The Oresteia

These plays embody Aeschylus’ concerns with the destiny and fate of both individuals and the state, all played out under the watchful eye of the gods.

In Agamemnon, the warrior who defeated Troy returns to Argos and is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia before the Trojan War.

In The Libation Bearers (Choephoroi), Orestes, Agamemnon’s som, avenges his father by murdering his mother.

In The Furies (Eumenides), Orestes flees to Delphi, pursued by the divine avengers (Erinyes) of his mother. After being purified by Apollo, he makes his way to Athens and is there tried (and acquitted) at the court of Areopagus.