Book Description
Euripides' most important plays in one volume. Translations are taken in full text from other single volumes in the Focus Classical Library, by authors Michael Halleran, Anthony Podlecki, and Stephen Esposito, with notes and a new introduction. As with all Focus Classical Library titles, this anthology has been designed with the student of ancient drama in mind, including modern translations close to the original, informed by the latest scholarship, and with an extensive introduction, interpretative essay, and footnotes- all to the purpose of allowing the student to understand Greek drama, Greek mythology, and the context of Greek culture.
Customer Reviews:
Some significant cover damage, more than was described.......2007-09-27
I bought the book as "like new" so I had some high expectations. while my pages were unmarked and in order, the cover was bent, warped, dogeared, with rippled tears. Poor quality, and misfiled as "like new"
student review.......2004-12-08
I found all 4 plays in this book easy to read & easy to get into...this book was awesome & has made me a fan of Euripides.
Average customer rating:
- The Greatest Play Extant!
- Modernized, but Helpful
- Down to Earth Cosmicness
- One of the best translations out there
- Foolish Pentheus does not welcome Dionysius to Thebes
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Bacchae
Euripides
Manufacturer: Hackett Publishing Company
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ASIN: 0872203921 |
Book Description
Cambridge Translations from Greek Drama aims to eliminate the boundary between classics students and drama students. Euripides: Bacchae is the second in the series, and is aimed at college level students in North America. Features of the book include full commentary running alongside the translation, notes on pronunciation and a plot synopsis. Background information is also provided, along with suggestions to encourage discussion.
Customer Reviews:
The Greatest Play Extant!.......2007-06-23
Dionysos returns to the city of his birth, anxious for those honors which are due him. Pentheus, current ruler of Thebes and a cousin of our hero, doesn't accept him. Pentheus finds out he made a really bad mistake, when he ends up at the top of a pine tree! What more could you ask for? Euripides' masterpiece is a great as ever, and for the price it can't be beat.
Highest rating!
Modernized, but Helpful.......2006-11-16
This translation is more modernized, making for an easy read. The pages are set up with the translation on the right and explanations about concepts and themes on the left. The explanations are insightful and did benefit me. I would suggest this version for high school students or for leisure, but I suggest a more true to the text translation for higher education.
Down to Earth Cosmicness.......2005-07-04
After having my eyes opened by Willaims' translation, I decided to revisit Rudall's work. While Williams is poetic and prone to flights of fancy, Rudall is more down to earth, which is appropriate for a god like Dionysus.
Yes he is a god of frenzy, but he is also a god of dying. I think this is why dance is sacred to him. Dance feels gravity's pull, leaps against it, succumbs to it, and leaps yet again. Life that is tied to the earth tries to transcend it, and struggles until it falls exhausted to the ground, only to rise and struggle again. It ain't all about exaultation, but is also about falling down.
Williams' translation sometimes flies away like a flock of pretty birds. Rudall keeps pulling us back to earth, back to the mysteries, and helps us plumb the depths of this play's truths. He doesn't let a bunch of pretties get in the way. He makes sure we see Everything.
One of the best translations out there.......2003-06-11
I am a classical history major with a focus on poetry and drama. I have actually read Bacchae in Attic Greek and I have to say that I find this translation to be one of the most fluid and natural of any that I have ever read. I would highky recommend this to anyone looking for a well-written, very gory introduction to Greek theatre. This edition is also great for using as a script, wheras many translations are good only for reading. I just put up a production using this translation and my actors were very comfortable with the wonderful language Woodruff uses.
Foolish Pentheus does not welcome Dionysius to Thebes.......2003-05-01
"The Bacchae" was written by Euripides when he was living in Macedonia in virtual exile during the last years of his life. The tragedy was performed in Athens after his death. These factors are important in appreciate this particular Greek tragedy because such plays were performed at a festival that honored the Dionysus, and in "The Bacchae" he is the god who extracts a horrible vengeance. The tragedy clearly demonstrates the god's power, but it is a terrible power, which suggests less than flattering things about the deity himself.
