Customer Reviews

The Oresteia of Aeschylus: A New Translation by Ted Hughes

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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.

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.

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!

I thought this book was most definitely an excellent translation of Aeschylus' Oresteia. It helped me understand the book much clearer than trying to decifer the actual oresteia. I recommend it and especially because Amazon provides it's sale with a very reasonable price