The Oresteia

Aeschylus's epic Greek tragedy about a curse of blood and vengeance befalling a royal family, now repackaged for Union Square & Co.'s Signature Editions line.   

The only complete Greek trilogy to survive antiquity, The Oresteia chronicles the curse on the house of Atreus in the form of a vicious cycle of revenge. The first play, Agamemnon, follows the events of The Iliad, in which King Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to turn the tides of war against the Trojans. Upon his return, his wife, Queen Clytemnestra takes bloody vengeance for Iphigenia's death. The second play, Choephoroi, details the subsequent plot of Agamemnon's daughter, Electra, and son, Orestes, to depose and dispose of their mother. The final play, Eumenides, finds Orestes standing trial before the gods for committing the sin of matricide. 

An epic tale of justice and retribution through the lens of a broken family, The Oresteia is a tragic meditation between our familial obligations and the rules of a functioning society. This edition uses the 1928 translation by Gilbert Murray, known as the leading authority of Ancient Greek language and culture in the early twentieth century.