I read Robert Fagles translation; it is accessible while retaining the powerful and subtle language and imagery of Aeschylus’ work. This (Penguin Classics) edition includes a well-written and very useful introductory essay, The Serpent and the Eagle – A Reading of 'The Oresteia', written in collaboration with W. B. Stanford (as are the notes). The introduction, about 75 pages long, gives a wealth of background information to complement the reading experience of the dramatic trilogy itself – this particular reading employs a Hegelian approach, though not too obtrusively. – "The Oresteia is our rite of passage from savagery to civilization," as Fagles/Stanford aptly puts it in the introduction. It is also one of the most fascinating works of drama I have ever read; impressive both in its breadth of scope and depth of detail. I wouldn't hesitate to call it a work of genius, and to my mind, here Aeschylus in many ways dwarfs even a younger giant such as Shakespeare. The fact that this is the only trilogy that has survived since antiquity, makes me mournful for all that has been lost – including the satyr play that originally accompanied the performances of this trilogy, Proteus. From the introductory essay: "For all its optimism [in the final part of the Oresteia], the Proteus may have reminded the Athenians that their lives were based on conflict, indeed that Athena had prevailed over Poseidon for possession of their city. So in the trilogy we reach an accommodation with the earth, but the sea, like Poseidon in the Odyssey, may remain to be placated." It's an intriguing thought - and for sure, I can easily see the use of a bit of comedy, as well as the presence of the more uncultivated and rustic satyrs, after the intense and bloody rite of passage - from a self-perpetuating cycle of vengeance to the rule of law - from chaos to order - of the Oresteia.




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