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Four Greek Plays
A collection of four timeless plays: Agamemnon by Aeschylus, translated by Louis MacNeice; Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald; Alcestis by Euripides, translated by Fitts and Fitzgerald; and The Birds by Aristophanes, translated by Fitts. Introductory Note by each translator; Index.
324 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 18, 2020
First off: the plays, in my order of preference: The Oedipus Rex, The Alcestis, The Agamemnon, The Birds. The translators Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald made a good tandem.
I never would have considered reading this book of plays, or any antiquated Greek play for that matter, if not for I.F. Stone. The Trial of Socrates made me curious about the plays, and the playwrights--the celebrities and wags of their time--of Athens in her heyday. Fortunately, I already had some books on Greek plays, so generously given to me by Mona and Jojo, who were bequeathed the precious books of Jojo's late aunt, a former Radcliffe girl and professor of English literature at Wellesley.
I believe those old Greek playwrights wrote these plays for pure entertainment, and not for future scholarly dissection. And entertainment was what I got in the one day it took for me to read them. Still, not wanting to be in over my head, I chose this four-play collection first, since I was already familiar with the fates which awaited Agamemnon, Cassandra, and Clytemnestra. And who isn't familiar with the Oedipus oeuvre? Surprisingly, the plays weren't hard to understand, and anyone with a modicum knowledge of Greek mythology should be able to appreciate the stories. And these are stories upon the stories I've known since childhood--prequels and sequels and backgrounders, as was the case with The Agamemnon and The Oedipus Rex. High Tragedy as only the Greeks can stage them (and a handful of Filipino films!).
Some random thoughts during my reading:
- Oedipus never wished to kill his father and sleep with his mother, so it's a misnomer to label a child who competes with a father for his mother's affections with an Oedipus Complex. Persistent in Oedipus's character was the desire to atone, but his sins, horrific as they were, were not commensurate to his intentions, which were prudent. A mania like his should have been termed the Oedipus Complex.
- The telenovela that was the house of Atreus had curses upon curses raining on its gables. But it's a classic, and very Biblical case of the sins of the fathers--the brothers Atreus and Thyestes, visited upon their children and their children's children. But what about Oedipus's forebears? Sophocles doesn't mention any aberrant parental behavior to warrant the curses heaped on him, his father, his mother/wife, and even his siblings/children.
- The conclusion to The Alcestis, which was the third play in the book, brought some levity to my reading, but the opening pages to Aristophanes's The Birds reminded me of the animated cartoon Adventure Time, with Pisthetairos and Eulpides masquerading as Finn and Jake, who hail from The Land of Ooo. Even the ensuing dialogues and parade of ridiculous characters were very much in line with a typical episode from the cartoon. And Cloudcuckooland? Most certainly filched by Sophocles from Adventure Time!
I never would have considered reading this book of plays, or any antiquated Greek play for that matter, if not for I.F. Stone. The Trial of Socrates made me curious about the plays, and the playwrights--the celebrities and wags of their time--of Athens in her heyday. Fortunately, I already had some books on Greek plays, so generously given to me by Mona and Jojo, who were bequeathed the precious books of Jojo's late aunt, a former Radcliffe girl and professor of English literature at Wellesley.
I believe those old Greek playwrights wrote these plays for pure entertainment, and not for future scholarly dissection. And entertainment was what I got in the one day it took for me to read them. Still, not wanting to be in over my head, I chose this four-play collection first, since I was already familiar with the fates which awaited Agamemnon, Cassandra, and Clytemnestra. And who isn't familiar with the Oedipus oeuvre? Surprisingly, the plays weren't hard to understand, and anyone with a modicum knowledge of Greek mythology should be able to appreciate the stories. And these are stories upon the stories I've known since childhood--prequels and sequels and backgrounders, as was the case with The Agamemnon and The Oedipus Rex. High Tragedy as only the Greeks can stage them (and a handful of Filipino films!).
Some random thoughts during my reading:
- Oedipus never wished to kill his father and sleep with his mother, so it's a misnomer to label a child who competes with a father for his mother's affections with an Oedipus Complex. Persistent in Oedipus's character was the desire to atone, but his sins, horrific as they were, were not commensurate to his intentions, which were prudent. A mania like his should have been termed the Oedipus Complex.
- The telenovela that was the house of Atreus had curses upon curses raining on its gables. But it's a classic, and very Biblical case of the sins of the fathers--the brothers Atreus and Thyestes, visited upon their children and their children's children. But what about Oedipus's forebears? Sophocles doesn't mention any aberrant parental behavior to warrant the curses heaped on him, his father, his mother/wife, and even his siblings/children.
- The conclusion to The Alcestis, which was the third play in the book, brought some levity to my reading, but the opening pages to Aristophanes's The Birds reminded me of the animated cartoon Adventure Time, with Pisthetairos and Eulpides masquerading as Finn and Jake, who hail from The Land of Ooo. Even the ensuing dialogues and parade of ridiculous characters were very much in line with a typical episode from the cartoon. And Cloudcuckooland? Most certainly filched by Sophocles from Adventure Time!
December 1, 2014
Birds was the best.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews