The collected fragments of the lost plays of Sophocles
585332
Only seven of the tragedies of Sophocles survive intact out of a list of 90 plays for which we have titles.  All seven of the plays are from the later part of his career, which means that if we had as little of Shakespeare as we had of Sophocles all we would know of the Bard's work would be "Hamlet," "Othello," "King Lear," and "The Winter's Tale."  That would still be enough to impress us today, but all we would have of the rest of his work would be titles like "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Julius Caesar" to go with fragments from plays like "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Romeo and Juliet," and "The Tempest."  But if you have read "Bartlett's Quotations" rather than "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare" then you already know that "fragments" of Shakespeare can still be pretty impressive.  It is in anticipation of finding similar gems that we approach this volume of the Loeb Classical Library containing "Fragments" of the work of Sophocles.

Edited and translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones, "Sophocles: Fragments" is a collection of all of the "major fragments," which range in length from two lines to a substantial part of "The Searchers," a satyr play in which Hermes plays a joke on Apollo.  There are also substantial pieces of "Inachas," in which Zeus comes to Argos to seduce the king's daughter Io, and "Niobe," which is the story of Apollo and Artemis slaying the daughters of Niobe for daring to insult their mother.  Lloyd-Jones provides what we know about these lost plays to give readers a sense of the possible context for these lines (including other ancient plays and works that touch on the same characters and stories).  Most of these fragments come from other ancient authors who were quoting these plays of Sophocles before they were lost, while others have been discovered on papyri in the past century.  Most of these fragments are assigned to known plays (10-343), followed by those fragments that have not been assigned to any specific play (344-417), and a doubtful fragment that may or may not be from "Oeneus" (418-22).

Lloyd-Jones also did the translations for the first two Sophocles volumes in the Loeb Classical Library and as is the case with this entire library you have the original Greek text on the left-page and the translation on the right.  Certainly it is frustrating to read bits and pieces, trying to connect the dots and imagine what these plays would have been like, and if I had the talent and the time I would love to be able to try and reconstruct some of these tragedies.  Once you see how Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides deal with the same story, the murder of Clytemnestra by Orestes because of the happenstance that all three of their plays on that subject have been preserved, it is difficult not to wonder what Sophocles would have done with the story of Prometheus or Iphigenia.  Obviously this last Sophocles volume is going to be of interest to only the hard core scholar of Greek tragedy, but given how little there is of the tragic playwrights in the first place, these fragments can be quite interesting.
910775
Great summary of Iliad and Odyssey. I recommend as a teaching tool for students learning to analyze literature.
4631357
Albert Rijksbaron has provided an excellent edition of the Ion of Plato with a comprehensive introduction and an extensive commentary. Matters often ignored, such as the title of the work and its punctuation, are analyzed in detail. Also, the quotations from Homer utilized by Plato in the work are examined quite carefully, and sensibly as well. The text is clearly presented and the commentary is clear and exhaustive. References abound and invite further study. All in all it is an excellent edition. A. Bertero
84467
Several years ago, during my first year of college, I purchased and read one of Aristophanes' better known plays, The Clouds.  I thoroughly enjoyed the translation, and I made a mental note to read more Aristophanes as time provided.  Many years passed between that pleasant reading and my purchase of this book, The Complete Plays of Aristophanes.

Any book that purports to include the "Complete" works of an ancient author automatically draws my attention.  And so, when I chanced upon this title at Borders and discovered it to have a reasonable price ($5.95 + tax for 11 plays, about .58 cents a play), I could see little reason not to buy this work.

Standing at its price, The Complete Plays of Aristophanes is a great deal.  The plays are complete and each includes an introductory page.  However, in terms of readability and enjoyment, the book suffers in several regards.  Firstly, some of the translations are nearly unreadable, especially when the translations are in antiquated English slang.  This is not to say all the translations are unreadable.  The work includes the translations of four men: B.B. Rogers, Moses Hadas, R.H. Webb, and Jack Lindsay.  I found that one play would have a dreadful translation (by the standards of today), only for the next play, translated by the same man, to have a much clearer translation.  I wonder if the problem lies less with the translator than with the difficulties of translating into contemporary English, as well as the  gap between the English language spectrum of the translators and the English known and used today.

Besides the translations, there is the issue of the play introductions.  Some of the play introductions are helpful in providing the historical background of the time in which Aristophanes wrote the play.  The book is much better with the introductions than without.  Yet, several of the comments made in the introductions strike one as dilettante.  For example, the writer directly states what is funny or grave in the play.  As to the freedom of the text from typographical errors: the work overall presents itself as a polished publication.  On p. 205 the title at the top of the page should read "Wasps" but instead reads "Play Title", as if the publisher forgot the change this for final publication.  Other than that, however, I found few actual errors.

My overall impression: this book is a better investment than a fast food meal at the same price, although if you want to receive the most out of Aristophanes, there are better translations and scholarly coverage on the market.
1336898
I really enjoyed this book and heartily recommend it for the neophyte student in classical theater studies. Jeffrey Henderson repeats the actual Greek characters for common sexual body parts so often that even the casual reader soon begins to feel like a real classical scholar (or an ancient sailor)!

