... and Prometheus the Fire-Bringer. The remaining three plays, Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides, produced in 458 BC, form the trilogy known as the Oresteia, or story of Orestes. In Agamemnon, one of the greatest works of dramatic literature, King Agamemnon returns home from Troy and is treacherously murdered by his faithless wife Clytemnestra. In the second play ... , Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, returns to Argos and avenges the murder of his father by slaying his mother and her paramour Aegisthus. This act of matricide is punished by the ... avenging goddesses, the Eri...

• Word Count: 2321
• Approx Pages: 9

... , the first play, Clytemnestra kills the King brutally, heartlessly, inspired by her angry, vengeful nature, her lust for power, and, quite probably, the hellish Furies. In The Libation Bearers, however, Orestes? actions, while they are still partially motivated by revenge, are also instructed by the god Apollo. After all, he does not actually go to kill his mother until after he ... shrill prophecies?/?foretold storms of suffering if I did not avenge my father's killers. (L.B. 269-273) Finally, in The Furies, a jury of the wisest citizens of Athens decides the fate of Orestes. This time...

• Word Count: 1317
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School