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The Complete Aeschylus: Volume I: The Oresteia (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) 1st Edition

by Aeschylus (Author), Peter Burian (Editor), Alan Shapiro (Editor)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 87 ratings
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Aeschylus I: Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides (The Complete Greek Tragedies)
Aeschylus I: Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides (The Complete Greek Tragedies)
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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.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0199753636
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0199753635
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    January 4, 2011
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    7.93 x 0.61 x 5.39 inches
  8. Print length
    304 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Book Description

A new edition of Aeschylus' Oresteia, one of the great foundational texts of Western culture

About the Author

Peter Burian is Professor of Classical and Comparative Literatures and Theater Studies at Duke University.

Alan Shapiro is Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A winner of the prestigious Lila Wallace Reader's Digest award 1992-95, he is the author of several poetry collections, including Tantalus in Love, Song and Dance, and The Dead Alive Busy.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (January 4, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0199753636
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199753635
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.93 x 0.61 x 5.39 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 87 ratings

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Aeschylus

Aeschylus

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Aeschylus (/ˈiːskᵻləs/ or /ˈɛskᵻləs/; Greek: Αἰσχύλος Aiskhulos; Ancient Greek: [ai̯s.kʰý.los]; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian. He is also the first whose plays still survive; the others are Sophocles and Euripides. He is often described as the father of tragedy: critics and scholars' knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in theater to allow conflict among them, whereas characters previously had interacted only with the chorus.

Only seven of his estimated seventy to ninety plays have survived, and there is a longstanding debate regarding his authorship of one of these plays, Prometheus Bound, which some believe his son Euphorion actually wrote. Fragments of some other plays have survived in quotes and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyrus, often giving us surprising insights into his work. He was probably the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy; his Oresteia is the only ancient example of the form to have survived. At least one of his plays was influenced by the Persians' second invasion of Greece (480-479 BC). This work, The Persians, is the only surviving classical Greek tragedy concerned with contemporary events (very few of that kind were ever written), and a useful source of information about its period. The significance of war in Ancient Greek culture was so great that Aeschylus' epitaph commemorates his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon while making no mention of his success as a playwright. Despite this, Aeschylus' work – particularly the Oresteia – is acclaimed by today's literary academics.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Unknown [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
87 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Epops
5.0 out of 5 stars from revenge to the rule of law
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2014
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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 best a translator may be able do is to render the original into a version that is understandable and can be enjoyed by the educated reader. Shapiro's Oxford version is quite clear and understandable Modern English poetry, and I have enjoyed reading it, which was definitely NOT the case with Lattimore's.

The copious end notes in this edition are also quite helpful.

epops
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Marian Powell
5.0 out of 5 stars This is the best translation I've read of The Oresteia
Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2015
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This is the best translation I've read of The Oresteia. It's very readable. There is an excellent Introduction that recounts the background of the story, the Translator's discussion of how he dealt with the issues of turning classical Greek into modern English and Notes at the end that give detailed explanations of various passages. All in all, this is excellent.
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patrick w. martin
5.0 out of 5 stars great introduction
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2019
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I really enjoyed the introduction by Peter Burian. It provided enough insight so that as I have read the plays they made sense.
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William J. Lillyman
5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2014
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Superb translation that conveys the drama of the original in accomplished English that is not stilted or contrived.
4 people found this helpful
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Peter Bluhm
4.0 out of 5 stars I shouldn't the Gods would be pleased to be called "Cods" (even in an electronic text)
Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2015
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These classic plays are a must-read for an educated person. Unfortunately, the Amazon electronic version has numerous errors. Perhaps the funniest is the place where the text says "And who is it among the high Cods [sic] - ApoHo [sic], maybe, Pan or Zeus? I shouldn't the Gods would be pleased to be called "Cods" (even in an electronic text), and I doubt that Apollo would be pleased to be addressed as "ApoHo."
5 people found this helpful
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joanofarcanada
5.0 out of 5 stars do good things.
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2016
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Read these, do good things.
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Michael J. Cherry
5.0 out of 5 stars Which translation?
Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2017
On April 4, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy stopped in Indianapolis during his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. That day, Martin Luther King, Jr. had been murdered, and Kennedy broke the news to the crowd. He quoted a passage by Aeschylus:

"Even in our sleep pain which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

I heard this in a documentary about Kennedy. Evidently, Jackie had recommended Aeschylus as a way to make sense of the tragedy that had befallen their family in November, 1963. This piqued my own interest in Aeschylus. Via Google, I eventually discovered that the passage is from Agamemnon. But which translation to read?

