THE HOUSE OF ATREUS

Contents

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Of the life of Aeschylus, the first of the three great masters of Greektragedy, only a very meager outline has come down to us. He was born atEleusis, near Athens, B. C. 525, the son of Euphorion. Before he wastwenty-five he began to compete for the tragic prize, but did not win a victoryfor twelve years. He spent two periods of years in Sicily, where he died in456, killed, it is said, by a tortoise which an eagle dropped on his head.Though a professional writer, he did his share of fighting for his country, andis reported to have taken part in the battles of Marathon, Salamis, andPlataea.

Of the seventy or eighty plays which he is said to have written, only sevensurvive: “The Persians,” dealing with the defeat of Xerxes at Salamis; “TheSeven against Thebes,” part of a tetralogy on the legend of Thebes; “TheSuppliants,” on the daughters of Danaüs; “Prometheus Bound,” part of a trilogy,of which the first part was probably “Prometheus, the Fire-bringer,” and thelast, “Prometheus Unbound”; and the “Oresteia,” the only example of a completeGreek tragic trilogy which has come down to us, consisting of “Agamemnon”,“Choephorae” (The Libation-Bearers), and the “Eumenides” (Furies).

The importance of Aeschylus in the development of the drama is immense. Beforehim tragedy had consisted of the chorus and one actor; and by introducing asecond actor, expanding the dramatic dialogue thus made possible, and reducingthe lyrical parts, he practically created Greek tragedy as we understand it.Like other writers of his time, he acted in his own plays, and trained thechorus in their dances and songs; and he did much to give impressiveness to theperformances by his development of the accessories of scene and costume on thestage. Of the four plays here reproduced, “Prometheus Bound” holds anexceptional place in the literature of the world. (As conceived by Aeschylus,Prometheus is the champion of man against the oppression of Zeus; and theargument of the drama has a certain correspondence to the problem of the Bookof Job.) The Oresteian trilogy on “The House of Atreus” is one of the supremeproductions of all literature. It deals with the two great themes of theretribution of crime and the inheritance of evil; and here again a parallel maybe found between the assertions of the justice of God by Aeschylus and by theHebrew prophet Ezekiel. Both contend against the popular idea that the fathershave eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge; both maintainthat the soul that sinneth, it shall die. The nobility of thought and themajesty of style with which these ideas are set forth give this triple dramaits place at the head of the literary masterpieces of the antique world.

AGAMEMNON

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

A WATCHMAN
A HERALD
CHORUS
AGAMEMNON
AEGISTHUS
CLYTEMNESTRA
CASSANDRA

The Scene is the Palace of Atreus at Mycenae. In front of the Palace standstatues of the gods, and altars prepared for s