So griefs and various disasters shall grip them, as they mourn their destiny of no return, the requital for my ill-wedded violation. Not even those who jouyfully arrive home at last will light votive flames of sacrifice, paying thanks to Kerdylas, the Larynthian. [Zeus] (lines 1087-1092) The glory of the race of my grandfathers will be […]
Tag: Ancient Greek plays
Jamie Lyons, co-founder of The Collected Works and so much more (see his bio), has some stunning photos and text from site specific performances he has been involved in. Many of these performances involve surviving fragments of ancient Greek plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Definitely worth checking out. Related posts I’ve made to the […]
I’ll try and stay current and catch up later on any plays I miss in Amateur Reader’s AncientGreek-a-Thon at Wuthering Expctations. Up this week is Ajax, Sophocles’ earliest (probably) surviving play, first performed in the 440s BCE. Ajax has long been a character that intrigued me. In The Iliad he performs great feats, yet is […]
The Authenticity of ‘Prometheus Bound’ by Mark Griffith 1977: Cambridge University Press When Mark Griffith began researching this topic for his doctoral thesis he believed in the authenticity of Prometheus Bound as a work by Aeschylus, but came to the the conclusion “that the evidence which I was assembling showed Prom. consistently behaving quite differently […]
A great resource for the reading of ancient Greek plays can be found in the posts tagged at Sententiae Antiquae as Reading Greek Tragedy Online. The Reading Greek Tragedy Online discussion and reading of the play for The Persians can be found here. A reading and discussion of Aeschylus’ The Persians (translated by Ian Johnston). […]
Please note this is not intended to be a comprehensive coverage of the play (despite my logorrhea and multiple posts), just a few notes on the play that I find interesting. I’m rusty at this, but let’s give it a go. Original performance, 472 BCE The tetralogy of plays at the Great Dionysia of 472 […]
I’m going to cover some of the introductory chapters from Aeschylus in case they may help you read some of his plays. Herington’s prose is clear and to the point in these chapters and reveal much about the backdrop against which Aeschylus was writing. Herington explores what we could term Aeschylus’ world view which can […]
If you’re planning on tackling some of the ancient Greek plays or other ancient Greek or Roman literature, I’d like to recommend the Hermes Books series from Yale University Press. I think I found all but one of my books from the series in used bookstores. I’ll post a few comments from John Herington’s text […]
Amateur Reader at Wuthering Expectations will be hosting a read-along of all the ancient Greek plays this year. The order of the plays can be found at this post. The schedule is one play a week, with his posts about them on or around each Friday. The first play is Aeschylus’ The Persians, starting on […]