The Agamemnon of Aeschylus - Softcover

Aeschylus

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1475110871 ISBN 13: 9781475110876

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012

Synopsis

The sense of difficulty, and indeed of awe, with which a scholar approaches the task of translating the Agamemnon depends directly on its greatness as poetry. It is in part a matter of diction. The language of Aeschylus is an extraordinary thing, the syntax stiff and simple, the vocabulary obscure, unexpected, and steeped in splendour. Its peculiarities cannot be disregarded, or the translation will be false in character. Yet not Milton himself could produce in English the same great music, and a translator who should strive ambitiously to represent the complex effect of the original would clog his own powers of expression and strain his instrument to breaking. But, apart from the diction in this narrower sense, there is a quality of atmosphere surrounding the Agamemnon which seems almost to defy reproduction in another setting, because it depends in large measure on the position of the play in the historical development of Greek literature.

About this title

About the Author:

Aeschylus was Greece's leading playwright between his first victory at the festival Dionysus in 0484 B.C.E. until his death, winning thirteen first-place crowns in that period. His epitaph boasts only that he fought bravely for Athens at the Battle of Marathin.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1475110871
• ISBN 13: 9781475110876
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 104
• Editor: Murray Gilbert