The Oresteia of Aeschylus: A New Translation by Ted Hughes [Paperback]

Aeschylus (Author), Ted Hughes (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 4, 2000

In the last year of his life, Ted Hughes completed translations of three major dramatic works: Racine's Phedre, Euripedes' Alcestis, and the trilogy of plays known as at The Oresteia, a family story of astonishing power and the background or inspiration for much subsequent drama, fiction, and poetry.

The Oresteia--Agamemnon, Choephori, and the Eumenides--tell the story of the house of Atreus: After King Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, their son, Orestes, is commanded by Apollo to avenge the crime by killing his mother, and he returns from exile to do so, bringing on himself the wrath of the Furies and the judgment of the court of Athens.

Hughes's "acting version" of the trilogy is faithful to its nature as a dramatic work, and his translation is itself a great performance; while artfully inflected with the contemporary, it has a classical beauty and authority. Hughes's Oresteia is quickly becoming the standard edition for English-language readers and for the stage, too.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Aeschylus, the fifth-century BC Attic tragedian, is famous for his knottiness, his clotted images and riddling compund words. Ted Hughes,, in his postunously published translation of the Orestes trilogy, unites the knots and unpacks the compunded thoughts."--Gary Wills, The New York Times Book Review

"Hughes's translation conveys a sense of the menacing stength of Aeschylus' poetry....Anyone who hears it or reads it will realize that there is much more to Greek drama than verbiage and literary virtuosity"--Mary Lefkowitz, Washington Times

"Hughes's rendering of this appalling story has the hurtling momentum one assumes the playwright's original Greek had for his Athenian audience....To release the play's staggering power Hughes has transformed some thoughtful scholarly commentary into raw horror and agonizing ethical dilemma....Ferociously physical...like the best of Hughes's own poems"--Ron Smith, Richmond Times-Dispatch

About the Author

Among Ted Hughes's translations are The Oresteia of Aeschylus, Racine's Phedre, and Tales from Ovid. His last book of poems, Birthday Letters, won the Whitbread Book of the Year Prize. He was Poet Laureate to Queen Elizabeth II and lived in Devon, England until he died in 1998.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (September 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374527059
• ISBN-13: 978-0374527051
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #405,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Interpretation, Not a Translation, December 10, 2003

By 

Dewdrop (Taipei Taiwan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Oresteia of Aeschylus: A New Translation by Ted Hughes (Paperback)

No, the translation is not literal. If you want a literal translation, buy something written by a professor of Greek. Hughes has a different goal. He¡¦s a poet who wants to interpret this ancient literature into an idiom that modern audiences can understand and appreciate. I wouldn¡¦t even call this a translation. Let¡¦s call it an interpretation and skip over the problem of accuracy.

That being said, his interpretation is extremely good. The free verse is both powerful and extremely readable. By putting these stories into a more familiar medium, Hughes recaptures the horror of these plays.

By modern standards, the latter plays (Choephori and Eumenides) aren¡¦t very dramatic. The main point is to watch the cycle of revenge play out to a conclusion. But the first play in the trilogy (Agamemnon) is close enough to modern taste to have a huge impact. I was very moved.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A rather objectionable loose translation suitable only for Hughes fans, September 29, 2005

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Oresteia of Aeschylus: A New Translation by Ted Hughes (Paperback)

THE ORESTEIA of Aeschylus, here presented in a translation by Ted Hughes, is a great trilogy on the continual tragedies in the house of Atreus and one of the most impressive creations of Greek drama.

The work consists of the "Agamemnon", "Choephori", and "Eumenides". In the first play, Agamemnon the king of Argos returns home from the Trojan War only to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra, long angry at him for the sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia, and her lover Aegisthus desirous to seize the throne. In the second, named for the "libation bearers" who accompany the protagonists, Agamemnon's son Orestes and his living sister Electra avenge their father's murder by slaying Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. In the final play, Orestes is tormented by the Furies until a jury of Athenians led by Athena set him free and end the cycle of violence. The play is a statement on the terrible destiny of man to face divine retribution even when he has done a just deed, and tracks the development of Athenian justice from continual violence to temperance.

Unfortunately, Ted Hughes' translation plays very loose with Aeschylus' work. Putting the play in modern language isn't quite so bad, although it is strange to hear of hurricanes (unknown in the Aegean) and people moving "like gypsies" (the Roma were still in northwest India when this was written). What is truly objectionable is that Hughes' adds content. For example, he has a character talk of the "curse" on the house of Atreus, but this distorts events. Hughes also does not seem interested in conveying Aeschylus' style, instead giving the reader the story in entirely his own poetry. Bottom line: read this if you really like the poetry of Ted Hughes. If you want a faithful translation of this Greek masterwork, look elsewhere.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MUSCULAR HUGHES ON THE HIGH WIRE, June 14, 2007

By 

Donald A. Newlove (Greenwich Village NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Oresteia of Aeschylus: A New Translation by Ted Hughes (Paperback)

I LOVE TED AESCHYLUS AND HIS BUFFED UP LINE, NOT ONLY HERE BUT AS TED RACINE, TED OVID, TED SENECA, TED EURIPEDES, TED LORCA AND TED WEDEKIND. HERE IS MUSCULAR TRANSLATION THAT BOUNCES WITH LIFE AND FLIES FEARLESS WITHOUT THE LEAST THREAD OF AN ACADEMIC SAFETY NET BELOW. SPELLBINDING!