Review (PDF) The Complete Aeschylus: Volume I: The Oresteia: 1 (Greek Tragedy In New Translations)
Based on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly re-create the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations series offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order to evoke the poetry of the originals.Aeschylus' Oresteia, the only ancient tragic trilogy to survive, is one of the great foundational texts of Western culture. It begins with Agamemnon, which describes Agamemnon's return from the Trojan War and his murder at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra, continues with her murder by their son Orestes in Libation Bearers, and concludes with Orestes' acquittal at a court founded by Athena in Eumenides. The trilogy thus traces the evolution of justice in human society from blood vengeance to the rule of law, Aeschylus' contribution to a Greek legend steeped in murder, adultery, human sacrifice, cannibalism, and endless intrigue. This new translation is faithful to the strangeness of the original Greek and to its enduring human truth, expressed in language remarkable for poetic intensity, rich metaphorical texture, and a verbal density that modulates at times into powerful simplicity. The translation's precise but complicated rhythms honor the music of the Greek, bringing into unforgettable English the Aeschylean vision of a world fraught with spiritual and political tensions.
File Size: 1122 KB
Print Length: 308 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (January 4, 2011)
Publication Date: January 4, 2011
Sold by: Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B004WN4WFK
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray: Not Enabled
Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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These plays are among the founding documents of Western Civilization, dramatizing the movement from bloody tribal revenge to a community of justice based on law. A good translation is essential to understanding them, and these translations are good.Compare the first lines of the Agamemnon from the older Lattimore version published by the University of Chicago:"I ask the gods some respite from the weariness of this watchtime measured by years I lie awake elbowed upon the Atriedaes' roof dogwise to mark the grand processionals of all the stars of night burdened with winter and again with heat for men. dynasties in their shining blazoned on the air, these stars, upon their wane and when the rest arise."with the same lines from that of Alan Shapiro in this Oxford University Press volume:"I beg the gods to deliver me at last from this hard watch I've kept now for a year upon the palace roof of the Atreidae, dog-like, snout to paws, night after long night, studying the congress of the stars, the unignorable bright potentates that bring down through the night sky to us here below, the summer now, and now the winter, eternal even as they wane and rise."I don't know which version is more faithful to the original, although I understand that Ancient Athenian Greek is so different from Modern English that any attempt at translation is highly problematic, some would even say impossible. Still, most of us aren't going to learn Ancient Greek, so if we are to read these plays at all we need translations, approximate as they may be.
The Complete Aeschylus: Volume I: The Oresteia: 1 (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) The Complete Aeschylus: Volume I: The Oresteia (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) Greek: Greek Recipes - The Very Best Greek Cookbook (Greek recipes, Greek cookbook, Greek cook book, Greek recipe, Greek recipe book) GREEK MYTHOLOGY: Greek Gods Of Ancient Greece And Other Greek Myths - Discovering Greek History & Mythology - 3rd Edition - With Pics (Greece, Greek, Egyptian ... Greek History, Mythology, Myths Book 1) Aeschylus II: The Oresteia (The Complete Greek Tragedies) Aeschylus I: Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides (The Complete Greek Tragedies) (Vol 1) Aeschylus: Agamemnon (Cambridge Translations from Greek Drama) The Oresteia of Aeschylus: A New Translation by Ted Hughes Aeschylus I: Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides Antigone (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) Oedipus the King (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) Bakkhai (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) Ion (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) Classical Tragedy - Greek and Roman: Eight Plays in Authoritative Modern Translations Greek Tragedies, Volume 2 The Libation Bearers (Aeschylus), Electra (Sophocles), Iphigenia in Tauris, Electra, & The Trojan Women (Euripides) Aeschylus I: The Persians, The Seven Against Thebes, The Suppliant Maidens, Prometheus Bound (The Complete Greek Tragedies) All That You've Seen Here Is God: New Versions of Four Greek Tragedies Sophocles' Ajax, Philoctetes, Women of Trachis; Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound (A Vintage original) The Pocket Oxford Greek Dictionary : Greek-English English-Greek Greek Tragedies 1: Aeschylus: Agamemnon, Prometheus Bound; Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Antigone; Euripides: Hippolytus Greek Tragedy (Penguin Classics)
