Oresteia
by Aeschylus
Chapter 1 of 7 Dramatis Personae
- Running time
- 4 h 20 min
- Language
- English
- Readers
- Andrew Lebrun, Andy Minter (1934-2017), Annoying Twit, Catharine Eastman, Christie Nowak and 15 others
- Translated by
- Edmund Doidge Anderson Morshead
Chapters
About this recording
The Oresteia is a trilogy by Aeschylus, one of the foremost playwrights of ancient Greece. It encompasses three plays: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Furies. It tells the tragic tale of the House of Atreus, whose inhabitants have been cursed and are doomed to play out their bloody, vengeful destinies. At the beginning of the first part, the Trojan War has ended and the Greek general, Agamemnon, is returning victorious to his wife Clytemnestra. Yet she finds it difficult to forgive his sacrifice of their daughter, Iphigenia, who was killed to ensure the Greek fleet fair winds in their voyage to Troy. Her desire for vengeance, and its dire consequences, instigates the action of these poetic tragedies. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)
Cast:
AGAMEMNON, king of Mycenae - StephenC
AEGISTHUS, cousin to Agamemnon - mb
ORESTES, son of Agamemnon - David O’Connell
CLYTEMNESTRA, wife of Agamemnon - Christie Nowak
CASSANDRA, a Trojan princess - Kristin Hughes
ELECTRA, sister of Orestes - Claire Goget
APOLLO, god of the Delphic oracle - Andrew Lebrun
ATHENA, goddess of wisdom - Catharine Eastman
PYTHIA, a priestess of Apollo - Kirsten Ferreri
A WATCHMAN at Mycenae - Joe Earley
A HERALD…