Bacchae - Softcover

Euripides

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0979757126 ISBN 13: 9780979757129

Publisher: Richer Resources Publications, 2008

Synopsis

Euripides' Bacchae, the last of the surviving Greek tragedies, was not performed during the lifetime of the playwright. Its first production took place a year later (in 405 BC) in the annual competition for tragic drama, where it won first prize. It has remained one of the best-known and most frequently performed Greek tragedies ever since, one of the greatest works of classical Greek culture. The Bacchae holds up a desparate view of human experience, a vision that led Aristotle to call Euripides the most tragic of the poets. Here the royal power in the polis, respresented by the young king of Thebes, Pentheus, is quite incapable of dealing with a political crisis in an effective way, and the god who has initiated the crisis, Dionysus, a son of Zeus and a cousin of Pentheus, displays a selfish, arrogant, and unforgiving malice which leads him to destroy in the most horrific way the oldest human royal family in Greek legend because he believes he has been insulted by the citizens of Thebes. Whatever hopes men entertain for a peaceful harmony between the gods who rule the world and the human beings who live in it are here exposed as futile and cruel delusions.

About this title

About the Author:

Ian Johnston was born in Valparaiso, Chile, and educated in Canada and England. He has a BSc from McGill in Geology and Chemistry, a BA from Bristol in English and Greek and an MA from Toronto in English. For many years he taught as a college and university-college instructor in British Columbia teaching English, Classics and Liberal Studies. He is the author of The Ironies of War: An Introduction to Homer's Iliad. His translation of Homer s Iliad and Odyssey have recently been published in both book and audiobook form. He is now retired and living in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Review:

After having released new translations in 2006 of the Iliad and the Odyssey in a modern English poetic form, these new dramatic releases provide us once again with that powerful and direct style of translation for which Professor Johnston has become known. Students reading this translation will have no doubt of the passion and issues raised by the plays. Mr. Johnston's works have been used in numerous dramatic performances around the world, including at Oxford and in Philadelphia. As with the Iliad and the Odyssey, these new works are rapidly becoming the translations of choice in high schools, colleges and universities around the world. --Editor

About this edition

• Publisher: Richer Resources Publications
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0979757126
• ISBN 13: 9780979757129
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 78
• Illustrator: Ian Crowe