Aeschylus: Libation Bearers

by C.W. Marshall, Thomas Harrison (Editor)

Libation Bearers is the 'middle' play in the only extant tragic trilogy to survive from antiquity, Aeschylus' Oresteia , first produced in 458 BCE. This introduction to the play will be useful for anyone reading it in Greek or in translation. Drawing on his wide experience teaching about performance in the ancient world, C. W. Marshall helps readers understand how the play was experienced by its ancient audience. His discussion explores the impact of the chorus, the characters, theology, and the play's apparent affinities with comedy. The architecture of choral songs is described in detail. The book also investigates the role of revenge in Athenian society and the problematic nature of Orestes' matricide.

Libation Bearers immediately entered the Athenian visual imagination, influencing artistic depictions on red-figured vases, and inspiring plays by Euripides and Sophocles. This study looks to the later plays to show how 5th-century audiences understood Libation Bearers . Modern reception of the play is integrated into the analysis. The volume includes a full range of ancillary material, providing a list of relevant red-figure vase illustrations, a glossary of technical terms, and a chronology of ancient and modern theatrical versions.

Genres: Classics, Plays

200 pages, Hardcover

Published September 7, 2017

About the author

C. W. Marshall is Professor of Greek, Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies and Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, University of British Columbia, Canada. His publications include The Stagecraft and Performance of Roman Comedy (2006), Classics and Comics (2011) and No Laughing Matter (Bloomsbury, 2012).

Reviews

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Libation Bearers deals with Orestes revenge against Clytamaestra and Aegisthus for the death of his father Agamemnon.

CHORUS: And it is the eternal rule that drops of blood spilled on the ground demand yet more blood. Murder cries out on the Fury, which from those killed before brings one ruin in the wake of another.

Told from Orestes point of view it outlines the reason and planning. Wherein Sophocles 40 years later told the story from Orestes' sister's point of view in the eponymous Electra.

Aeschylus highlights the gods' roles in these tales; as if the humans are mere characters in a play being put on by them. Dramatic language and clearly hubris, ate, and nemesis evident in the trilogy--but those?

NTS: There is an interesting similarity between Lady MacBeth and Clytamaestra

And though all streams flow in one course to cleanse the blood from a polluted hand, they rush in vain.

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part Two of the Oresteia Trilogy. A Classical Greek revenge story. Not bad for the middle section of a trilogy.

[C. M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

greek hamlet basically 👍

[Noah W]

YES i am rereading my honours plays. libation bearers is cute