Oresteia

by Aeschylus, Peter Meineck (Translator), Helene P. Foley (Introduction)

Overview

In the Oresteia -- the only trilogy in Greek drama that survives from antiquity -- Aeschylus took as his subject the bloody chain of murder and revenge within the royal family of Argos. As they move from darkness to light, from rage to self-governance, from primitive ritual to civilized institution, their spirit of struggle and regeneration becomes an everlasting song of celebration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780872203907
Publisher:	Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/15/1998
Series:	Hackett Classics
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	460,121
Product dimensions:	5.38(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Alan Shapiro is Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of numerous volumes of poetry, including The Dead Alive and Busy, winner of the 2001 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Peter Burian is Professor of Classical Studies at Duke University. A critic and translator, he has published widely on Greek drama and its reception.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	7
	Acknowledgements	11
	A Reading of 'The Oresteia': The Serpent and the Eagle	13
	Agamemnon	99
	The Libation Bearers	173
	The Eumenides	227
	The Genealogy of Orestes	279
	Select Bibliography	281
	Notes	285
	Agamemnon	285
	The Libation Bearers	305
	The Eumenides	317
	Glossary	331

Editorial Reviews

Peter Meineck's new rendition of the Oresteia is that rare and wonderful thing: a text accessible to the Greekless audience while still preserving the vocabulary of Aeschylus. Those of us who have seen Peter Meineck's performances have long marveled at his ability to turn Greek into clear English, how he does not do 'versions' of the plays, how he does not rewrite the ancients into modern jargon (even his comedies maintain more Aristophanic text than is usual). Here lines that students have always needed explicated stand clear. . . . Helene Foley has provided a fine introduction for this translation. Introduction and translation together provide an exciting text, one that should be widely read, widely used. -Karelisa Hartigan, University of Florida, in The Classical Outlook

. . . a translation for the stage by an experienced man of the theater. Its virtues are very real, and, though Meineck makes them seem easy, very hard to achieve. The idiom is contemporary without yielding to the siren song of gimmicky updating; it manages to be clear without betraying Aeschylus' complexity or sacrificing his intricate imagery. What makes it effective on stage makes it work on the page, too. With the added guidance of Helene Foley's characteristically intelligent Introduction and Meineck's own crisp annotation and full stage directions, this translation offers the most approachable and in many ways most communicative Oresteia now available. It will be the Oresteia of choice for many teachers and their students, as well as for readers interested in what makes Greek tragedy great theater. -Peter Burian, Duke University

From the Publisher

These two new additions to Oxford's "Greek Tragedy in New Translations" series only add to the luster of the previous releases. Each is firmly packed with insightful introductions, comprehensive and numbered notes, glossaries, and up-to-date bibliographies (the plays' texts take up about half of each volume). The collaboration of poet and scholar in each volume produces a language that is easy to read and easy to speak (compare, for instance, the Watchman's first lines in Shapiro and Burian's Agamemnon with those in Lattimore's 1947 translation). Each volume's introduction presents the play's action and themes with some detail. The translators' notes describe the linguistic twists and turns involved in rendering the text into a modern poetic language. Both volumes are enthusiastically recommended for academic libraries, theater groups, and theater departments.-Larry Schwartz, Minnesota State Univ., Moorhead Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Translators Grene and O'Flaherty present a modern translation of the three plays composing the Oresteia and, with the assistance of director Nicholas Rudall, an abridged stage adaptation which transforms the Oresteia into an effective modern stage play. Includes introductory material. Cloth edition ($32.50). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Though it's tempting to imagine the late English poet laureate's long tortured relationship with the image of (his wife) feminist heroine Sylvia Plath as its subtext, this vivid free-verse translation of Aeschylus' dark and bloody tragic trilogy (comprising Agamemnon, Choephori, and Eumenides) more properly evinces Hughes's wide range of interests and mastery of classic literatures. His nearly conversational rhythms produce an arresting mixture of colloquialism and formality, enlivened by strong imagery (as in the matricidal Orestes' declaration that "This house has been the goblet / That the demon of homicide, unquenchable, / Has loved to drain"), and only infrequently weakened by astonishing woodenness—as in Clytemnestra's cool reply to the Chorus who lament her murder of her husband: "You think I'm an irresponsible woman? / You are making a mistake"). Perhaps not the ultimate "acting edition" it claims to be, but, still, an essential further installment in the always interesting oeuvre of a gifted poet who was also a diligent scholar.

Kirkus Reviews

The greatest achievement of the human mind.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne

The Oresteia is not merely a magnificent work, it is one of the supreme achievements of classical culture…the Oresteia is splendid, and as a depiction of the cumulative power of evil it is unsurpassed.”

Masterpieces of World Literature

The Oresteia is perhaps the most unusual tragedy in the theater of the West and certainly one of the very greatest.”

University of Chicago scholar and noted translator David Grene

Although these Greek plays are twenty-five centuries old, this production is, remarkably, the first audio release to include the complete trilogy…It features a fine performance by Robertson Dean.”

AudioFile

In their day, these poetic, highly stylized tragedies were chanted rather than acted…Thus they work particularly well in audio format. This production makes the most of modern technology to create haunting choral effects. The individual actors are all well-cast, and their performances are evenly balanced.”

Kliatt

brilliantly evokes the sheer strangeness and horror of the play. Rory Mullarkey's translation follows the Aeschylean original faithfully and his lyrics make some attempts to evoke the percussive muscularity of the choruses. . . . I haven't seen anything quite as sickening or as stately as this version of these plays.

Spectator

Witty, brash and steeped in blood . . . this is a big and boisterous account packed with sly wit and the sort of brash lines that wouldn't be out of place in a gangster film.

Evening Standard

Rory Mullarkey's adaptation of these three Aeschylus plays . . . is undertaken with a spirit it would be hard to trump. . . . Mullarkey has adapted Aeschylus in a way that never fudges, conceals or distances.

Observer

Although these Greek plays are 25 centuries old, this production is, remarkably, the first audio release to include the complete trilogy. The strongest play is the final one, THE EUMENIDES, during which Orestes is tried before Athena for the murder of his mother, Clytemnestra. It features a fine performance by Robertson Dean as Apollo, Orestes's advocate. After listening to the trilogy, it's easy to appreciate the challenges of adapting Greek dramatic conventions to audio. For example, lengthy passages are delivered by a chorus, which may seem contrived to modern listeners. Unfortunately, this production magnifies that awkwardness—far too many lines are delivered with injudicious sound effects and multiple voices that are more cloying than dramatic. D.B. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

AUG/SEP 07 - AudioFile