Pentheus was the son of Echion and Agave, the daughter of Cadmus, the founder of the Royal House of Thebes. After Cadmus stepped down the throne, Pentheus took his place as king of Thebes. When the cult of Dionysus came to Thebes, Pentheus resisted the worship of the god in his kingdom. However, his mother and sisters were devotees of the god and went with women of the city to join in the Dionsysian revels on Mount Cithaeron. Pentheus had Dionysus captured, but the god drove the king insane, who then shackled a bull instead of the god. When Pentheus climbed a tree to witness in secret the reverly of the Bacchic women, he was discovered and torn to pieces by his mother and sisters, who, in their Bacchic frenzy, believed him to be a wild beast. The horrific action is described in gory detail by a messenger, which is followed by the arrival of the frenzied and bloody Agave, the head of her son fixed atop her thytsus.
Unlike those stories of classical mythology which are at least mentioned in the writings of Homer, the story of Pentheus originates with Euripides. The other references in classical writing, the "Idylls" written by the Syracusean poet Theocritus and the "Metamorphoses" of the Latin poet Ovid, both post-date"The Bacchae" by centuries. On those grounds, the tragedy of Euripides would appear to be entirely his construct, which would certainly give it an inherent uniqueness over his interpretations of the stories of "Medea," "Electra," and "The Trojan Women."
I see "The Bacchae" as being Euripides' severest indictment of religion and not as the recantation of his earlier rationalism in his old age. The dramatic conflicts of the play stem from religious issues, and without understanding the opposition on Appollonian grounds of Pentheus to the new cult readers miss the ultimate significance of the tragedy. This is not an indictment of Appollonian rationalism, but rather a dramatic argument that, essentially, it is irrational to ignore the irrational. As the fate of Pentheus amply points out, it is not only stupid to do so, it is fatal.
Book Description
In his play Bacchae, Euripides chooses as his central figure the god who crosses the boundaries among god, man, and beast, between reality and imagination, and between art and madness. In so doing, he explores what in tragedy is able to reach beyond the social, ritual, and historical context from which tragedy itself rises. Charles Segal's reading of Euripides' Bacchae builds gradually from concrete details of cult, setting, and imagery to the work's implications for the nature of myth, language, and theater. This volume presents the argument that the Dionysiac poetics of the play characterize a world view and an art form that can admit logical contradictions and hold them in suspension.
Customer Reviews:
Feels Very Nietzschean.......2007-01-16
I tend to agree with the previous review on this book, but I thought it worth mentioning that this text also feels VERY Nietzschean (from Birth of Tragedy). That is to say, Nietzsche's metaphysical principle of the Dionysian (in opposition to the Apollonian in BoT) seems to underwrite every chapter. This is fairly common, I suppose, since "Dionysian" is virtually synonymous with wild/ecstatic/irrational these days (largely because of Birth of Tragedy). But there. I said it. cheers.
so many ideas...so little time..........2003-09-09
Charles Segal is acknowledged as one of the foremost authorities on Euripides' Bacchae, and has written several billion other articles on this subject and other themes in Greek literature. So he knows a thing or two. Now this helps, as just about any idea that one has while reading the Bacchae can be found dissected and pondered over in this book. Segal brings together psychoanalytical theory, ritualistic (a la Seaford) theory, and many, many others. However...it takes a while to read and some parts take a while to digest. Overall, though, it is very comprehensive and a must for anyone contemplating studying this fantastic play. One complaint: the bibliographies are great, but the afterword (of the 1997 edition) mentions some texts which aren't at the back, and one which doesn't even seem to exist!!! Gah! But, nice one, Mr Segal...sets the bar.
Book Description
The plays of Euripides have stimulated audiences since the fifth century BC. This volume, containing Phoenician Women, Bacchae, Iphigenia at Aulis, Orestes, and Rhesus completes the new editions of Euripides in Penguin Classics.
Customer Reviews:
Masterpiece.......2007-02-08
Euripedes is one of the greatest dramatists in the history of the west, and the Bacchae is one of his most powerful and violent tragedies. It is the tale of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and intoxication, and of his betrayal on earth by Pentheus, the disbeliever. Despite the apparent revenge play that unfolds, the content and meaning of the work is not as clear as it seems. As the chorus declares: "The gods have many shapes. The gods bring many things to their accomplishment. And what was most expected has not been accomplished. But god has found his way for what man expected." It is Dionysus that suffers in the form of Pentheus. Dinoysus is the god of suffering, of excrement and moisture. The Bacchae is a major work of tragedy, and it established a lasting cult of Dionysus in the west, all the way up to Nietzsche and the Birth of Tragedy.
