Iphigenia among the Taurians, Bacchae, Iphigenia at Aulis, RhesusThis book is the second of three volumes of a new prose translation, with introduction and notes, of Euripides' most popular plays. The first three tragedies translated in this volume illustrate Euripides' extraordinary dramatic range. Iphigenia among the Taurians, set on the Black Sea at the edge of the known world, is much more than an exciting story of escape. It is remarkable for its sensitive delineation of character as it weighs Greek against barbarian civilization. Bacchae, a profound exploration of the human psyche, deals with the appalling consequences of resistance to Dionysus, god of wine and unfettered emotion. This tragedy, which above all others speaks to our post-Freudian era, is one of Euripides' two last surviving plays. The second, Iphigenia at Aulis, so vastly different as to highlight the playwright's Protean invention, centres on the ultimate dysfunctional family, that of Agamemnon, as natural emotion is tested in the tragic crucible of the Greek expedition against Troy. Rhesus, probably the work of another playwright, deals with a grisly event in the Trojan War. Like Iphigenia at Aulis, its `subject is war and the pity of war', but it is also an exciting, action-packed theatrical Iliad in miniature. |
From inside the book
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Page ix
Euripides. INTRODUCTION 1. EURIPIDES AND HIS TRADITION Many of Euripides ' most striking dramas have not even survived . The most scandalous , perhaps , was his Aeolus , notoriously portray- ing brother - sister incest leading to ...
Euripides. INTRODUCTION 1. EURIPIDES AND HIS TRADITION Many of Euripides ' most striking dramas have not even survived . The most scandalous , perhaps , was his Aeolus , notoriously portray- ing brother - sister incest leading to ...
Page x
... dramatic style . The bloodthirsty maenads of Bacchae , on the other hand , repelled readers until well into the nine- teenth century , but once Nietzsche had reopened the question of Dionysus ' relationship to the theatre in The Birth ...
... dramatic style . The bloodthirsty maenads of Bacchae , on the other hand , repelled readers until well into the nine- teenth century , but once Nietzsche had reopened the question of Dionysus ' relationship to the theatre in The Birth ...
Page xiii
... drama competition in 455 BCE , was victorious in 441 , won again in 428 with the group including Hippolytus , and posthumously ( in 405 ? ) with Bacchae and Iphigenia in Aulis . Besides the un - Euripidean Rhesus , all the plays in this ...
... drama competition in 455 BCE , was victorious in 441 , won again in 428 with the group including Hippolytus , and posthumously ( in 405 ? ) with Bacchae and Iphigenia in Aulis . Besides the un - Euripidean Rhesus , all the plays in this ...
Page xv
... drama competitions , although most scholars assume that , if women were present at all , it was in small numbers , per- haps including only important priestesses . The tragedies were performed over three successive days in groups by ...
... drama competitions , although most scholars assume that , if women were present at all , it was in small numbers , per- haps including only important priestesses . The tragedies were performed over three successive days in groups by ...
Page xvi
... dramas set in faraway , exotic lands , and thus turned the theatre of Dionysus into a panoramic window onto the ... drama except Euripides ' own Helen , Iphigenia among the Taurians reflects the popularity in Athens of the historian ...
... dramas set in faraway , exotic lands , and thus turned the theatre of Dionysus into a panoramic window onto the ... drama except Euripides ' own Helen , Iphigenia among the Taurians reflects the popularity in Athens of the historian ...
Contents
ix | |
Note on the Translation | xl |
Iphigenia among the Taurians I | 1 |
Bacchae | 44 |
Iphigenia at Aulis | 84 |
Rhesus | 133 |
Explanatory Notes | 163 |
Other editions - View all
Iphigenia Among the Taurians: Bacchae ; Iphigenia at Aulis ; Rhesus Euripides No preview available - 2000 |
Iphigenia Among the Taurians: Bacchae ; Iphigenia at Aulis ; Rhesus Euripides No preview available - 1999 |
Common terms and phrases
Achaeans Achilles Agamemnon AGAVE allies altar Apollo Argives Argos arms army Artemis Athenian Athens Atreus Bacchae Bacchic barbarian blood bring Bromius brother Cadmus Calchas chariot child CHORUS chants CHORUS sings Cithaeron CLYTEMNESTRA dance daughter death Diomedes Dionysiac Dionysus divine Dolon Drama enemy Euripidean Euripides eyes father friends girl goddess gods Greece Greek Tragedy ground hair hand happy head HECTOR Helen hold holy honour horses Iliad Iphigenia at Aulis IPHIGENIA sings kill king land look maenads marriage Menelaus MESSENGER mortals mother mountain murder Muses Nereus night Odysseus oracle ORESTES palace Peleus Pelops Pentheus Phoebus Phrygians play PYLADES Rhesus rites ritual sacrifice sail Seaford ships sister slaughtered sleep song sorrow speak spear stichomythia strangers Taurians tears Teiresias tell temple Thebes things THOAS Thracian thyrsus Trojan Troy Tyndareus victim wife women words wretched Zeus
Popular passages
Page lii - Rome GRBS Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies HSCP Harvard Studies in Classical Philology JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies...
Page xxxiii - Consider their role in religion, for that, in my opinion, comes first. We women play the most important part, because women prophesy the will of Zeus in the oracles of Phoebus. And at the holy site of Dodona near the sacred oak, females convey the will of Zeus to inquirers from Greece. As for the sacred rituals for the Fates and the Nameless Ones, all these would not be holy if performed by men, but prosper in women's hands. In this way women have a rightful share in the service of the gods. Why...
Page 167 - Rose, like an exhalation, with the sound Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet, Built like a temple, where pilasters round Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid With golden architrave ; nor did there want Cornice or frieze with bossy sculptures graven ; The roof was fretted gold.
Page 188 - ... baptized her again in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which ceremony concluded her cure. Some are taken in this manner to the market-place for many days before they can be cured, and it sometimes happens that they cannot be cured at all. I have seen them in these fits dance with a bruly, or bottle of maize, upon their heads, without spilling the liquor, or letting the bottle fall, although they have put themselves into the most extravagant postures.
Page 176 - Bird of the sea rocks, of the bursting spray, O halcyon bird, That wheelest crying, crying, on thy way ; Who knoweth grief can read the tale of thee : One love long lost, one song for ever heard And wings that sweep the sea. Sister, I too beside the sea complain, A bird that hath no wing. Oh, for a kind Greek market-place again, For Artemis that healeth woman's pain ; Here I stand hungering. Give me the little hill above the sea, The palm of Delos fringed delicately, The young sweet laurel and the...
Page 184 - Hippolytus, he is the dark puritan whose passion is compounded of horror and unconscious desire, and it is this which leads him to his ruin (cf.
Page xlv - O'Connor-Visser, Aspects of Human Sacrifice in the Tragedies of Euripides (Amsterdam, 1987...
Page 222 - You know how Pandareus' daughter, the tawny nightingale, 510 perched in the dense foliage of the trees, makes her sweet music when the spring is young, and with many turns and trills pours out her full-throated song in sorrow for Itylus her beloved son, King Zethus' child, whom mistakenly she killed with her own hand.
Page lii - Classical Quarterly CR Classical Review G&R Greece & Rome GRBS Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies HSCP Harvard Studies in Classical Philology...