Kennedy recited a slightly modified version of a prose translation by Edith Hamilton. Her rendering is nicely lyrical, but I wondered about the accuracy. Aeschylus presumably didn’t really speak of “the awful grace of God,” as he was obviously not a Christian. I decided to check some of the other translations, using that passage as my metric.

Hamilton herself translated the passage more than once. The version Kennedy used appears to come from Hamilton's book  The Greek Way , where she excerpts that passage by itself (as prose rather than verse). In contrast, here is the verse version from her complete translation of Agamemnon in  Three Greek Plays: Prometheus Bound / Agamemnon / The Trojan Women :

"Drop, drop—in our sleep, upon the heart
sorrow falls, memory’s pain,
and to us, though against our very will,
even in our own despite,
comes wisdom
by the awful grace of God."

I kind of prefer “pain which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart.” I’m not sure if the contrast is due to the different demands of prose instead of verse, but to my ear the prose version flows better, without the syntactical inversion. Both versions end with the powerful (if not literally accurate) “comes wisdom by [or through] the awful grace of God.” So, high marks for Hamilton in both versions.

Next, I looked at  The Oresteia: Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides  from Penguin—always a safe place to start. Here is how their man, Robert Fagles, translated the passage:

"We cannot sleep, and drop by drop at the heart
the pain of pain remembered comes again,
and we resist, but ripeness comes as well.
From the gods enthroned on the awesome rowing-bench
there comes a violent love."

I kind of like “the pain of pain remembered,” but otherwise this translation seems inferior to Hamilton’s. “We cannot sleep” connotes something quite different than “in our sleep”; I can’t read the Greek, but, as we will see, the other translations seem to suggest that Hamilton’s reading is closer to the mark. As for the “gods enthroned on the awesome rowing-bench,” that might be more literally accurate, but it certainly doesn’t have the emotional weight of Hamilton's version, although “violent love” is interesting in place of "grace."

Next, I tried Richmond Lattimore’s  Aeschylus II: The Oresteia (The Complete Greek Tragedies)  from the U of Chicago Press:

"Still there drips in sleep against the heart
grief of memory; against
our pleasure we are temperate.
From the gods who sit in grandeur
grace comes somehow violent."

I’m with him for the first two lines, but “against our pleasure we are temperate” seems to obscure the meaning, which kills the whole passage; the ending doesn’t work if the middle is unclear. But the rhythm is pleasing.

Next up is this version, Alan Shapiro’s  The Complete Aeschylus: Volume I: The Oresteia: 1 (Greek Tragedy in New Translations)  from Oxford UP:

"Even in sleep pain drips
down from the heart as fear,
all night, as memory.
We learn unwillingly.
From the high bench of the gods
by violence, it seems, grace comes."

That one has a nice directness, especially the short “We learn unwillingly” after the more complex syntax of the previous three lines. “From the high bench of the gods” seems a good middle-ground between the very specific “awesome rowing bench” and the more abstract “grandeur.”

Next is  The Oresteia: Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides  by George Thomson, from Everyman's Library:

"When deep slumber falls, remembered sins
Chafe the sore heart with fresh pain, and no
Welcome wisdom meets within.
Harsh the grace dispensed by powers immortal
On the awful grace enthroned."