The Bacchae and The Women of Troy.......2004-07-17
I read Philip Vellacott's translation of The Bacchae and The Women of Troy by Euripides for a Greek and Roman mythology course this summer. Having no previous experience with Greek plays, I found that these two plays have universal themes that still resonate down to our time.
The Bacchae was written around 406 B.C. when Euripides was approximately seventy years old. The play is a dramatization of Dionysus' return to his birthplace Thebes where he exacts revenge, because he is not given proper recognition as a divinity. The main themes include the superiority of the gods and the importance of appeasement and justice. Pentheus, the protagonist, represents human failing to respect the gods so that he, along with the rest of society, is guilty of hubris. The story also illustrates that a complete state of ecstasy can be sanctioned through Dionysiac worship as long as it is controlled by the god. There is also a patriarchal element that outlines the gender hierarchy within the divine and mortal societies of the Greeks.
The Women of Troy highlights the trials and tribulations of three women who were most affected by the Trojan War. Andromache, Cassandra, and Helen all have stories of heartbreak to tell and Euripides tells their stories in a sympathetic fashion. This play was produced in 415 BC, and it was a part of a trilogy, but the other two plays have been lost. Historically, the play was performed after the massacre on the island of Melos when the Athenians severely punished the inhabitants who wanted to withdraw from the League. Scholars have seen the play as a condemnation of the massacre set outside the walls of Troy.
I enjoyed reading these plays, and when I have some free time I'd like to continue on and read Ion and Helen which are plays also found in this edition.
The Best of Euripides.......2002-01-22
Although it is probably best to read some of Euripides' other plays before this collection, this volume contains the best of his extant work (in my opinion). Besides the Bacchae there are two truly great plays centering around the tragic figure of Iphigenia (a daughter sacrificed to Artemis by Agamemnon so his fleet could set sail for Troy in Homer's Iliad).
Euripides has had his detractors over the centuries, but the oratory, emotion, and sensitivity of his tragedies sets him apart from Aeschylus and Sophocles (each of whom was also excellent for other reasons).
A review on the Iphigenia plays.......2001-03-31
Included in this volume are two plays whose heroine are Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. One takes place before the Trojan War, and the other after her siblings Orestes and Electra had killed their mother. In the first, "Iphigenia at Aulis", she was to be sacrificed in order to appease Artemis and allow the Greek army to sail to Troy. The plot is the hard decisions the sons of Atreus, Clytemnestra, and Iphigenia herself had to make, to see if the sacrifice would be worth it. It is interesting that this also sheds a new perspective on the return of Agamemnon after the war, beause Ighigenia told her mother not to be angry about it. Obviously, because the "Iphigenia among the Taurians" took place some eighteen years later, she didn't die, but I'll leave the conclusion a surprise. The second play takes place in a barbarian land, where Iphigenia is a pristess. Orestes, her brother, has come here in exile, and is to be sacrificed because he is Greek. AFter they recognize each other, they plan their escape, but will they make it? Read these plays to find out.
Book Description
A wholly fresh interpretation of the timeless play by a Nobel Prize-winning author.
Wole Soyinka has translated—in both language and spirit—a great classic of ancient Greek theater. He does so with a poet's ear for the cadences and rhythms of chorus and solo verse as well as a commanding dramatic use of the central social and religious myth. In his hands The Bacchae becomes a communal feast, a tumultuous celebration of life, and a robust ritual of the human and social psyche. "The Bacchae is the rites of an extravagant banquet, a monstrous feast," Soyinka writes. "Man reaffirms his indebtedness to earth, dedicates himself to the demands of continuity, and invokes the energies of productivity. Reabsorbed within the communal psyche he provokes the resources of nature; in turn he is replenished for the cyclic rain in his fragile individual potency." The blending of two master playwrights—Euripides and Soyinka—makes for an unforgettable experience.
