The Oresteia: Agamemnon, the Libation-Bearers & the Furies (41 page)

ACHERON: one of the rivers of Hades.

AEGEUS: a legendary king of Athens and father of Theseus.

AEGISTHUS: the son of Thyestes, paramour of Clytaemnestra, usurper of Agamemnon’s throne.

AGAMEMNON: the son of Atreus, brother of Menelaus, husband of Clytaemnestra and father of Iphigeneia, Orestes and Electra; commander-in-chief of the Greek expeditionary forces sent to Troy, and king of Argos.

ALTHAIA: the daughter of Thesdos and Eurythemis, who murdered her son Meleager; see
LB
n. 587.

AMAZONS: a nation of women warriors from near the Black Sea, famous as archers and the invaders of Athens; see
E
n. 697ff.

APOLLO: the god whose provinces include music, poetry and the arts of government and civilization, invoked in the
Oresteia
as the god of archery, roads, healing, prophecy, purification and the law; see Introduction, pp. 17, 36ff., 53f., 56, 72ff., 79ff.;
A
notes 107, 1218;
E
notes 65f., 726ff.

AREOPAGUS: the supreme court of Athens, named for its location on the Crag of Ares; see
E
n. 696ff.

ARES: the god of battle and the warlike spirit.

ARGOS: a city on the Argive Plain and, throughout the trilogy, the seat of Agamemnon’s empire, hence the name given to a district in the north-eastern Peloponnese, or more generally, to Greece itself; see A introductory n.

ARTEMIS: the sister of Apollo, goddess of the hunt, wild creatures, childbirth and fertility; see
A n.
135ff.

ATHENA: the daughter of Zeus and patron goddess of Athens; the virgin warrioress and protectress of the city, whose provinces include the arts of government, the handicrafts of women, skills in general and wisdom; see Introduction, pp 23, 76ff.

ATREUS: the son of Pelops and father of Agamemnon and Menelaus, the Atreidae.

AULIS: a district on the narrow strait between Euboea and the Greek mainland where the Greek fleets gathered before embarking for Troy and where Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigeneia.

BEACONS: for locations of the stations, see A notes 281ff. through 309.

CALCHAS: the seer of the Greek armies.

CASSANDRA: daughter of Hecuba and Priam, king of Troy; priestess of Apollo, abducted to Argos by Agamemnon and murdered with him by Clytaemnestra; see Introduction, pp. 35ff.;
A
notes 1145, 1196, 1218, 1279, 1297.

CLYTAEMNESTRA : the daughter of Leda and Tyndareos, king of Sparta; wife of Agamemnon and paramour of Aegisthus, mother of Iphigeneia, Orestes and Electra, and queen of Argos.

DAULIS: a district in Phokis on the road from Thebes to Delphi; see
LB
n. 657.

DELOS: the island birthplace of Apollo and one of his chief sanctuaries.

DELPHIC ORACLE. the supreme oracular seat of Greece, originally sacred to Mother Earth but later presided over by Apollo. It is located on the southern slopes of Parnassus and towers above the Gulf of Corinth.

DELPHOS: the eponymous hero of Delphi.

DIONYSUS: the son of Semele and Zeus, god of fertility, wine and ecstasy; see Introduction, pp. 17ff , 52f., 70, 72f., 94.

DOG STAR:
Sirius
(from
Seirios,
the Scorcher), the brightest star in the heavens, whose summer appearances are associated with madness and intense heat.

ELECTRA: the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, sister of Orestes and Iphigeneia.

ERECHTHEUS: an early king of Athens whose house, called the Erechtheum, was on the Acropolis.

FATES: the
Moirai
(‘the Apportioners’), shadowy but potent figures who ultimately controlled men’s destiny. How far their powers and those of Zeus overlapped was a major problem in Greek religion and formed part of the theme of Aeschylus’
Prometheus
trilogy; see Introduction, pp. 85ff.;
A
n. 131,
E
notes 335, 972, 1055.

FURY: Vengeance personified; see Introduction, throughout.

GERYON: a mythical giant with three bodies and three lives; see
A
n. 859.

GORGON: a fabulous female monster whose glance could turn a person into stone; see
LB
n. 818,
E
n. 51ff.

HADES: the lord of the underworld and arbitrator of the dead.

HARPIES: winged female demons; see
E
n. 51ff.

HELEN: the daughter of Zeus and Leda, half-sister of Clytaemnestra; her abduction by Paris produced the war between the Greeks and Trojans.

HEPHAISTOS: the god of fire and mechanical crafts.

HERA: the consort of Zeus, with whom she presides over marriage and its rites.

HERMES: the god of heralds in A, of messages and stratagems and the Escort of the Dead in LB; see
A
n. 505,
LB
notes 1, 126, 803;
E
n. 93.

INACHOS: the chief river of Argos.

IPHIGENEIA: the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, sister of Orestes and Electra.

IXION: traditionally the first Greek to slay a kinsman; see
E
notes 455, 726ff.

KRONOS: the youngest son of Sky and Earth, leader of his brother Titans against the Olympians, and father of Zeus, deposed by him in turn.

LEDA: the mother of Helen, Castor and Pollux, by Zeus, and of Clytaemnestra by Tyndareos, king of Sparta.

MENELAUS: the son of Atreus, brother of Agamemnon, husband of Helen.

MOTHER EARTH: the offspring of Chaos, husband of the Sky, mother of the Titans, and the original possessor of the shrine at Delphi.

NAVELSTONE : the
omphalos
at Delphi, supposed to mark the centre of the Earth.

