Attached is a reader’s guide for the entire Oresteia: Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, and the Eumenides (26-pages, 13,000+ words). Why is it worth reading? Check out Dcn. Garlick’s opening letter to the guide to better understand why the text is worth your time.
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Dear supporters of Ascend,
Aeschylus is a teacher. He is a warrior, a statesman, and the father of the Greek tragedians. His greatest work, the Oresteia, is about justice. It starts with the familial story of the house of Atreus, the murder of Agamemnon, and the revenge of Orestes; yet, under the brilliance of Aeschylus, the narrative moves into a consideration of justice itself and its transformation. The primitive blood avenger model with its blood for blood cycle of revenge (lex talionis) is perfected into a more procedural and dispassionate model of justice. The execution of what is just shifts from the familial to the political. The cycle of violence is broken, and the blood-soaked terror of the Furies is redirected into a civilizing force.