Four Plays of Aeschylus
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Four Plays of Aeschylus Details
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
Reviews
The good news is that this Kindle version comes with a nice introduction. The translation itself, however, reads like it was written 300 years ago. I don’t know who did the translation (that’s one common problem with Kindle books) but there were some words I looked up that weren’t even in my dictionary. I don’t mind a Victorian translation from the Victorian era, for example, in fact, I think that is a plus. In this case, however, translation from an ancient Greek work, something a little more modern would have been preferred. Anyway, on to the plays themselvesThe Suppliant WomenDanaus and his daughters flee Egypt, as their cousins want to force them to marry them. They plead for asylum at Argos. They spend a good deal of time trying to convince the king and other people of Argos to grant them asylum, and protect them from their cousins who will undoubtedly pursue them. This is pretty good, though it take a lot of time for not much to happen.The PersiansThis is the story of the Athenian’s victory over Xerxes and the Persians. Again, this is a pretty good story if you go into it with the right mind set, but this story only retells of the battle that has already happened. There were a couple of good quotes here that I highlighted.Seven Against ThebesThis is the story of Oedipus’ two sons at war with each other, one in possession of the city of Thebes and the other one besieging it. This one was rather disappointing. Most of the story consist of the spy telling Eteocles who was to attack each of the seven gates, then Eteocles responding by saying who he was going to have defend each gate. The attackers are all arrogant and the defenders all noble, apparently. The chorus of feaful females does get a bit annoying after a while. Things get a bit better at the very end with the arrival of Antigone, but overall I found this story a bit boring.PrometheusIn my 21st century American opinion, this was by far the best of the bunch. As with the other stories, not much actually happens here, but anyone with an interest in Greek mythology can learn some of the travails of Prometheus and Io. My interest in Greek mythology made this one interesting, though the apparent ancient Greek obsession with predestination does get a bit annoying after a while.Conclusion: If you're interested in ancient Greek drama, then give this a read, but if you want a page turner, then this probably isn't the best choice.