The only trilogy in Greek drama that survives from antiquity Aeschylus' The Oresteia is translated by Robert fagles with an introduction notes & glossary written in collaboration with WB Stanford in Penguin Classics In the Oresteia Aeschylus addressed the bloody chain of murder & revenge within the royal family of Argos As they move from darkness to light from rage to self-governance from primitive ritual to civilized institution their spirit of struggle & regeneration becomes an everlasting song of celebration In Agamemnon a king's decision to sacrifice his daughter & turn the tide of war inflicts lasting damage on his family culminating in a terrible act of retribution; The Libation Bearers deals with the aftermath of Clytemnestra's regicide as her son Orestes sets out to avenge his father's death; & in The Eumenides Orestes is tormented by supernatural powers that can never be appeased Forming an elegant & subtle discourse on the emergence of Athenian democracy out of a period of chaos & destruction The Oresteia is a compelling tragedy of the tensions between our obligations to our families & the laws that bind us together as a society Aeschylus (525-456 BC) was born near Athens He wrote more than seventy plays of which seven have survived all translated for Penguin Classics The Supplicants The Persians Seven Against Thebes Prometheus Bound Agamemnon The Libation Bearers & The Eumenides If you enjoyed The Oresteia you might like Euripides' Medea & Other Plays also available in Penguin Classics' Conveys more vividly & powerfully than any of the ten competitors I have consulted the eternal power of this masterpiece a triumph' Bernard Levin' How satisfying to read at last a modern translation which is rooted in Greek feeling & Greek thought both the stature & the profound instinctive genius of Aeschylus are recognised' Mary Renault author of The King Must Die