Aeschylus I: Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides (The Complete Greek Tragedies) @ richardeward.com

Aeschylus I: Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides (The Complete Greek Tragedies)
by Aeschylus
from University Of Chicago Press

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• 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... more info

• 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... more info

• 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... more info

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