Reading Aeschylus' The Oresteia

First:
Greek tragedies were performed as trilogies, so The Oresteia refers to all three plays in the trilogy: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides.  "Oresteia" refers to the character Orestes.

Second:
The first play, Agamemnon, has an ancient structure and is thus very confusing and strange. It's a glimpse into the ancient Greek mind and religion.  For this reason I usually only ask students to quickly skim the first ten or twenty pages to get the gist of what's happening and why. Despite its title, this play centers on Clytemnestra, and we're interested in how Aeschylus interprets the death of Agamemnon as told (over and over again!) in The Odyssey.

The second play, The Libation Bearers, reads like a very modern play.  It's easy to read and has the most action, so read it all. This play centers on Orestes and how he reacts to what his mother did in the first play, and why he reacts that way.

The third, final play, The Eumenides, is mainly a political treatise and is therefore really, really boring. Just read the first five or so pages to understand what has happened to Orestes after the second play, and why it has happened.  The rest of the play resolves the original conflict in exceptionally boring ways, which are most humanely just summarized in class.

Third:
For who knows what reason the good folks at Norton now only include the first play.  This is stupid and I hate them. The trilogy makes little sense without dipping into all three plays and, like I said above, the first play is a pain to read.  You can therefore read the second and third plays here: The Libation Bearers  and  The Eumenides