Aeschylus, Choephori [The Libation-Bearers]

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

Resources

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This, the second drama in Aeschylus’

Oresteia

trilogy which was produced in 458 B.C.E., derives its name from the chorus of slave women who are bringing libations to Agamemnon’s grave as the play opens. Some considerable time has elapsed since the events dramatized in the first play of the trilogy,

Agamemnon

: the return from the Trojan campaign of the victorious commander of the Greek forces only to be lured into his palace and there treacherously slain by his adulterous wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Agamemnon’s cousin Aegisthus. In the earlier play Clytemnestra had made a lame excuse to her perplexed husband for the absence of their son Orestes: she had claimed she had had to spirit him away to a relative in northern Greece for safekeeping. And twice towards the play’s close…

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1702 words

Citation: Podlecki, Anthony. "Choephori". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 April 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=370, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Aeschylus, Choephori [The Libation-Bearers]

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