As the middle play of the Oresteia, the underappreciated status of Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers (LB) provides a particular challenge for the commentator. Yet M. has taken up this challenge with masterful skill, presenting LB as an innovative performance at the thematic and theatrical core of the entire tetralogy. Throughout this companion, M. also reintroduces LB as a play with considerable independent influence upon the imagination of spectators, vase painters and playwrights from the fifth century bc and into modernity. Through his deep yet accessible interpretation, M. invites his readers to a closer study of LB as an important drama in its own right.
Examining LB from the perspective of a stage director, M. organises the chapters of this companion around key issues of staging and its effect upon the audience. His commentary follows the basic songs, words and movements being enacted on the stage. While the first chapter introduces LB to the reader more generally, the other chapters carefully analyse the three major sections of the play: the recognition scene between Orestes and Electra, the great kommos and events leading to Orestes’ entry into the house and, finally, the quick succession of actions, song and stichomythia through which Orestes carries out the murder. M.’s blend of literary analysis and insight from performance studies makes this a nuanced reference text and a fresh starting point for further discussions.
Chapter 1, ‘Theatre and Theodicy’, introduces LB as a play functioning as the ‘heart of the Oresteia’ (p. 5) and a performance worthy of more study than it has received. M. begins with a basic overview of Aeschylus’ life and influence. Next, he outlines how an Athenian audience of the fifth century would grapple with the problematic issue of dikê in the Oresteia, a problem that reaches its climax with Orestes’ matricide. The genius and profundity of Aeschylus’ work, M. maintains, lies in how he dramatises unsolvable problems of justice while refusing to ‘sacrifice theatrical effectiveness to make a specific political point’ (p. 12). M. likewise highlights Aeschylus’ remarkable innovation with role assignments and actors’ interactions with the skênê throughout LB. Finally, after a brief survey of earlier myths, M. concludes this chapter by suggesting that Aeschylus’ LB improves upon the original story by giving Orestes’ act a ‘moral depth and theological dimension’ (p. 24) unprecedented in the mythological tradition.
In Chapter 2, ‘Reperformance and Recognition’, M. focuses on chorus and character; to do this, he not only analyses the opening scenes of LB, but he also surveys its reception and reperformance throughout history. In the first section, M. discusses elements of Aeschylus’ stagecraft that link the performance of LB 1–305 to the Agamemnon: for instance, the continuity of the playing space, the thymele as the tomb of Agamemnon, Orestes’ dedication and appeal to Hermes and, most significantly, the magnificent choreography of the chorus carrying choe and pouring libations to honour the dead. M. then lays out the visual progression of the recognition scene between Orestes and Electra, its foreboding of evil and Orestes’ ‘overdetermined’ (p. 44) decision to avenge his father, a choice that provokes the central moral dilemma of the Oresteia. The last two sections of this chapter discuss the reperformance and reception of the LB in Athenian vase paintings and performances during the 420s bc as well as in subsequent revenge tragedies throughout the centuries. The discussion of modern reception and ancient reperformances this early in the companion serves to further highlight the continuous, albeit unacknowledged, influence of LB as an independent play.
M. devotes Chapter 3, ‘Chorus and Character’, to a thorough examination of the kommos and the actions that immediately ensue. He not only enumerates seven key purposes for the kommos, but he draws out an intriguing diagram of its structure, which illuminates Aeschylus’ artistry in shifting the dramatic action from mourning to hopeful revenge. M. next explores Orestes’ and Electra's (attempted) necromancy, the interpretation of Clytemnestra's dream and the articulation of Orestes’ plans, which evoke approval from both Agamemnon and the gods Hermes and Apollo. During the following choral stasimon on evil women, Aeschylus’ staging brings the character of Orestes into even sharper relief. According to M., it is likely that Orestes foregoes any costume change but remains near the altar during the song; afterwards, he proceeds (with Pylades) directly to the skênê, an action mirroring the earlier, fatal entrance of his father Agamemnon. M. concludes his character analyses by discussing the verbal implications of xenoi in Orestes’ and Clytemnestra's exchange and by suggesting a possible re-entrance of Electra at LB 691–9. Such an entrance, M. argues, would further contrast Electra with her mother, lend greater character depth and emphasise the reversals being staged at this liminal moment of the performance.
Chapter 4, ‘Matricide and Madness’, proceeds through the last scenes of LB with a swiftness that parallels the disorienting pace of the dramatic action and, in content, exposes the terrifying tragedy of Orestes’ matricide. In commenting on the nurse Cilissa, M. underscores how her unexpected appearance refocuses and yet destabilises the spectators’ perceptions of Clytemnestra as the soon-to-be murdered mother. Aeschylus also sparks surprise and horror, M. argues, through the ring composition with which he structures the actions leading to the accomplishment of Orestes’ revenge; M. points out that, although vexed, the central stasimon (LB 783–837) ‘highlights the theological frame within which the Libation Bearers operates’ (p. 111). Within this structural framework, M. completes his theatrical examination of the ensuing events: the exceptionally short Aegisthus scene, the tension and violence between mother and son, and the startling interjection of the silent Pylades at the crucial moment of the murder. Finally, to re-emphasise the horror of these moments, M. concludes by noting the dramatic effects created by Orestes’ hesitation, by twelve chillingly comedic components of the play and by the (potentially visual) appearance of the Furies for a terrifying finish. By exposing these aspects of the tragic climax and conclusion, M. again validates the genius of Aeschylus’ LB.
M. effectively reintroduces LB as a remarkably innovative theatrical performance deserving greater attention by the scholarly community. M. gives a thorough overview of the play, illustrated with brilliant structural diagrams and tables useful for study. At the same time, like Aeschylus, M. leaves several unresolved questions and provocative suggestions for further consideration. These issues include: connections between LB and the Athesteria festival that featured libations with choe pitchers (pp. 25–6); the potential reperformance of LB and Eumenides together as an Oresteian ‘dilogy’ at the Lenaia festival (p. 51); the theatrical effects of Orestes’ and Electra's attempted (and failed?) conjuring of their father's ghost (p. 77); further implications of the ring composition structure (p. 109) and comedic elements (pp. 127–9) in the play as a whole; and the question of the Furies’ visual appearance at the end (pp. 137–8). These and other insightful propositions contribute to the overall excellence of M.’s companion, a must-read for anyone interested in Aeschylean tragedy.
