Audiobook · read by volunteers
Oresteia
Aeschylus
Read by Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023), Kristin Hughes (1974-2021), Kirsten Ferreri, Catharine Eastman, Christie Nowak, Rosalind Wills, Claire Goget, Andy Minter (1934-2017), Jennifer Stearns, Andrew Lebrun · 7 chapters · 4 h 19
About the book
A king comes home from ten years of war, and a queen is waiting for him with a smile and a plan. So begins the Oresteia, the only complete trilogy that survives from the ancient Greek stage. Over three plays, Aeschylus follows the House of Atreus, cursed from generation to generation, as one killing calls for another and the cycle of vengeance seems impossible to break. Agamemnon returns in triumph to Clytemnestra; their son Orestes must then decide whether to avenge his father at the cost of his mother; and the avenging spirits known as the Furies pursue him across the world. In the end the question moves from the family to the city, and from blood to law. Here in the English translation of E. D. A. Morshead, seven parts and four hours bring one of the great works of Western drama to the ear.
Introduction
Aeschylus lived from about 525 to 456 BC and is regarded as the earliest of the three great Athenian tragedians, alongside Sophocles and Euripides. He fought against the Persians, and he is credited with adding a second actor to the stage, a change that made real dramatic conflict possible. Of the many plays he wrote, only a handful survive.
The Oresteia, first performed in Athens in 458 BC, is the only trilogy of Greek tragedy to come down to us whole. Its three plays, Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Furies, tell of the murder of a returning king, the revenge taken by his son, and the trial of that son before the goddess Athena. The story begins with the Trojan War over and Agamemnon coming home victorious to his wife Clytemnestra, who finds it hard to forgive what he did to their daughter. What follows is a study of guilt, justice and the cost of violence. Its closing play is often read as a celebration of the Athenian court of law, replacing private vengeance with civic judgment.
The English version heard here is by Edmund Doidge Anderson Morshead, who lived from 1849 to 1912 and published his translation in the late nineteenth century. This recording was made by LibriVox volunteers, who read the parts and the choruses. It begins with the list of characters and is divided into seven parts, lasting about four and a quarter hours.
Why listen? Because these plays were written to be heard. Their choral songs, their prophecies and their stark confrontations come into their own aloud, and their questions about justice remain very much alive.
Public domain
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text