The Oresteia of Aeschylus: A New Translation by Ted Hughes

In the last year of his life Ted Hughes completed translations of three major dramatic works: Racines Phedre Euripedes Alcestis and the trilogy of plays known as at The Oresteia a family story of astonishing power and the background or inspiration for much subsequent drama fiction and poetry.The Oresteia--Agamemnon Choephori and the Eumenides--tell the story of the house of Atreus: After King Agamemnon is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra their son Orestes is commanded by Apollo to avenge the crime by killing his mother and he returns from exile to do so bringing on himself the wrath of the Furies and the judgment of the court of Athens. Hughess acting version of the trilogy is faithful to its nature as a dramatic work and his translation is itself a great performance; while artfully inflected with the contemporary it has a classical beauty and authority. Hughess Oresteia is quickly becoming the standard edition for English-language readers and for the stage too.