3 stars for Andromache and The Trojan Women, 4 stars for Hecuba. Man. None of them deserved any of that.

The translation leans more towards theatrical production but it doesn't leave out important details from the original Greek. I read this as part of a paper for an MA in Classics. If you are looking to entertain yourself with 5th century BC works of Greek Drama--especially those that are based in closer character portrayal, Euripides is the one for you. Reading this translation along side Micheal Caconyannis movie of The Trojan Women, is close save for a couple of scenes. The 1940's translation used for the script is hard to get one's hands on these days.
How and why Polyxena and Astyanax must be sacrificed is a central part of all three plays and never fails to wind up the tension. A surprising page turner!

The plays get increasingly interesting, given that they were written and performed in Athens during the Peloponnesian War. Andromache is fairly straightforward and includes Spartan characters acting badly. In Hecuba we see criticisms of demagoguery and the abuse of persuasion from the title character, and in Trojan Women Euripides seems to openly criticize the Athenians' contemplation of the slaughter of the men of Melos and the enslavement of the Melian women and children. Ruth Scodel, writing in the introduction, says that the play was written "late enough that the likely outcome was known--and the massacre had taken place by the time the play was performed" (x).

The notes and introduction in this edition are very helpful.

goodbye troy

I am reading just Hecuba and the Trojan Women- there is so much heartbreak in the aftermath of the Greek vs Troy war, and so many dead and mourned, that this is a very sobering subject. Though written over a thousand years ago- the subject is still relevant and the pain of the women who lost relatives, position, their honor and their home is real. I am reading Hecuba and the Trojan Women for a classics book club so I am interested in finding out ho
w others viewed these plays.

Between the Scylla of prose translations (the current Oxford World's Classics and Penguin) and the Charybdis of poets' re-creations (Oxford's series The Greek Tragedies in New Translations) sails Diane Arnson Svarlien, for whom accuracy and poetry are possible.

DAS reports in detail on the verse features of the original and what equivalence she has found in English. To read in rhythm is like water on the burn of other scholars' prose translations.

There is still a disconcerting colloquialism, but I'm pinning that on Euripides.