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The Eumenides
The Eumenides
The Eumenides
Ebook57 pages43 minutes

The Eumenides

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Orestes, Apollo, and the Erinyes go before Athena and eleven other judges chosen by her from the Athenian citizenry at the Areopagus (Rock of Ares, a flat rocky hill by the Athenian agora where the homicide court of Athens later held its sessions), to decide whether Orestes's killing of his mother, Clytemnestra, makes him guilty of the crime of murder.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherSovereign
Release dateOct 20, 2016
ISBN9781911535706
The Eumenides

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Rating: 3.9107142857142856 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Although I own this Kindle edition, I actually read a different translation which I can't find here on GoodReads by George Thomson. The Thomson translation was the best of the three Aeschylus plays I have read, and was contained in the anthology Greek Plays in Modern Translation (modern to the editor in 1947 when this book was published).I found this final play of the Orestiea to be an interesting commentary on the need for old ways to surrender to new ones - this was timely in Aeschylus' day and is still valid. Strangely enough, I recently finished a sci fi novella with this same theme. Truly one of universal application!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The final installment of the trilogy has Orestes fleeing from the Furies who seek judgement against him for spilling the blood of his own kin. Orestes flees a great distance with them constantly upon him, his primary defense that Apollo bade him to seek justice for the murder of Agammemnon. The Furies finally catch Orestes at a temple of Athena, where he grasps her statue in search of aid. Athena then appears and brings the matter to question, allowing testimony from Apollo, Orestes, and the Ghost of Clytemenstra. The judges decide in favor of Orestes, for which the Furies threaten wrath upon Athens. Athena instead offers them a temple there where the Athenian people will pay them proper respect. We have here another great tragedy - perhaps the best at demonstrating the attitudes of the Greek culture toward religion and justice, as well as the relationship between the major deities. The poetry itself is truly gruesome in some places ("Deep draughts of jellied blood will I sip and sup, Though bitter be the wine. And then when I've sucked thy lifeblood dry, I'll drag thee down below.") I kept a copy of this whole play. It's wonderful.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    bookshelves: currently-reading, classic, families, betrayal, fradio, greece, legal-courtcase, lifestyles-deathstyles, lit-richer, mythology, play-dramatisation, published-458bc, radio-3, revenge, winter-20132014Recommended for: BBC Radio ListenersR3 A new version by Rebecca Lenkiewicz of The Furies, the last play in Aeschylus's trilogy.BBC description: The Oresteia: The Furies By Aeschylus. A new version by Rebecca LenkiewiczThe final play in Aeschylus' classic trilogy about murder, revenge and justice. Orestes has avenged his father Agamemnon by murdering his killer, his own mother Clytemnestra. Now the Furies, deities of revenge, are on his trail and baying for blood. Can the young gods Apollo and Athena stop this cycle of revenge?BBC Concert Orchestra Percussionists: Alasdair Malloy, Stephen Webberley and Stephen Whibley Sound design: Colin Guthrie.To halt the blood feud spreading to yet another generation we are introduced to the emergence of the first homicide court.

Book preview

The Eumenides - Aeschylus

EUMENIDES

THE EUMENIDES

Dramatis Personae

THE PYTHIAN PRIESTESS

APOLLO

ORESTES

THE GHOST OF CLYTEMNESTRA

CHORUS OF FURIES

ATHENA

ATTENDANTS OF ATHENA

TWELVE ATHENIAN CITIZENS

Scene

Before the temple of APOLLO at Delphi. The PYTHIAN PRIESTESS enters and approaches the doors of the temple.

THE PYTHIAN PRIESTESS

First, in this prayer, of all the gods I name

The prophet-mother Earth; and Themis next,

Second who sat-for so with truth is said-

On this her mother›s shrine oracular.

Then by her grace, who unconstrained allowed,

There sat thereon another child of Earth-

Titanian Phoebe. She, in after time,

Gave o›er the throne, as birthgift to a god,

Phoebus, who in his own bears Phoebe›s name.

He from the lake and ridge of Delos› isle

Steered to the port of Pallas› Attic shores,

The home of ships; and thence he passed and came

Unto this land and to Pamassus› shrine.

And at his side, with awe revering him,

There went the children of Hephaestus› seed,

The hewers of the sacred way, who tame

The stubborn tract that erst was wilderness.

And all this folk, and Delphos, chieftain-king

Of this their land, with honour gave him home;

And in his breast Zeus set a prophet›s soul,

And gave to him this throne, whereon he sits,

Fourth prophet of the shrine, and, Loxias hight,

Gives voice to that which Zeus his sire decrees.

Such gods I name in my preluding prayer,

And after them, I call with honour due

On Pallas, wardress of the fane, and Nymphs

Who dwell around the rock Corycian,

Where in the hollow cave, the wild birds› haunt,

Wander the feet of lesser gods; and there,

Right well I know it, Bromian Bacchus dwells,

Since he in godship led his Maenad host,

Devising death for Pentheus, whom they rent

Piecemeal, as hare among the hounds. And last,

I call on Pleistus› springs, Poseidon›s might,

And Zeus most high, the great Accomplisher.

Then as a seeress to the sacred chair

I pass and sit; and may the powers divine

Make this mine entrance fruitful in response

Beyond each former advent, triply blest.

And if there stand without, from Hellas bound,

Men seeking oracles, let each pass in

In order of the lot, as use allows;

For the god guides whate›er my tongue proclaims.

She goes into the interior of the temple; after a short interval, she returns in great fear.

Things fell to speak of, fell for eyes to see,

Have sped me forth again from Loxias› shrine,

With strength unstrung, moving erect no more,

But aiding with my hands my failing feet,

Unnerved by fear. A beldame›s force is naught-

Is as a child›s, when age and fear combine.

For as I pace towards the inmost fane

Bay-filleted by many a suppliant›s hand,

Lo, at the central altar I descry

One crouching as for refuge-yea, a man

Abhorred of heaven; and from his hands, wherein

A

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