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Aeschylus

The Oresteia

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Cover of The Oresteia, translated by Robert Fagles
Best for most

Robert Fagles · 1975

Fagles's Oresteia flows — understandable and dramatic, the recommended way in for a first reader, with his own substantial introduction. The trilogy's terror and strangeness come through. This is where I'd start.

Cover of The Oresteia, translated by Richmond Lattimore
Most literal

Richmond Lattimore · 1953

Richmond Lattimore stays very close to Aeschylus's dense, knotty Greek. Admirers prize the fidelity; others find the English stiff and hard to scan. The choice if you want the shape of the original over smoothness.

Cover of The Oresteia, translated by Oliver Taplin
Newest

Oliver Taplin · 2018

Oliver Taplin's 2018 version reads like a working stage-script — fast, urgent, built to be spoken. The freshest option if you want the plays as living theater rather than a monument.

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