how Atreus in revenge slew Thyestes' children,
and served them to him in a ghastly banquet. The curse came into being
as a result of these horrible crimes. Such was the inheritance of Agamemnon
and Menelaus, the sons of Atreus. However, all went well with them
until Helen, the wife of Menelaus, and reputedly the fairest of women in
the world, deserted her husband to go with Paris to Troy. Then, at his
brother's request, Agamemnon, the most powerful king in all Greece,
marshalled a great Grecian host to invade the Troad and to regain Helen.
The expedition assembled at Aulis, but the hostility of Artemis caused
contrary winds to blow, and dissension and discontent arose among the
Greeks, who were impatient to depart. Calchas, the seer to whom an appeal
was made, announced that the expedition could sail only on condition
that Agamemnon appease the wrath of Artemis by sacrificing his
daughter, Iphigenia. Agamemnon, after a period of inner struggle, finally
gave way, the maiden was sacrificed, and the host embarked. After ten
years Troy fell, and the various Greek leaders began their journeys home.
The Agamemnon opens at this point. The scene is laid at Argos, where
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