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Audio Source : Public Domain, Librivox

Aeschylus (Greek: ????????, Aiskhulos; c. 525/524 BC – c. 456/455 BC) was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays can still be read or performed, the others being Sophocles and Euripides. Agamemnon (Morshead Translation) AESCHYLUS (c. 525/524 - 456/455 BC), translated by Edmund Doidge Anderson MORSHEAD (1849 - 1912) The Oresteia is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus concerning the end of the curse on the House of Atreus. The name derives from the character Orestes, who sets out to avenge his father's murder. The only extant example of an ancient Greek theater trilogy, the Oresteia won first prize at the Dionysia festival in 458 BC. When originally performed, it was accompanied by Proteus, a satyr play that would have followed the trilogy. Proteus has not survived, however. In all likelihood the term "Oresteia" originally referred to all four plays; today it generally designates only the surviving trilogy. Many consider the Oresteia to be Aeschylus' finest work. Principal themes of the trilogy include the contrast between revenge and justice, as well as the transition from personal vendetta to organized litigation....The play Agamemnon (?????????, Agamemn?n) details the homecoming of Agamemnon, King of Argos, from the Trojan War. Waiting at home for him is his wife, Clytemnestra, who has been planning his murder, partly as revenge for the sacrifice of their daughter, Iphigenia, and partly because in the ten years of Agamemnon's absence Clytemnestra has entered into an adulterous relationship with Aegisthus, Agamemnon's cousin and the sole survivor of a dispossessed branch of the family (Agamemnon's father, Atreus, killed and fed Aegisthus's brothers to Aegisthus's father, Thyestes, when he took power from him), who is determined to regain the throne he believes should rightfully belong to him. - Summary by Wikipedia The Furies (Morshead Translation) AESCHYLUS (c. 525/524 - 456/455 BC), translated by Edmund Doidge Anderson MORSHEAD (1849 - 1912) The Oresteia is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus concerning the end of the curse on the House of Atreus. The name derives from the character Orestes, who sets out to avenge his father's murder. The only extant example of an ancient Greek theater trilogy, the Oresteia won first prize at the Dionysia festival in 458 BC. When originally performed, it was accompanied by Proteus, a satyr play that would have followed the trilogy. Proteus has not survived, however. In all likelihood the term "Oresteia" originally referred to all four plays; today it generally designates only the surviving trilogy. Many consider the Oresteia to be Aeschylus' finest work. Principal themes of the trilogy include the contrast between revenge and justice, as well as the transition from personal vendetta to organized litigation. The Eumenides (?????????, Eumenides; also known as The Kindly Ones) is the final play of the Oresteia, in which 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. - Summary by Wikipedia The Libation-Bearers (Morshead Translation) AESCHYLUS (c. 525/524 - 456/455 BC), translated by Edmund Doidge Anderson MORSHEAD (1849 - 1912) The Oresteia is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus concerning the end of the curse on the House of Atreus. The name derives from the character Orestes, who sets out to avenge his father's murder. The only extant example of an ancient Greek theater trilogy, the Oresteia won first prize at the Dionysia festival in 458 BC. When originally performed, it was accompanied by Proteus, a satyr play that would have followed the trilogy. Proteus has not survived, however. In all likelihood the term "Oresteia" originally referred to all four plays; today it generally designates only the surviving trilogy. Many consider the Oresteia to be Aeschylus' finest work. Principal themes of the trilogy include the contrast between revenge and justice, as well as the transition from personal vendetta to organized litigation. The Libation Bearers is the second play of the Oresteia. It deals with the reunion of Agamemnon's children, Electra and Orestes, and their revenge. Orestes kills Clytemnestra to avenge the death of Agamemnon, Orestes' father. Summary by Wikipedia. The Oresteia DRAMATIC READING AESCHYLUS (c. 525/524 - 456/455 BC), translated by Edmund Doidge Anderson MORSHEAD (1849 - 1912) The Oresteia is a trilogy by Aeschylus, one of the foremost playwrights of ancient Greece. It encompasses three plays: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Furies. It tells the tragic tale of the House of Atreus, whose inhabitants have been cursed and are doomed to play out their bloody, vengeful destinies. At the beginning of the first part, the Trojan War has ended and the Greek general, Agamemnon, is returning victorious to his wife Clytemnestra. Yet she finds it difficult to forgive his sacrifice of their daughter, Iphigenia, who was killed to ensure the Greek fleet fair winds in their voyage to Troy. Her desire for vengeance, and its dire consequences, instigates the action of these poetic tragedies. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett) Cast: AGAMEMNON, king of Mycenae - StephenC AEGISTHUS, cousin to Agamemnon - mb ORESTES, son of Agamemnon - David O’Connell CLYTEMNESTRA, wife of Agamemnon - Christie Nowak CASSANDRA, a Trojan princess - Kristin Hughes ELECTRA, sister of Orestes - Claire Goget APOLLO, god of the Delphic oracle - Andrew Lebrun ATHENA, goddess of wisdom - Catharine Eastman PYTHIA, a priestess of Apollo - Kirsten Ferreri A WATCHMAN at Mycenae - Joe Earley A HERALD from Troy - tipaew NURSE to Orestes and Electra - Elizabeth Klett ATTENDANT of Aegisthus - Fr. Richard Zeile of Detroit ATTENDANT WOMAN of Athena - Jennifer Stearns NARRATOR - Justin Barrett CHORUS in Agamemnon - Andy Minter CHORUS in The Libation-Bearers - Jc Guan CHORUS in The Furies - Kara Shallenberg, Rosalind Wills, and Christie Nowak PYLADES - Annoying Twit The Persians   AESCHYLUS (c. 525/524 - 456/455 BC), translated by Edmund Doidge Anderson MORSHEAD (1849 - 1912) The earliest of Aeschylus' plays to survive is "The Persians" (Persai), performed in 472 BC and based on experiences in Aeschylus's own life, specifically the Battle of Salamis. It is unique among surviving Greek tragedies in that it describes a recent historical event. "The Persians" focuses on the popular Greek theme of hubris by blaming Persia's loss on the pride of its king. It is the second and only surviving part of a now otherwise lost trilogy that won the first prize at the dramatic competitions in Athens’ City Dionysia festival in 472 BCE, with Pericles serving as choregos. The first play in the trilogy was called "Phineus"; it presumably dealt with Jason and the Argonauts' rescue of King Phineus from the torture that the monstrous harpies inflicted at the behest of Zeus. The subject of the third play, "Glaucus," was either a mythical Corinthian king who was devoured by his horses because he angered the goddess Aphrodite or a Boeotian farmer who ate a magical herb that transformed him into a sea deity with the gift of prophecy. In "The Persians," Xerxes invites the gods' enmity for his hubristic expedition against Greece in 480/79 BCE; the focus of the drama is the defeat of Xerxes' navy at Salamis. Aeschylus himself had fought the Persians at Marathon (490 BC). He may also have fought at Salamis, just eight years before the play was performed. Summary by Wikipedia (edited by Expatriate) Genre(s): Tragedy Language: English Prometheus Bound (Thoreau Translation) AESCHYLUS (c. 525/524 - 456/455 BC), translated by Henry David THOREAU (1817 - 1862) Whether or not it was actually written by Aeschylus, as is much disputed, "Prometheus Bound" is a powerful statement on behalf of free humanity in the face of what often seem like the impersonal, implacable Forces that rule the Universe. As one of the most compelling rebel manifestos ever composed, it has appealed not only to the expected host of scholars of Greek drama, but also to a fascinatingly free-spirited array of translators, especially since the early 19th century; Percy Bysshe Shelley, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (two very different versions), and activist-poet Augusta Webster are among those who have tried their poetic and linguistic powers at rendering it into English. The version recorded here was by Henry David Thoreau, who recommended in "Walden" reading Aeschylus in the bright early morning hours. Thoreau published this translation in Volume Three of the transcendentalist journal "The Dial" in 1843, when he was 26 years old. Summary by Expatriate Seven Against Thebes (Way Translation) AESCHYLUS (c. 525/524 - 456/455 BC), translated by Arthur Sanders WAY (1847 - 1930) Seven against Thebes is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. The trilogy is sometimes referred to as the Oedipodea. It concerns the battle between an Argive army led by Polynices and the army of Thebes led by Eteocles and his supporters. The trilogy won the first prize at the City Dionysia. The trilogy's first two plays, Laius and Oedipus, as well as the satyr play Sphinx, are no longer extant. When Oedipus, King of Thebes, realized he had married his own mother and had two sons and two daughters with her, he blinded himself and cursed his sons to divide their inheritance (the kingdom) by the sword. The two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, in order to avoid bloodshed, agreed to rule Thebes in alternate years. After the first year, Eteocles refused to step down, leading Polynices to raise an army of Argives (captained by the eponymous Seven) to take Thebes by force....The bulk of the play consists of rich dialogues between the citizens of Thebes and their king Eteocles regarding the threat of the hostile army before their gates. - Summary by Wikipedia Genre(s): Tragedy Language: English Audio Source : Public Domain, Librivox