Iphigenia among the Taurians, Bacchae, Iphigenia at Aulis, Rhesus

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Clarendon Press, Jan 28, 1999 - Drama - 282 pages
This 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.

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Contents

Introduction by Edith Hall
ix
NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION
xl
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
xli
CHRONOLOGY
xlix
ABBREVIATIONS
li
IPHIGENIA AMONG THE TAURIANS
1
BACCHAE
44
IPHIGENIA AT AULIS
84
RHESUS
133
EXPLANATORY NOTES
163
Copyright

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Page 166 - 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 187 - ... 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 175 - 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...
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