Customer Reviews:
Soyinka's Translation Brings Diversity to the Ancient .......2007-01-15
Soyinka's translation of Sophocles' ancient work brings new life to the piece so many have already read. His version of the poem incorporates his opinions--as shaped while growing up in Africa--into the ancient work, and the translation brings a fresh take on the play. I advise it to be read alongside a "traditional" reading of the play if in a classroom setting, so that the ancient ideas are still upheld, while fresh ones are incorporated. A lovely work.
Feast!.......2002-10-03
As a conscript to the universal workings of myth as means to replenish the psychic and physical energies of the social group- Wole Soyinka's Bacchae was a satisfying read. This man of universal letters revised Euripides' drama only in so far as he infused it with his tribal, i.e. Yoruban flavor for the congruent deity of Orgun. The Dionysian trail throughout history haunted Solyinka as it has audiences and adherents. The playwright is not alone in ascribing the immortality of the piece to a universal need to purge the soul and soil with blood and excess. (Some say cannibalism. others, communion.) If not cyclically honored, if not worshipped and given this praise, the God will avenge mankind in horror and misery. Jung, after all, believed that Nazism was Orgun's revenge. The Bacchae and other rituals of excess, blood sacrifices and orphic trance are reenacted in every culture and as May Day, have become vastly diluted to the point of being hardly recognizable. Without the order of the religious, the encoded structure, the excess is uncontained and works against the social good. (60's idealists to Weathermen, deaths, etc.)
When it was first written, it reflected a socio-economic condition in Greece. Many of the towns had imported slave labor and left the lower classes without income. Further, the cheap labor allowed for expansion of the mercantile and industrial centers so that these people's lands were being lost. Then as in the rest of its rebirths, the cult of Dionysius came to life during economic displacement and forced migrations. In other words the return to the earth and the mad episodes of discontrol provided massive antidotes and a new source of power to the earthly loss of the same. As this has been a retrograde force througout history and touches the human need to rejoin the natural forces and cycles, to sacrifice and re-enact the drama of the 'scapegoat' the force of the drama collapses time and culture. Themes are rewoven throughout the continents and the social rituals. May Day is one, as are Mardi Gras and the other 'secret' and excessive- bloody- banquets that serve some unique human and social function- a blood letting, and a rebellion against the enforced 'mysteries' or 'laws' from the state system.
A brilliant playwright and literary lion. The play is a tour de force and will touch the repressed or forgotten in all of us.
a communion rite.......2001-01-31
I read Euripides' original The Bakkhai, and I found Soyinka's version to be a pretty faithful adaptation of it. Soyinka's Bacchae was written as an African-influence stage play, and though I never saw it performed I think it would work wonderfully. I would recommend this play for anyone interested in either the Classics, or just Greek/Roman tragedies in general.
Book Description
One of antiquity's greatest poets, Euripides has been prized in every age for the pathos, terror, and intellectual probing of his dramatic creations. This volume completes the new six-volume Loeb Classical Library edition of his plays.
In Bacchae, a masterpiece of tragic drama, Euripides tells the story of king Pentheus's resistance to the worship of Dionysus and his horrific punishment. Iphigenia at Aulis recounts the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter to Artemis, the price exacted by the goddess for favorable sailing winds. Rhesus (probably not by Euripides) dramatizes a pivotal incident in the Trojan War. David Kovacs presents a faithful and skillfully worded translation of the three plays, facing a freshly edited Greek text.
Customer Reviews:
A Good Bilingual Edition In Spite of a Few Errors.......2003-05-15
This is the sixth and final volume of the new LOEB edition of Euripides, edited and translated by David Kovacs. The new LOEB edition of Euripides is an enormous improvement over the old LOEB Euripides which it replaces. The old edition featured translations by A.S.Way which, in addition to being of the lowest possible literary quality,were often wildly unfaithful to the Greek original.
Fortunately, Kovacs, unlike Way, eschews any attempt at poetic inspiration and settles instead on translating Euripides' Greek into idiomatic English prose. Thus, anyone seeking a poetic translation of Euripides will be disappointed. However, anyone seeking a translation that is as faithful to the Greek as is possible without producing unidiomatic English will find Kovacs' translations illuminating. Kovacs' translations are particularly useful for the Greekless reader who wishes to see how poetic translations of Euripides compare with the original. Since many poetic translations often depart from the original quite drastically, Kovacs' translations can be used to determine how much of any given poetic translation comes from Euripides and how much comes from the translator.
