Book Overview
In the last year of his life, Ted Hughes completed translations of three major dramatic works: Racine's Phedre, Euripedes' Alcestis, and the trilogy of plays known as at The Oresteia, a family story of astonishing power and the background or inspiration for much subsequent drama, fiction, and poetry.
The Oresteia--Agamemnon, Choephori, and the Eumenides--tell the story of the house of Atreus: After King Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, their son, Orestes, is commanded by Apollo to avenge the crime by killing his mother, and he returns from exile to do so, bringing on himself the wrath of the Furies and the judgment of the court of Athens. Hughes's "acting version" of the trilogy is faithful to its nature as a dramatic work, and his translation is itself a great performance; while artfully inflected with the contemporary, it has a classical beauty and authority. Hughes's Oresteia is quickly becoming the standard edition for English-language readers and for the stage, too.Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0374527059
ISBN13:9780374527051
Release Date:September 2000
Publisher:Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Length:208 Pages
Weight:0.66 lbs.
Dimensions:0.6" x 5.1" x 9.1"
Customer Reviews
3 ratings
I love this Orestia!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
Again, I compared many different Orestia's and fell in love with this one on Hackett by Meineick. It reads beautifully and easily and the drama and intensity is unmatched. You also get a believable sense of the characters, and the setting in this one. It is in my opinion the best modern version that can be most easily performable with no archai-sisms in the language. I always go with Hackett now that I've found some really excellent translations! Highly recommended.
An Interpretation, Not a Translation
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 21 years ago
No, the translation is not literal. If you want a literal translation, buy something written by a professor of Greek. Hughes has a different goal. He¡¦s a poet who wants to interpret this ancient literature into an idiom that modern audiences can understand and appreciate. I wouldn¡¦t even call this a translation. Let¡¦s call it an interpretation and skip over the problem of accuracy. That being said, his interpretation is extremely good. The free verse is both powerful and extremely readable. By putting these stories into a more familiar medium, Hughes recaptures the horror of these plays. By modern standards, the latter plays (Choephori and Eumenides) aren¡¦t very dramatic. The main point is to watch the cycle of revenge play out to a conclusion. But the first play in the trilogy (Agamemnon) is close enough to modern taste to have a huge impact. I was very moved.
Orestes for the modern world
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
As a professor teaching classics in Regents College Master of Liberal Studies Program, I am always looking for translations that will entrance my students and give them that sensation of the marvelous that many of them can find only in videos and MTV. Hughes' translation of "The Oresteia" is a perfect choice. Sure, there may be in some passages a lot more of Hughes than of Aeschylus, but if that's what it takes to reincarnate those ancient and bloody tragic figures, it's a price well worth paying. After reading this book, I think my students will see "The Sopranos" as just another soap opera.
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