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Oresteia

Aeschylus (Author), Hugh Lloyd-Jones (Translator)

Not available in British Commonwealth; Available in Canada

Paperback, 288 pages
ISBN: 9780520083288
August 1993
$24.95, £16.95

The most famous series of ancient Greek plays, and the only surviving trilogy, is the Oresteia of Aeschylus, consisting of Agamemnon, Choephoroe, and Eumenides. These three plays recount the murder of Agamemnon by his queen Clytemnestra on his return from Troy with the captive Trojan princess Cassandra; the murder in turn of Clytemnestra by their son Orestes; and Orestes' subsequent pursuit by the Avenging Furies (Eumenides) and eventual absolution.

Hugh Lloyd-Jones's informative notes elucidate the text, and introductions to each play set the trilogy against the background of Greek religion as a whole and Greek tragedy in particular, providing a balanced assessment of Aeschylus's dramatic art.

Hugh Lloyd-Jones is Regius Professor of Greek Emeritus at the University of Oxford and author of, among many titles, The Justice of Zeus (California, 1971).

"By far the best translation. Faithful to the original Greek text and eminently readable. The notes constitute a commentary in their own right."—Albert Henrichs, Harvard University

"Hugh Lloyd-Jones's translation stands out very much from any other. The notes are first class and scholarly."—Jeffrey Rusten, Cornell University

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