The Trojan Women

by Nicholas Rudall (Translator)

Overview

As bleak and agonizing a portrait of war as ever to appear on stage, The Trojan Women is a masterpiece of pathos as well as a timeless and chilling indictment of war’s brutality. The only justice in war, Euripides seems to say, is punitive and nihilistic. Nicholas Rudall’s compelling new translation continues his acclaimed work in interpreting classical drama for today’s audiences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781566632249
Publisher:	Dee, Ivan R. Publisher
Publication date:	09/14/1999
Series:	Plays for Performance Series
Edition description:	New Translation
Pages:	64
Sales rank:	709,854
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.67(h) x 0.20(d)

About the Author

The Plays for Performance series is edited by Nicholas Rudall, former artistic director of the Court Theatre at the University of Chicago where he is professor of classics, and Bernard Sahlins, founder and director of the Second City. They both live in Chicago, Illinois.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Euripides and the Trojan War: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text

Trojan Women

Appendix A: Hecuba

• 1. From Euripides, Hecuba 752–814a
• 2. From Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.441–534a
• 3. From William Shakespeare, Hamlet II.ii.497–560

Appendix B: Cassandra

• 1. From Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1256–1330
• 2. From Seneca, Agamemnon 695–774

Appendix C: Andromache

• 1. From Homer, Iliad 6.388–528
• 2. From Euripides, Andromache 147–231

Appendix D: Helen

• 1. Lyric Poets • 124
  • a. Sappho of Lesbos, Fragment 16
  • b. Alcaeus of Lesbos, Fragment 283
  • c. Alcaeus of Lesbos, Fragment 42
• 2. From Gorgias of Leontini, Encomium of Helen 4–20
• 3. From Euripides, Helen 16–67
• 4. From Joseph of Exeter, Trojan War III.223–98

Glossary of Ancient Names, Places, and Terms
Works Cited and Select Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

A new translation of a literary classic of pathos and war, capturing the classical drama in a new form designed as a play for performing to modern audiences.

Bookwatch

“While Euripides’ tragedies are universally celebrated, they somehow seem just beyond the typical undergraduate’s appropriating grasp. This new edition of Trojan Women, by a distinguished translator and historian of ancient Greek drama, provides a point of entry to the non-specialist, and especially to those approaching classical theater for the first time. The introduction succinctly and engagingly lays out the important facts about Euripides’ life, the theatrical conditions and conventions of Greek theater, and the remarkably prescient issues explored in Trojan Women for the twenty-first-century world. The text itself is the highlight, transferring Euripides’ ideas, word play, even humor, into English as it channels the poetic voice and pathos of the great matriarch at the tragedy’s center, Hecuba. So for today’s theater practitioner, as well as for teachers and students of classical literature and theater, this edition has no rivals.” — Paul Whitfield White, Purdue University

“Paul Streufert’s translation of Trojan Women is a director’s dream. His clear, concise language retains Euripides’ soaring poetry, but it does so with a contemporary touch that is accessible to actors and audience members alike. His light and nuanced treatment of the text allows actors to navigate the play’s complex spoken arias with relative ease, which frees actors to shape their characters into compelling, full-bodied humans worthy of the stage. In short, Streufert humanizes Euripides’ tragic lament for our contemporary ears, which is no small feat!” — Rhett Luedtke, George Fox University

From the Publisher