Aeschylus: Eumenides

by Aeschylus , Edited by Alan H. Sommerstein

• ISBN13: 9780521284301
• ISBN10: 0521284309
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1989-11-24
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Sommerstein presents a freshly constituted text, with introduction and commentary, of Eumenides, the climactic play of the only surviving complete Greek tragic trilogy, the Oresteia of Aeschylus. Of all Athenian tragic dramas, Eumenides is most consciously designed to be relevant to the situation of the Athenian state at the time of its performance (458 B.C.) and seems to have contained daring innovations both in technique and in ideas. The introduction and commentary to this edition seek to bring out how Aeschylus shaped to his purpose the legends he inherited, and ended the tragic story of Agamemnon's family in a celebration of Athenian civic unity and justice. The commentary also pays attention to the linguistic, metrical and textual problems to be encountered by the reader.

Table of Contents

Preface

References and abbreviations

Introduction

1. The legend

2. Erinyes, Eumenides and Semnai

3. The Areopagus and homicide

4. The life and work of Aeschylus

5. Justice and the gods

6. A play for its day

7. Production

8. The text

Sigla

Eumenides

Commentary

Appendix

Indexes.