CH2 - The Oresteia - Schedule/Questions/Resources

[Jim]

Discussion Schedule


Week of:

July 30, 2012 – Agamemnon

August 6, 2012 – The Libation Bearers

August 13, 2012 – The Eumenides


IMPORTANT: These discussion threads will remain open indefinitely. If you find yourself behind in the reading or if you have joined the group after the dates listed above, go ahead and read at your own pace and discuss when you want. The moderator and other members will gladly join in!

Questions, Resources, and General Banter

Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oresteia

The Penguin Classics edition translated by Robert Fagles includes an excellent essay “The Serpent and the Eagle” by Robert Fagles and W.B. Stanford.

Feel free to post questions and links to resources in this thread.

Also, if you’ve written a review of the book, please post a link to share with the group.

[Barbara]

Jim, this post is based on the posts between you and Jenny in the thread on part three of the trilogy -- The Euripides....

Jim wrote: After reading the trilogy, would you have voted in Orestes' favor?

Jim, I can FINALLY pick up the entire trilogy this week. (The version I was reading was a free version of The Agamemnon on the Nook.)

I'm looking forward to reading The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides, and I'm sorry that I've fallen SO BEHIND schedule.

I'm also looking forward to reading "The Serpent and the Eagle" so I'm going to look for the Fagles edition.

As far as your question to Jenny, asking if she would have voted in Orestes favor, that's a very interesting question, but I will not be able to answer until I've read the whole trilogy.)

I was thinking that it would be fantastic if we can somehow read a play by the other two tragedians -- Sophocles and Euripides, sometime soon (before the end of the year.) It would be so interesting to compare the three tragedians here in the group.

AND, maybe even one of Aristophanes comedies, to compare a Greek comedy with the three tragedies.

Just a suggestion. What do you think???

[Jim]

Barbara wrote: "I was thinking that it would be fantastic if we can somehow read a play by the other two tragedians -- Sophocles and Euripides, sometime soon (before the end of the year.) It would be so interesting to compare the three tragedians here in the group...."

That could be a big project if we compared them in general. I would propose a narrower focus on the Oresteia theme.

We could look at Euripides' Electra and maybe Orestes and of course Iphigenia at Aulis to get the victim's perspective.

For Sophocles, his Electra is the only surviving play of his that deals directly with the Orestes story.

I have Euripides' Electra on my shelf right now, so how about we read that when you've finished Aeschylus, then we can read Sophocles' Electra and do a 3 tragedian comparison? If we're still having fun after that, we could dip back into Euripides for Orestes and Iphigenia.

[Barbara]

Jim wrote: I would propose a narrower focus on the Oresteia theme. We could look at Euripides' Electra and maybe Orestes and of course Iphigenia at Aulis to get the victim's perspective.

Jim, that's a fantastic idea!!! Thank you for thinking of this.

It's funny, I have The Complete Works of Euripides at home, and I was looking at Iphigenia in Taurus last night, and the conversation between Iphigenia and Orestes. I think both Iphigenia plays shed a lot of light on the Oresteia theme, because Iphigenia at Aulis shows us how Agamemnon struggled with the sacrifice (and shows him as a person with "feelings" as opposed to an "egotistical brute.") And Iphigenia in Taurus would probably be considered the final play on the Orestia theme (although I have to admit that I haven't read Euripides' Electra or Orestes OR Sophocles' Electra since college or high school, so it's possible that one of these plays contain events that happen after Iphigenia in Taurus.)

I'm sorry that I'm such a SLOW reader!!! I need to juggle a few books at a time (attention deficit disorder -- I've always been a "juggler" when it comes to most things!!!) BUT, I will finish The Oresteia so that we can read these other fabulous plays!!!

Thanks again, Jim!!!

PS: I know this is "off-topic" but I have to say I am SO EXCITED about reading Hamlet with this group!!! It's my favorite work of literature, and I've read it MANY times and I've seen many stage productions and most of the film productions, SO, with Hamlet I will NOT fall behind schedule because I already know the play inside and out!!! When I saw it listed as a group read here I shouted: YAY!!!!

[Jim]

Link to my review here:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...