Unfortunately, there is a downside to Kovacs' edition. Scattered throughout his translations are mistranslations as well as omissions of small scraps of the Greek.
For example, Kovacs translates line 1154 of the Bacchae (Greek: anaboasomen xymphoran) as "Let us dance for joy at the calamity". Here Kovacs has mistranslated "anaboasomen", which means "let us raise a shout". It seems that he accidentally read and translated the line as "anakhoreusomen xymphoran".
An example of omission of material from the Greek is to be found at line 420 of Iphigenia at Aulis, where Kovacs has the messenger say that, "...since they [Iphigenia and Clytaimestra] have had a long journey, they are refreshing their female feet...". For some reason, Kovacs has decided to leave "euruton para krenen" untranslated.
However, in spite of the occasional errors, Kovacs' edition and translation are an excellent addition to the LOEB series.
Book Description
The Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka has been hailed as `one of the finest poetic playwrights who have ever written in English' (Martin Esslin) and `a writer of genius' (Irish Times). The five plays in this collection are linked by their concern with the spiritual and the social, with belief and ritual as integrating forces for social cohesion. A Dance of the Forests (1960), a confrontation between the living and the dead, between history and reality; The Swamp Dwellers (1961), a tale of perilous dependence on the favour of the gods; The Strong Breed (1963), a play of expiation, all take place in Africa. So also does The Road (1965), `a rich and beautiful tragedy' (Times Literary Supplement) The most recent work, an adaptation of The Bacchae of Euripides (1973), remains set in and around the Thebes of ancient Greece, but draws deeply on Africa and the themes of the earlier plays in this book. In all these plays - whether concerned with the corruption of urban life or the power of superstition - Soyinka's language and imagination transcend the plays' immediate social contexts.
Customer Reviews:
Splendid.......2007-01-12
This, Volume 1 of the collected plays by Nigerian-born Wole Soyinka, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, contains, The Dance of the Forests, The Swamp Dwellers, The Strong Breed, The Road, and The Bacchae of Euripides (Soyinka's translation), but not The Lion and the Jewel, et al., as the Book Description by Amazon above mistakenly has it. Those plays are contained in Volume 2.
For this review I want to focus on The Road which Soyinka wrote in 1965. It is a quasi-realistic play which incorporates elements from the theater of the absurd. It is a comedy of sorts, not exactly a comedie noire, as the French say, but with similar satirical intent. It is also a deeply symbolic play.
The action comprises a single day, from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. The scene is a road-side shack presumably in Nigeria with a church close by, parts of which are also on stage. Part of the shack is a used parts store, and there is a dilapidated "mammy waggon" downstage and to the side opposite the church.
The central character is the PROFESSOR who stands for civilization and literacy. He has the power of the Word, and this power sustains him above his fellows. The PROFESSOR uses his literacy to forge documents such as driver's licenses. This too is part of his power. He is a contradictory character, and the Word is slippery and is not always an embodiment of the truth. The PROFESSOR stands in opposition to the Church and its Bishop.
SAMSON is the tout for the "No Danger, No Delay" lorry service. A tout is one who finds customers for the company, who seats them and maybe carries their luggage and flatters them. SAMSON is a practical man.
KOTONU is a driver who works with SAMSON. SALUBI is a driver trainee, a superstitious man. MURANO, whom Soyinka says represents the suspension of death, is a mute and personal servant to the PROFESSOR.
PARTICULARS JOE is a cop who always wants the "particulars" of the case. He apparently lives as much on the bribes he receives as he does on his salary. SAY TOKYO KID is the leader of the thugs and a driver.
The hangers-on and such serve as a musical and dancing chorus throughout the play. They sing dirges and act out tribal dances sometimes using the Mask which may hide the god of death, or as Soyinka has it, the Mask represents "a religious cult of flesh dissolution." Throughout there are references to Orgun, the tribal god of iron and war. During the Festival of the Drivers, there is the "Feast of Orgun, the Dog-eater" with the idea that the Road eats dogs that get in the way of the wheels of the lorries.
