Χοηφόροι
Libation Bearers
Aeschylus · Oresteia, second play · City Dionysia, 458 BC · first prize
Orestes comes home to avenge his father and kills his mother.
Persons, in order of appearance
- Ορ.Orestes
- Χο.Chorus
- Ηλ.Electra
- Οι.Servant
- Κλ.Clytaemestra
- Τρ.Nurse
- Αι.Aegisthus
- Πυ.Pylades
Translations
- H. W. Smythprose · 1922 · aligned by line · with Smyth's Greek
- E. D. A. Morsheadverse · 1881–1908 · aligned by speech · with Murray's Greek
- Erdman, rev. Nagy (Kosmos Society)prose · aligned by speech · with Smyth's Greek
- Ian Johnston (VIU)verse · aligned by speech · with Murray's Greek
Greek texts
Cite as Aesch. Cho. 1–1076
Full synopsis (tells the ending)
Years later Orestes, grown up in exile, comes back to Argos with Pylades and meets his sister Electra at their father's grave, where Clytemnestra has sent her with offerings to quiet a bad dream. Apollo has ordered Orestes to avenge Agamemnon. Brother and sister plan the killing, and Orestes goes to the palace door as a stranger bringing news of his own death. He kills Aegisthus, then his mother. The Furies appear to him alone, and he runs.
Drawing: Line drawing after the 1843 plate of a red-figure stamnos by the Copenhagen Painter, formerly Berlin F 2184, now Moscow, Pushkin Museum (Gerhard, Etruskische und kampanische Vasenbilder, Taf. XXIV); cut out and retraced.