"These authoritative translations consign all other complete collections to the wastebasket."—Robert Brustein, The New Republic
"This is it. No qualifications. Go out and buy it everybody."—Kenneth Rexroth, The Nation
"The translations deliberately avoid the highly wrought and affectedly poetic; their idiom is contemporary....They have life and speed and suppleness of phrase."—Times Education Supplement
"These translations belong to our time. A keen poetic sensibility repeatedly quickens them; and without this inner fire the most academically flawless rendering is dead."—Warren D. Anderson, American Oxonian
"The critical commentaries and the versions themselves...are fresh, unpretentious, above all, functional."—Commonweal
"Grene is one of the great translators."—Conor Cruise O'Brien, London Sunday Times
"Richmond Lattimore is that rara avis in our age, the classical scholar who is at the same time an accomplished poet."—Dudley Fitts, New York Times Book Review
bad translation Lattimore, in his inept poetic exuberance, often loses the sense of a line and confuses the reader. Aeschylus is so powerful he can't be diminished entirely, but where is the modern translation we need? Lattimore published this in 1953, and says in his introduction that he changed little from a 1926 translation. Does anyone know of a better, more recent translation?
Vengeance Is Mine This Greek tragedy in three parts is a continuation of the life of Agamemnon and his family following the Trojan War. The house of Atreus is in big trouble. Agamemnon's father, Atreus had a brother, Thyestes, who seduced his wife. In return, Atreus killed Thyestes' kids and served them to Thyestes as dinner. Escaping with only one surviving child, Aegisthus, Thyestes cursed the house of Atreus and vowed revenge. Atreus had two sons, Menelaus(Helen's dear husband) and Agamemnon. Both brothers fought for a decade against Troy to avenge Paris's seduction of Helen. Before heading off to war, Agamemnon sacrificed his virgin daughter to the gods in order to petition for good travelling winds on the trip. While gone, his wife had a lot of time to fuel her resentment of this act and found solace in the arms of Agamemnon's cousin, Aegisthus, who returned from exile and made himself at home in Agamemnon's house. Oresteia begins with Agamemnon's return to his loving family. Clytaemnestra (the Mrs.) provided a unique "Welcome Home, Honey" party by murdering her husband, kicking out the kids,disgracefully burying her ex, and continuing to shack up with her new man. A dream of warning alerted Mrs. Agamemnon that "what goes around - comes around" once again. Her exiled son reappears to team up with her daughter to avenge their father's untimely death. Unfortunately,this family fails to recognize that revenge demands more revenge. Can Wisdom save the day? Will more blood be shed? Read and find out.
An excellent trilogy Aeschylus (525-456 BC) is the father of Greek tragedies (one legend reports that Dionysus himself commanded Aeschylus to write them). Of the seventy tragedies that he wrote, only seven have survived to the present day. These three plays form the most complete tetralogy that we have (a tetralogy contained three tragedies and one satyr play - a semi-religious, semi-mocking performance that acted as a postlude to the tragic trilogy) - only the satyr play is missing.
In Agamemnon, the Greek king returns from the Trojan War, with his prize of the Trojan prophetess Cassandra. Cassandra knows that Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, will kill them, but she is fated to be not be believed. And so, the deed is done.
In The Libation Bearers, Clytemnestra has a nightmare that she gave birth to a snake, and so she sends her daughter Electra to Agamemnon's grave to pour out a libation. However, Electra meets her brother, Orestes, and the two plot revenge upon their mother, and her loved. And so, murder begets murder.
In The Eumenides, Orestes is fleeing the Furies, who are pursuing him for murdering his mother. Orestes flees to Apollo, who sends him on to Athens, to be judged by Athena herself.
This is an excellent trilogy. Even though it is over 2,000 years old, it still makes an interesting read. In particular, I enjoyed The Eumenides, with its battle of supernatural beings, and its showcasing of the development of Western jurisprudence. Overall, I found this to be an interesting and informative book, one that I do not hesitate to recommend to everyone.
Note on transation I have read a few things by Lattimore, and while he is touted as the most accurate translator of Greek literature, I find him increadibly difficult to read. His sentences sometimes make no sense at all. English is a language that depends upon syntax and the order of words in a sentence; Greek is not this way, it is a language with myriad declensions and conjugations, effectively allowing its poets to manipulate a sentence's word order. Lattimore may simply be too accurate to the Greek originals, because the word order--translated so precisely--simply does not fit well in the English. I recommend Fagles, who is an amazing translator; and while he is accurate, he also understands the limitations of translating the Greek to English. His sentences are fluid and capture the life of the translation. For Aeschylus, I also recommend Philip Vellacott. Check out Fagles, then check out Vellacott. But please forego the Lattimore translations, unless you really want to understand just the sort of impact a bad translation can have.
aeschylus I the book is pretty good and thorough too. this is a good version to get.
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