Greek Myth and History: The Oresteia of Aeschylus

Wednesday, February 12 at 8 pm
 

Greek Myth and History: The Oresteia of Aeschylus

Lillian Doherty – Emerita Professor of Classics, University of Maryland

In-Person at the Bender JCC / 6125 Montrose RD – Rockville, MD 20852

Greek myths look timeless to today’s audiences, but in ancient Greece they were constantly being retold in new ways to please, inspire, or even unsettle their contemporary audiences. As the Greeks had no canon of scripture, their poets had considerable freedom to adapt their myths and explore their meanings.

This presentation is focused on one especially significant example of this dynamic: the historical, cultural, and religious context of the fifth century BCE, in which the dramatist Aeschylus produced his Oresteia trilogy about the murder of Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, and; the foundation of the Areopagus, the law court that tried cases of homicide in Athens.