The Eumenides

*Includes pictures of the famous Greek playwrights and Aeschylus’ characters 

*Includes Table of Contents

Along with Sophocles and Euripides, Aeschylus (circa 524-455 B.C.) is one of the triumvirate of Ancient Greek playwrights responsible for much of the establishment of Western drama as it exists today. Aeschylus was the first whose work survived and is credited as the Father of Tragedy, though the other two are probably better known in the West today. He was famous even among his contemporaries; Aristotle mentions how he revolutionized plays by creating more characters and having them interact with each other to produce conflict. 

Some of the Ancient Greeks’ most famous characters are famous because of Aeschylus, none more so than Orestes. Aeschylus is believed to have written nearly 100 plays, but less than 10 survived, chief among them being the trilogy known as The Oresteia, consisting of the three tragedies Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides. He’s also credited for Prometheus Bound, though the authorship of that one is still in dispute. 

The final play in the trilogy, The Eumenides, tells the story of Orestes being consumed by the Furies after killing his mother to avenge his father’s death. Orestes, Apollo, and the Furies go before judges near Athens to determine whether Orestes' killing of his mother, Clytemnestra, makes him guilty of murder. This edition of Aeschylus’s The Eumenides is specially formatted with a Table of Contents and is illustrated with pictures of the famous Ancient Greek playwrights, characters from the play, and more.