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Agamemnon, a performance history

The APGRD's second interactive/multimedia ebook draws on a unique collection of archival material and research at the APGRD and beyond; using images, film, bespoke interviews with creative practitioners and academics, and digital objects to explore the reception history of Aeschylus' Agamemnon.

Download options

The ebook is currently free to download only as an Apple Book, either as a full version or as three instalments, each comprised of two related chapters. An EPUB version for non-Apple devices will follow.

Image:
An image of a fan of six illustrated playing cards depicting scenes from Aeschylus' Agamemnon
Agamemnon chapter-navigation cards
Illustrator Thom Cuschieri created navigational images in the style of playing cards, for each of the ebook's six chapters: Beginnings; Whose Play; Homecoming; Lyric; Endings; Iconography.

Choose your own path...

The ebook explores the performance history of Agamemnon through six thematic chapters which can be read in any order. Hyperlinks are woven throughout the book, allowing readers to jump across chapters via related content.

The first chapter, Beginnings, focusses on the tragedy's opening scene and explores how the play has been linked to ‘origins’ and ‘beginnings’. Aeschylus is sometimes dubbed the ‘father of tragedy’ and Agamemnon is the first play in a trilogy that has often been staged at the founding of dramatic festivals and institutions round the world. The second chapter, Whose Play? shows how Agamemnon himself has rarely been the dominant focus of his name-play. Rather it is his wife, Clytemnestra, who controls events and who has fascinated playwrights and audiences across millennia.

Chapter three, Homecoming asks what kind of character is Agamemnon? How has his masculinity been understood at different times and in different places? How easy is homecoming for soldiers after a war? The fourth chapter, Lyric focuses on the enslaved Trojan Priestess, Cassandra and the Chorus of old men from Argos. Both have a central role in this play and yet have little or no power to make things happen. The Choral Odes and Cassandra's prophetic song have proved both a challenge and a cue for enormous creativity in many modern productions.

Chapter five, Endings considers what it has meant to stage Agamemnon as a single play, when it is itself only the first play in a trilogy. Is there closure? How effective is this as a stand-alone play? Just as the opening scene of the tragedy has resonated across time and place, so too has the final scene of violence and political insurrection. 

The final chapter, Iconography looks at the strong iconographic tradition surrounding this play - from Agamemnon's chariot to the bath in which he is murdered, the carpet of tapestries to Clytemnestra's axe. The chapter concludes with a gallery showcasing how modern productions draw on the tragedy's iconic moments.

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A screenshot of page 94 of the Agamemnon ebook, titled Cassandra in the long nineteenth century and showing various pictorial versions of the character of Cassandra.
Inside the Agamemnon ebook
The ebooks are filled with audio and video interviews with actors and scholars, digital maps and images, as well as digitised material from the archive collections of the APGRD and beyond

For a further look inside the Agamemnon ebook, see the slideshow at the top of its APGRD Publications page.

The Medea ebook

Image:
An illustration of a tarot-style playing card depicting a woman wearing a crown, holding up a golden fleece, with a ship in the background

Inspired by the idea of a digital exhibition, our first multimedia/interactive ebook explores the performance history of Euripides' Medea and is available to download for free as either an Apple Book or as an EPUB.