The characters in the play make their living from the road and its traffic. Some of them even chase after accidents and remove things of value from the vehicles--even the clothes of the dead--and sell them in the "Care of Accident Supply Store."
The central element is the road of course, the road like a river that runs through their lives and through their civilization, a road that lies flat and then, like a coiled snake, snaps up and brings to death by accident those who travel on its back. The road is also that which transforms the forest, as they take its timber, into the hard concrete and asphalt of the city. It is the road that transforms the life of the tribesman into that of the city dweller. One might compare the Road to the Way of the Taoists, but of course here the road is actively malicious. In a sense then this play is a religious allegory with the tension contained between the Road and the Word.
Soyinka's dialogue is in English with some Pidgin departures and with some vocabulary from the Yoruba language mixed in. Soyinka has a master's ear and an artist's touch with language. He has the characters at times talking past one another, each with his own concern, as in an absurdist play, and at other times he has them mouthing words of philosophic import. It is especially the PROFESSOR who waxes philosophical. He is a bit of a cynic who exclaims at one point, "Have you sold your soul for money? You lie like a prophet." He adds, "Truth? Truth? Truth my friend is scum risen on the froth of wine" reminding me of Pontius Pilate whom Sir Francis Bacon famously has asking, "What is truth?" and not staying for an answer.
PARTICULARS JOE, who was once a soldier, can also be philosophical, sometimes in an ironic way as when he declares "It is peaceful to fight a war which one does not understand, to kill human beings who never seduced your wife or poisoned your water." And there are jokes and witty sayings which Soyinka springs upon us by surprise from time to time. A nice exchange begins when PARTICULARS JOE pockets a coin that belongs to SAMSON that he finds in a crack on the floor:
SAMSON: That happens to be mine.
JOE [blandly]: That's O.K. Natural mistake on my part. Money has been left for me in more unlikely places believe me.
SAMSON: Well at least wait until I am back on the road before you collect tolls.
This inspires the PROFESSOR to ask JOE, How is the criminal world my friend?
JOE: More lucrative every day Professor.
PROFESSOR: Not for the criminal I trust.
JOE (with unintentional irony I presume): Oh no sir. That would only corrupt them.
One sees the influence of such absurdist playwrights as Samuel Beckett, Bertold Brecht and Eugene Ionesco in this play, but I believe Soyinka is both more realistic and funnier. He spent some part of his formative years in London where he was educated and worked in the theatre and where his first plays were produced. His mastery of the elements of the theater is obvious even from reading just this one play. I am looking forward to exploring more of Soyinka's work.
A Dance of the Forests.......2000-06-21
Although I was introduced to this book because of an english assignment, I became entranced by the book by the first 10 pages. And although it is confusing at times, and a teacher explaining the story as you go along is a signifigant help, the lyrical blend of Western experimentalism and African folk tradition is quite inebriating. If you are at all interested in African folk lore, this play is a must read for you. Wole Soyinka is one of the most respected play writers in all of Africa, and this is one of his best works.
Book Description
From the renowned contemporary American poet C. K. Williams comes this fluent and accessible version of the great tragedy by Euripides.
This book includes an introduction by Martha Nussbaum.
Customer Reviews:
The Most Aweful I've Yet to Read.......2005-06-29
While I haven't read much Greek tragedy, and this is my first Euripides play, the Bacchae is the most aweful I've yet to read. The fury of a god spurned by his family and city had me entranced in awe. I still can't quite understand it. I just had to be still and let its terrible beauty wash over me -- to experience it. I imagine that the audience at its first performance was full of fear and trembling.
These feelings of attraction and revulsion seem appropriate for a god like Dionysus, a god who seems to embrace opposites. The surging, green life of the vine which dies and is cut back, only to send forth green shoots of new life. The joys of his revels which can slip into madness. . .
The danger and messiness of life. While you don't neccessarily have to embrace this verity, it must be acknowledged or you will slip into madness and death. These are the gifts of the god to those who deny him.
"Then, at last,
he'll know; Dionysus is a god.
Dionysus is the son of Zeus.
Doinysus is, for humans, fiercest and most sweet."
