The Oresteia Trilogy

I've been wanting to read this for a while and I could never find a copy in my country.

nice edition of these classic plays.

This book was required for a western literature course. my only complaint is there are no line numbers. it is considered poetry. when referencing for papers the instructor wanted line numbers. i got points off for that. other than that, i prefer the older English terminology and the use of the Greek names. i understand other translations use the roman names. the main thing i like about this version is it doesn't have 4 pages of someone's opinion of what 2 lines mean between each line. the reader is allowed to draw their own conclusions.It was also a nice surprise to find the librivox.org audio recording is the same version. being dyslexic it makes reading easier to hear it simultaneously.

The translator (E. D. A. Morshead) was an Oxford don active in the late Victorian period. At the time Oxford had a more than a fair share of eccentric academics, but comments by his students indicate that he was a standout in this academic sub-species.. No small accomplishment given the competition including other luminaries such as the Rev. Spooner, eponymous unwitting progenitor of the 'Spoonerism!' Morshead's translations of Aeschylus are rendered in a late Latin-ate high Victorian style employing an archaic and often obscure vocabulary as well as a contorted prose style. The cumulative effect results in a translation that makes for painful reading at best, and is often all but incomprehensible! Pity his poor students. Not recommended except for insomniacs seeking a cheap alternative to Ambien or some other sleep-inducing nostrum. Though in my opinion ;they would be far better served by a good 'tot' or two of brandy!

The Oresteia by Aeschylus, translated by E. D. A. Morshead and published in 1961, is a classic and worth knowing, but the translation is unreadable. I tried it twice, in different years. But found it hard to understand and boring. This was not the fault of the original but of the translation. The title of the three plays is the name of one of the characters. Aeschylus was born in 525 or 524 BCE. The Oresteia was first performed in Athens, Greece, in 458, about two years before the author died. The trilogy won the first prize in Athens’ dramatic contest. Aeschylus wrote more than eighty plays. In the trilogy's first play, King Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek forces against Troy, sailed home ten years after the start of the war. He was victorious. He committed a heinous crime, a murder, before leaving for the war. While he was absent, his wife Clytemnestra engaged in an adulterous relationship with her lover. She murders her husband. In the second play, the son of the murdered man and murderer, Orestes, returns from exile. The god Apollo instructs him to kill his mom. Aeschylus makes it clear that the deed would be both right and wrong. This raises interesting questions for viewers and readers. In the third play of the trilogy, Orestes is punished for his vengeful act by other divine powers. This prompts even more questions.