Aeschylus, The Eumenides

Anthony Podlecki (University of British Columbia)

Ed. by Vaios Liapis, Open University of Cyprus
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.1: Greek Writing and Culture: Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial, -800--100.
Vol. editors: Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto), Anca Dan (École Practique de Hautes Études PSL), Martine Diepenbroek (University of Johannesburg), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Victoria Fendel (University of Oxford), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University), Laura Swift (The Open University), Guendalina Daniela Maria Taietti (University of Liverpool)

Dates

First circulation or publication -458

Places

Ancient Greece (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play
Tragedy

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We are extremely fortunate that this play, the concluding work of the trilogy

Oresteia

, which was produced by the Athenian playwright Aeschylus in 458 B.C.E., survives. Had the title alone survived, we should have been almost totally in the dark about the play’s content.

Eumenides

means “Well-Wishers” (or “The Kindly Ones”, as is the more conventional rendering), but beyond the inference – not at all inevitable – that, coming after

Choephoroi

(

Libation-Bearers

), it had something to do with the fate of the ill-starred kingdom of Argos and its surviving royals, Prince Orestes and his sister Electra, we would probably have been unable to guess why these “Benevolent Ones”, who, as was customary with these group-titles, presumably constituted the Chorus, were being given that…

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2745 words

Citation: Podlecki, Anthony. "The Eumenides". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 April 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=922, accessed 22 November 2024.]

Aeschylus, The Eumenides

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