After this declamation the god leaves the stage and the chorus expands upon it in some of the most beautiful and appealing language I've encountered in Greek tragedy:
"On, will I, some-
time, in the all-
night dances, dance
again, bare-
foot, rapt,
again, in
Bacchus,
again?
Will I
throw my bared
throat
back, to the cool
night back, the
way,
oh, in the green joys
of the meadow, the
way
a fawn
frisks, leaps,
throws itself
as it finds itself
safely past
the frightening
hunters, past the
nets, the
houndsmen
urging on
their straining
hounds, free
now, leaping, tasting
free wind now,
BEING wind
now as it leaps
the plain, the
stream
and river, out
at last, out from
the human,
free, back,
into the
green,
rich, dapple-
shadowed tresses of the
forest."
Freedom, joy in nature, and giving onself over to these things unreservedly are indeed most sweet for humans. I suppose the hunters who threaten these things are what bring out the fierceness of the following lines:
"What is
wisdom?
What
the fairest
gift the gods
can offer
us
below?
What
is nobler
than
to hold
a dominating
hand
above
the bent
head of
the enemy?
The fair, the
noble, how
we
cherish, how
we welcome
them."
From freedom and frisking to dominating your enemy, and this is wisdom! It is certainly fearsome. How do you contain it? Who knows. Perhaps it is not to be contained. Perhaps trying to contain it is The problem. It sure does not seem to be any way to run a civilization. And round and round we go, and I'm not sure if the play presents us with any answers except . . . maybe . . .
Don't deny the gods. Give them their due. Give them their due or you will be ripped to shreds. Whew. Hard stuff indeed.
Part of the reason for the extensive chorus quote was to show how this translation deals with the chorus lines. I first read the Nicholas Rudall translation of this play and I just went galumphing along through his chorus sections. The way Williams strings out the words forced me to slow down and really chew on the words, and I finally saw the beauty of the play's chorus in this translation.
Besides having a translation that sings to my ears, this book also features an informative and extensive introduction by Martha Nussbaum that I found to be most interesting and enlightening.
Average customer rating:
- More Amazonian bungling!
- a return to classics
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Euripides, 1: Medea, Hecuba, Andromache, the Bacchae (Penn Greek Drama Series) (Penn Greek Drama Series)
Euripides ,
Slavitt David R ,
Eleanor Wilner ,
Donald Junkins , and
Daniel Mark Epstein
Manufacturer: University of Pennsylvania Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Greek & Roman
| Drama
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Drama
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Classical & Early
| Drama
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Euripides
| ( E )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
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Kierkegaard: Fear and Trembling (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy)
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The Book of J
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Euripides: Children of Heracles. Hippolytus. Andromache. Hecuba (Loeb Classical Library No. 484)
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Nietzsche: 'On the Genealogy of Morality' and Other Writings: Revised Student Edition (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)
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Euripides, Volume IV. Trojan Women. Iphigenia among the Taurians. Ion (Loeb Classical Library No. 10)
ASIN: 0812216261 |
Book Description
Here Euripides stands, in vigorous English versions that fully do him justice. The most modern of the Greek tragedians has found a compelling modern form.
Customer Reviews:
More Amazonian bungling!.......2006-11-18
Yet again the folks at Amazon have bungled matters. The other "review" of this book is in fact a review of (or a puff for) the Penn series of translations of Greek tragedy, not of Euripides' "Selected Fragmentary Plays," a scholarly edition offering Greek texts, English translations, and detailed notes on several of Euripides' fragmentary plays. It should also noted that the book in question is the recently published---and long-awaited---second volume of a work whose first volume appeared in 1995. Eventually, there will be a Loeb Classical Library edition of the major fragments of Euripides, but it is unlikely to replace these volumes of Collard et al., for their very full notes will remain invaluable.
a return to classics.......2003-04-02
I went to Columbia, with the most prominent 'great books' curriculum still in existence. 25 years later, I'm finding myself re-reading and discussing many of the titles. The Penn Greek Drama series is a handsome library of new translations that give fresh takes on the classics. It's useful to have Euripides on the shelf when you return home from the recent bravura performance by Fiona Shaw as Medea--it settled an argument too on how it 'originally' ended.
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