Agamemnon

Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, first produced in 458 BC, is the opening play in his Oresteian trilogy. Agamemnon returns home after the Trojan Wars with his concubine Cassandra and is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus. The ensuing blood feud continues until the third and final play, Eumenides, when peace is finally restored to the house of the Atreidae. It is a powerful and moving play which is difficult to interpret and which for a long time lacked an English edition.

Among the papers of the late J.D. Denniston was a draft of a commentary on the play. The late D.L. Page prepared this authoritative edition (first published in hardback in 1957) from this draft, adding the critical text and introduction, and taking into account E. Fraenkel’s major commentary. This edition, always intended by Denniston for sixth formers and undergraduates, guides the reader through the text with a lively and erudite commentary and thought-provoking introduction. There is also a brief account of the transmission of the text and the metres that appear in the play.

(from back cover)