Status Updates From Greek Tragedies, Volume 1: ...

Oedipus Rex ought to end with the theme from Curb Your Enthusiasm

Oedipus the King is the only one of these I’ve actually read before, but that was 10 years ago and it was the Fagles translation. I remember enjoying it and have been meaning to revisit it. I’m a little relieved that Lattimore was only responsible for Agamemnon because so far the Grene translations in this collection are way easier to read.

Prometheus Bound was oddly bleak, but I enjoyed the translation a lot more than Lattimore’s Agamemnon. Prometheus drops some of the coldest bars of all time. Free my boy

The David Grene translation of Prometheus Bound is far to read so far than Agamemnon was. The Agamemnon translation was credited to Richmond Lattimore but syntactically it seemed a lot more baroque than his translation of the Iliad so I assume he was credited for making adjustments to an earlier translation.

Agamemnon finished. Really cool but I don’t have time to unpack it right now so I will circle back later with my notes

Ohhhhh so that’s why this one is called Agamemnon

I haven’t picked this up in a week or so but I’ve resolved to finish it this year. Agamemnon is tough so far, but I loved the Iliad so I’ve grown really fond of these characters. I’m pretty sure the translation of Agamemnon used here was done by H. W. Smyth so I wonder if I wouldn’t find a more recent translation easier to follow .

I picked this up because I saw that Richmond Lattimore edited it but so far I’m finding the translation of Agamemnon pretty difficult to parse. I have been too busy too make much progress but hopefully I’ll be able to make more sense of it next week.

Slay your husband diva

Should’ve buried the body, Creon

Hate it when I suffer a mortal fate because my father tricked my uncle into eating all but one of his children lol f my chungus life

Hippolytus goes on a bit longer than I had hoped, but it is fun. Aphrodite is villainous, and twists people to doing bad shit, as she always does. Since this play felt like it dragged in comparison to Antigone and Agamemnon, it'll be lower rated. Say 3/5

Agamemnon: this lad is a good tragedy, if only the book had the other two!! But nonetheless, it sets up a great storyline of treason, Betrayal, kinslaying, and of course cannibalism, everyone's favorite. It is hard to see Clytaemestra is wrong in her judgement, but it is a little hard to feel sad at Agamemnon's death. Maybe if I had read the Iliad, I would feel more for him. But currently, I am glad. 4.5/5

oedipus’ whole family is TRAGIC