Oresteia
by Aeschylus · first published 1845
12mentions
6recommended by
11HN commenters
2011–2026first – last mentioned
55% recommend36% neutral9% critical
The Oresteia -- Agamemnon, Choephori, and The Eumenides -- depicts the downfall of the house of Atreus: after King Agamemnon is murdered by Clytemnestra, their son, Orestes, is commanded by Apollo to avenge the crime by killing his mother, and he does so, bringing on himself the wrath of the Furies and the judgment of Athens. Together, the three plays are one of the major achievements of Greek antiquity. - Publisher.
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I can narrow it down to a top 4, if that's permissible. * The Man Who Was Thursday, by GK Chesterton * The Oresteia, by Aeschylus * Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand * The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan
on “Ask HN: What is the best book you read in 2020?” ↗…academic literary study, we don't spend a lot of time talking about which books are "better" than others. But personally? I'll just never get over that one. I suppose I'd have to add Aeschylus' The Oresteia (the oldest of the ancient Greek tragedies we possess, and the only complete trilogy). I was a truly terrible high school student, who I think just barely got into college. Reading The Oresteia as a…
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗And you would, validly, be deserving of the same retaliation by any children of the exec, who you barbarously forced to watch the execution. You should read the Oresteia, just for the small chance you might suddenly grasp the ideal of justice. Arguing for lynch mob vengeance shows you are completely inept at managing your feelings of righteous anger, potentially sociopathic…
on “A pound of flesh: how Cisco's "unmitigated gall" derailed one man's life” ↗Back stories help, and so with the Odyssey it really helps to have read the Oresteia (yes, Aeschylus is writing later) before the Odyssey, in my opinion, this helps more than having read the Iliad. It helps because the Telemachy (the first four books with Telemachus) compares Telemachus…
on “The Odyssey – Alexander Pope translation (1725)” ↗…What you choose here again depends on what you're into. There's politics, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, etc. History? Herodotus -> Thucydides -> Xenophon (The Landmark series for all 3) Theater? Oresteia, Medea, the Theban Cycle. Mythology? Hesiod.
on “Why we should all learn from the ancient Greeks” ↗Oresteia - Aeschylus: is great read!
on “Ask HN: What is the best book you read in 2020?” ↗…justice is its effect, and by effect we're not talking about its effect on the accused but on the rest of society. The political science class I took back in college (over 20 years ago now) began with the Oresteia trilogy, by Aeschylus. The issue there is between "frontier justice" (actually, blood feuds) and civil justice (justice of the polis). The message there is that there can be no civilization unless the…
on “Don't let social media think for you” ↗…extremely fragmentary relative to what we know was written. Same goes for drama. Discovering any additional ancient play would be completely staggering. We possess only one complete trilogy (Aeschylus' Oresteia) and only one complete satyr play -- an important genre, since it may represent a holdover from earlier forms of the worship of Dionysius that led to what we think of as ancient drama. It's an awfully…
on “Ancient Scrolls Blackened by Vesuvius Are Readable at Last” ↗…expectations, people turn to other means to defend themselves and enact retribution. This is human nature and the entire story of our history. Aeschylus even wrote about it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oresteia
on “Twitter hides Donald Trump tweet for “glorifying violence”” ↗I'd love to know some of the things you find interesting or meaningful about the Oresteia - I read it as a freshman in college and was never particularly impressed, but these days I'm becoming more and more interested in revisiting ancient literature. What about it left such a mark on you?
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗Aeschylus wrote The Oresteia when he was 65. I believe Sophocles wrote Oedipus the King at age 68, and continued writing through Electra (probably) and Philoctetes (which took first prize in Athens) in his mid- to late-80s.
on “Old Age and Creativity” ↗…the USA and everybody else is our own energy sufficiency trending into green energy. Two, Israel and surrounding countries get they're act together themselves. Own you're own liberty. Like Aeschylus' Oresteia the furies are out of control. Good lord, we have messed around much too much in the middle east.
on “Iran attack wipes out 17% of Qatar's LNG capacity for up to five years” ↗