【古典学新书】埃斯库罗斯：阿伽门农 新英译本

Aeschylus: Agamemnon

Published on28 October 2024480 pages

Aris & Phillips Classical TextsAncient History & Classics

ISBN:9781800856288 (Hardcover) |eISBN:9781800855083 (PDF) |eISBN:9781835538388 (ePub)

Edith Hall

ABOUT THIS BOOK

The first revenge drama, the first great female role, the first tragedy set on the cusp between public space and private household, the first part of the only surviving tragic trilogy—the foundational status of Aeschylus’ monumental Agamemnon cannot be over-estimated. Agamemnon’s entry on a chariot, arrogant passage over purple carpets, death in the bath and display as a corpse, along with the inspired prophetess, his war booty Cassandra, make this tragedy visually electrifying; the poetry, especially in Clytemnestra’s orations and the choral odes, in magniloquence and vivid imagery surpasses anything in classical literature. This new edition, with Greek text, critical introduction, accessible translation and detailed commentary gives consistent support in construing the ancient Greek and appreciating the aural power of Aeschylus’ language and rhythms. It draws on cutting-edge scholarship to provide unprecedented illumination of sociological and performative aspects of his play: the chorus’ struggle to maintain representation for ordinary Argives, the different responses of Clytemnestra and Cassandra to the inequities imposed on them by patriarchy, the sensory experience of poetry imbued with prompts to taste, smell, touch and hearing as well as vision, the challenges and opportunities presented by the text to directors and actors both ancient and modern, and the thrilling control of the tragic medium by its undisputed founding father.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Introduction

1. A Play about Pain

2. Political and Historical Context

3. The Argive Constitution in Agamemnon

4. Plot, Temporality and Structure

5. Characters

5.i The Watchman

5.ii The Chorus

5.iii Clytemnestra

5.iv The Herald

5.v Agamemnon

5.vi Cassandra

5.vii Aegisthus

6 Religion

6.i Gods

6.ii Ritual Performed and Evoked

6.iii The Erinyes and the Family Curse

7. Sensory Theatre

8. Imagery and Spectacle

8.i Verbalisation to Visualisation

8.ii Legal Language

8.iii Mammalian Reproduction

8.iv More Fauna

8. v The House

9. Soundscapes, Voices, Vocality

10. Style and Language

11. Sources and Antecedents

12. The Afterlife and Influence of Agamemnon in Antiquity

13. Reception from the Renaissance to the 21st Century

14. Texts and Commentaries

15. Conclusion

Greek Text and English Translation

Commentary

Metrical Appendix

Abbreviations and Bibliography

Index

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

REVIEWS

Edith Hall is Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History, Durham University. Her many publications include A People’s History of Classics: Class and Greco-Roman Antiquity in Britain 1689-1939 (with Henry Stead, Routledge 2020); Aristotle’s Way (Penguin Random House 2018); Greek Tragedy: Suffering under the Sun (Oxford University Press 2010) and Aeschylus: The Persians (Aris & Phillips Classical Texts 1996).

https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781800856288