That one takes far too many liberties for my taste, and its syntax is tortured and awkward. Although the translation is evidently from 1938, it sounds more like it was written in 1838. In contrast, Peter Meineck’s  Oresteia (Hackett Classics)  is perhaps too contemporary and flat:

"Not even sleep can relieve the painful memories
that fall upon the heart, drop by drop,
discretion comes even to the unwilling.
This grace is forced upon us
by sacred spirits who reign above."

That one seems to capture the meaning without any of the music, and “sacred spirits” sounds a bit too New-Agey. This seems like it might be a good version for students who have trouble understanding the more poetic versions. On that note, my last two samples also go in the direction of contemporary “accessibility.” Here’s Anne Carson’s  An Oresteia: Agamemnon by Aiskhylos; Elektra by Sophokles; Orestes by Euripides :

"Yet there drips in sleep before my heart
a griefremembering pain.
Good sense comes the hard way.
And the grace of the gods
(I’m pretty sure)
is a grace that comes by violence."

I kind of like “griefremembering pain,” but otherwise that passage seems more miss than hit. “Good sense” sounds too folksy, as well as simply a very different meaning than “wisdom.” And while some may find asides such as “I’m pretty sure” to be daringly contemporary, I just find that grating and tonally misleading. The last line strikes a good balance between clear meaning and rhythmic punch, though.

Finally, here is what Ted Hughes did with the passage in  The Oresteia of Aeschylus: A New Translation by Ted Hughes :

"Nothing speaks the truth,
Nothing tells us how things really are,
Nothing forces us to know
What we do not want to know
Except pain.
And this is how the gods declare their love.
Truth comes with pain."

That can charitably be called a “loose” translation. Evidently killing Sylvia Plath wasn’t enough for him, so he had to kill Aeschylus, too. (Just kidding.) (Sort of.) Hughes was actually a very good poet, so I don’t know what happened here. If you’re in the mood for Hughesian versions of classical poetry, stick with his  Tales from Ovid: 24 Passages from the Metamorphoses .

So, where does this leave us? To quote another poet (T.S. Eliot), “the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.” I must admit that I still like Hamilton’s prose version best, and her verse version second-best. Unfortunately, her full Agamemnon is not available in e-book format. I suppose my next choice, for reading on the Kindle, would be Shapiro’s.

Of course, one passage does not a translation make; this is not enough to make a truly fair comparison between translations of Agamemnon alone, much less the other plays. Still, I offer these comparisons in the hope that they will provide some small help to others who are trying to decide between translations.
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Tuppy Glossop
4.0 out of 5 stars Good Translation
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2015
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The purpose of this translation is to make the book more relevant to the modern reader. This is the only translation I've yet read. I bought this one because I loved the Sophocles translation in the same series. This is by different translators and I didn't find it quite as engaging, but still enjoyed it.
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Arjen van der Wal
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing edition...
Reviewed in Canada on November 17, 2018
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The publisher’s name, Pandora’s Box Classics, appears on the front cover but there is no information about the publisher beyond that. And they apparently have no online presence (that I could find).
There are no notes included (they would have been helpful). There are numerous typos in this edition and it interferes with comprehension at times. There is a functional (live) table of contents at least.

No information is given about the translator, but a bit of research reveals it’s the work of E.D.A. Morshead (1849-1912). As seems to be common with Victorian era translations, it uses Elizabethan era English, which can come off as pretentious. It also uses many obscure and archaic terms. It would be interesting to reread these plays in a clearer, less affected translation. Any negativity here should be understood to be directed at this edition and translation, not Aeschylus’ original works. This particular translation seems to be available in a number of editions out there (it’s in the public domain).

I don’t mean to be too critical of Morshead’s translation. His use of archaic terms is creative, his knowledge is vast and it flows well. But at times it just sounds artificial. But it’s often quite vivid and deserves credit for that. The editors of this edition however, deserve no credit.

This is a poorly put together collection of both Morshead’s translations and Aeschylus’ plays.
Just avoid it and look for another one.
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Katrina
5.0 out of 5 stars ) love it!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 21, 2015
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:) love it!!!
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