4.0
Euripides: Medea and Electra A Companion to the Penguin Translation
Euripides was particularly noted for his sensitive portrayals of women and for finding a sympathetic side to those whom the stock mythology tended to see as evil monsters, such as Helen of Troy. Medea murdered her children by Jason when he deserted her fora new wife; Electra and Orestes killed their own mother in revenge for her betrayal and murder of their father Agamemnon. This kind of searing tragedy may easily be read in translation but its appreciation inevitably involves conventions and references which may elude the reader.
This volume contains an introduction outlining the background of Athenian tragedy: how it was presented; what was its fifth-century social and political context; how were these two particular plays conceived and constructed? This is followed by a line-by line commentary based on the translation of Philip Vellacott (Penguin Classics), though it may be used profitably with other versions as well.
Foreign Language StudyAncient LanguagesLiterary CollectionsAncient & ClassicalPerforming ArtsTheater
RELEASED1991
PUBLISHERBloomsbury Academic
LENGTH64
LANGUAGEEN
Euripides was the last of the three great tragedians of classical Athens (the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles). Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias. Eighteen or nineteen of Euripides' plays have survived complete. There has been debate about his authorship of Rhesus, largely on stylistic grounds and ignoring classical evidence that the play was his.[1] Fragments, some substantial, of most of the other plays also survive. More of his plays have survived than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, because of the unique nature of the Euripidean manuscript tradition. ([Source][1].) [1]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euripides
4.0
Euripides: Medea and Electra A Companion to the Penguin Translation
Euripides was particularly noted for his sensitive portrayals of women and for finding a sympathetic side to those whom the stock mythology tended to see as evil monsters, such as Helen of Troy. Medea murdered her children by Jason when he deserted her fora new wife; Electra and Orestes killed their own mother in revenge for her betrayal and murder of their father Agamemnon. This kind of searing tragedy may easily be read in translation but its appreciation inevitably involves conventions and references which may elude the reader.
This volume contains an introduction outlining the background of Athenian tragedy: how it was presented; what was its fifth-century social and political context; how were these two particular plays conceived and constructed? This is followed by a line-by line commentary based on the translation of Philip Vellacott (Penguin Classics), though it may be used profitably with other versions as well.
Foreign Language StudyAncient LanguagesLiterary CollectionsAncient & ClassicalPerforming ArtsTheater
RELEASED1991
PUBLISHERBloomsbury Academic
LENGTH64
LANGUAGEEN
Euripides was the last of the three great tragedians of classical Athens (the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles). Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias. Eighteen or nineteen of Euripides' plays have survived complete. There has been debate about his authorship of Rhesus, largely on stylistic grounds and ignoring classical evidence that the play was his.[1] Fragments, some substantial, of most of the other plays also survive. More of his plays have survived than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, because of the unique nature of the Euripidean manuscript tradition. ([Source][1].) [1]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euripides