NIGHT: born of Chaos, mother of the Day and the Furies.

ODYSSEUS: the son of Laertes, husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and king of Ithaca; see
A
n. 827.

ORESTES: the son of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, brother of Iphigeneia and Electra, in exile throughout the action of A but later the avenger of his father, the executioner of his mother and Aegisthus, and prince of Argos.

ORPHEUS: the legendary musician and singer; see
A
n. 1662ff.

PARIS: the son of Priam and Hecuba, prince of Troy, abductor of Helen.

PARNASSUS : the great mountain massif in Phokis, made sacred by the Muses and the oracle and temple of Apollo on its slopes.

PELOPS: son of Tantalus, ancestor of Atreus and Agamemnon.

PENTHEUS: the king of Thebes who rejected Dionysus and was torn in pieces by his mother and other followers of the god; see
E
n. 24.

PERSEPHONE: the daughter of Demeter and consort of Hades; see Introduction, pp. 71ff.

PERSEUS: the legendary hero of Argos who killed the Gorgon, Medusa; see
LB n.
818.

PHINEUS: a legendary king of Thrace and victim of the Harpies; see
E
n. 51ff.

PHOEBE: the Titaness generally associated with the moon, the grandmother of Apollo; see E n. 7.

PHOKIS: a region in central Greece along the Gulf of Corinth.

PLEIADES: a major constellation that sets in autumn; see
A
n. 8.

PLEISTHENES: an unidentified figure among the ancestors of Agamemnon; see
A
n. 1634.

PLEISTOS: a river that rushes below the heights of Delphi.

POSEIDON: the god of earthquakes, water and the sea; see Introduction, p. 94;
E
n. 27.

PRIAM: the king of Troy and father of Cassandra, Paris, Hector and many others.

PYLADES: the son of Strophios and prince of Phokis, comrade of Orestes.

PYTHIA: the priestess of Apollo at Delphi; see
E
n. 37f.

SCAMANDER: the chief river of the Trojan Plain.

SCYLLA: the legendary sea-witch of the
Odyssey
(see
A
n. 1244), or the daughter of Nisos and princess of Megara (see
LB
n. 597).

SCYTHIA: a region in South Russia inhabited by nomads who were renowned warriors and archers.

SIMOIS: the second river of the Trojan Plain.

STROPHIOS: a legendary king of Phokis and the father of Pylades; see
A
n. 869ff.,
LB
n. 661f.

TANTALUS: a Lydian king and founder of the line of Pelops, Atreus, Agamemnon, and Orestes. His Asian origin perhaps implied a streak of un-Greek brutality in him and his descendants.

THEMIS: Tradition, the Titaness whose province is established law and custom.

THESEUS: the great national hero of Athens; see
E
n. 413.

THRACE: a mountainous region north of Greece, in the eastern half of the Balkan peninsula.

THYESTES: the son of Pelops, brother of Atreus, father of Aegisthus, and invoker of the curse upon his brother’s house.

TROY: a city near the Aegean entrance to the Dardanelles, the capital of the Troad and the Trojans.

ZEUS: the son of Kronos, the father of the Olympian gods, and the most powerful among them. His spheres include hospitality and the rights of guests (Zeus
Xenios),
the possessions of the house (Zeus
Ktêsios
), the public assembly (Zeus
Agoraios),
rituals and their fulfilment (Zeus
Teleios
) - especially the ritual of marriage, which he oversees with his consort, Hera - the accomplishment of justice or revenge (Zeus
Dikêphoros
), the harmonization of the Olympian gods and the spirits of the dead (Zeus
Sôter
or Third Saving Zeus), and the governance of the universe, which was controlled to some extent by Fate as well; see Introduction, throughout;
A
notes 161, 245, 796;
E
notes 210, 726ff., 983, 1055.

 

THE ODYSSEY
Homer
Introduction and Notes by Bernard Knox
Odysseus’ perilous ten-year voyage from Troy to his home in Ithaca is recounted
in a stunning new verse translation which “restores the original joys of the
performing bard,” (Paul Gray,
Time).
deluxe Penguin paperback ISBN 0-14-026886-3

 

THE ODYSSEY
is also available on audiocassette from Penguin Audiobooks (unabridged, read by Ian McKellen)
ISBN 0-14-086430-X

 

THE ILIAD
Homer
Introduction and Notes by Bernard Knox
Fagles combines his talents as poet and scholar in this elegant translation of the
stirring story of the Trojan War and the rage of Achilles.
“Astonishing . . . this should now become the standard translation for a new
generation.”—Peter Levi
Penguin Classics ISBN 0-14-044592-7
deluxe Penguin paperback ISBN 0-14-027536-3

 

THE ILIAD
is also available on audiocassette from Penguin Highbridge Audio (abridged, read by Derek Jacobi)
ISBN 0-453-00774-0

 

THE ORESTEIA
(Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides
)
Aeschylus
Introduction and Notes with W. B. Stanford
The only trilogy in Greek drama that survives from antiquity, the
Oresteia
takes
on new depth and power in Fagles’ acclaimed translation.
“Conveys more vividly and powerfully than any of the ten competitors I have
consulted the eternal power of this masterpiece . . . a triumph.”
—Bernard Levin
Penguin Classics ISBN 0-14-044333-9

 

THE THREE THEBAN PLAYS
(Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus)
Sophocles
Introduction and Notes by Bernard Knox
Fagles’ lucid translation captures the majesty of Sophocles’ masterwork.
“I know of no better modern English version.”
—Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Oxford University
Penguin Classics ISBN 0-14-044425-4