Scholars have traditionally declined to elucidate, evaluate or even discuss the nature and function of sexual and body function language in Attic Comedy (Attican, or Athenian, new comedy, that lasted throughout the reign of the Macedonian rulers, ending about 260 B.C.) This despite the fact that Aristophanes and his contemporaries wove rich, ribald tapestries of obscene words, allusions, double entendres and bawdy sight gags throughout their works. Classical researcher Jeffrey Henderson, in his The Maculate  Muse: Obscene Language in Attic Comedy, attributes this to a notion that obscenity has only peripheral relevance to the actual meaning and value of the plays (they were "attention getters" to win the favor of restless audiences or, conversely, such things were not considered obscene by the Greeks). Fallacious assumptions, says Henderson. The academy's recent embrace of the undeniable accomplishments of solid gay and feminist scholarship in the areas of human sexuality and its expressions has freed researchers in the area of Classic (Old and Middle) comedy to finally acknowledge the integral connection of obscenity to the main themes of the plays, the stage actions, the development of plot and the characterization of personae. To this end, Henderson gives, in The Maculate Muse,  what may be the foremost comprehensive attempt to identify and discuss all the extant obscene terminology of Attic comedy and to assess the historical, cultural and literary factors which led to obscenity's focal position in the plays of Aristophanes and others of his day.

The author modestly admits that much more needs to be done. Henderson makes a case for the need for further investigation of, not merely group behavior and relative behavior to societal institutions (like marriage and public events) but also exact sexual behavior (note: this will be difficult if not impossible due to lack of objective documentation...people in every society censor/idealize their private behaviors when representing them). This reprint of Jeffrey Henderson's original 1971 dissertation, with new preface, addenda, corrigenda and retractanda, is a "starting point" and a valuable tool for a deeper appreciation of the social context of the Attic comedies.

Despite the current climate of sexual conservatism in America, contemporary theater is still a glorious window into the secular and profane organic and psychosexual forces, hand in hand with intellect and society, which coshape our lives. A sensitive reevaluation of the realistic framework of the 5th century Greek comic writers reveals that the vagaries of sexuality and our attitudes toward it in the arts is an amorphous constant, alternately suppressed and celebrated, but never absent in the text and/or subtext of the theatrical tradition.
4364486
I cannot compare Grene's translation with the original, as I have never read it, but, as an independent entity, Grene's work is masterful. The prose, especially in Oedipus Rex, is well-paced and dramatic. Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone, perhaps appropriately, fawn in comparison, but are nevertheless well-wrought and engaging.

This book, as, I'm assuming, all works in the Lattimore-Greene collection, lacks the in text resources to carry the laymen along. One must have an acute knowledge of Greek mythology to catch all the references, as there are no helpful footnotes or endnotes. The introductions to this text are of lesser quality than Lattimore's introduction to the Orestia.
346314
As the title suggests, this is a collection of works by Christians who lived in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. The following works are included: "On Marriage," and "On Spiritual Perfection" by Clement  of Alexandria (which are technically Stromata books III and VII, the former  which is only in Latin in the Ante-Nicene Fathers set.), "On  Prayer," "Exhortation to Martyrdom," and "Dialogue with  Heraclides," by Origen (all three books are absent from the  Ante-Nicene Fathers set). There are nice introductions to each book and  each author. Chadwick gives very detalied notes and explanations of  Origen's "On Prayer." This is an excellent book for 2 reasons.  First it is a great sample of the skilled thinkers of Alexandria. Second,  it acts as a good supplement to the Ante-Nicene Fathers set.
2221938
Most English translations of, say, the Greek New Testament are shepherded by a conviction that the original words had divine inspiration and so are best rendered verbatim wherever possible.  At the same time, there generally is a concession (for good or ill) to the reality that if what results is not sufficiently lofty and reverential in tone, the faithful are unlikely to accept it.  Attempts at classical Greek drama and poetry tend to be guided by rather different considerations:  The translator's audience may consist of fellow scholars, reluctant undergraduate students, or an adventurous minority of the general public; and each of these groups will have particular demands.  Too often work thus emerges which is precise but lifeless, or loosely interpreted to conform to the structures of 19th-century-style Anglo-American poetry, or so liberally seasoned with present-day colloquialisms as to jar the reader repeatedly out of the proper period and setting.

For the most part, Paul Roche navigates skilfully through these hazards in trying his hand at Sophocles's Oedipus trilogy, and has produced a rendition that is readable, yet preserves classical distinctiveness.  Once or twice in the first play a turn of phrase does feel awkwardly modern, but such flashes are rare and soon either disappear or blend into the overall arc of the stories.  That Roche is himself a poet clearly enriched the labour, and his reflections, in the Introduction, on the essence of poetry and the challenge of its transmission across lines of language, era, and culture border on the profound.  '... Poetry lies somewhere between meaning and music, sense and sound ...,' he writes; and in this region he attempts to set Sophocles's work.  He echoes the meter of the original without imitating it exactly, and preserves more of the Greek dramatic structure (complete with `strophes' and `antistrophes') than do many other translations available.  Yet Roche remains mindful that this is also a PLAY, and manages the formalized dialogue with an eye (or ear) to the possibility of his version itself turning up on stage.  He also provides an afterword outlining principles to guide such performance.

The reader of this translation whose only prior encounter with the Oedipus legend was some now-vaguely-remembered lesson in school, or perhaps Edith Hamilton's summary, may be surprised at how effectively one is drawn in.  Roche, like Sophocles before him, succeeds in bringing the remote and legendary close enough to touch, while allowing it to remain sufficiently mysterious to stir the imagination.
3587023
Needed one of these plays for a class I took and ended up reading them all. Such a great collection of Greek tragedy!
3392648
This anthology includes ten plays.  Among the plays are Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston's 1927 script for *Dracula* that was performed on Broadway, and Anthony Shaffer's *Sleuth*.  I think that this or other Stanley Richards' play anthologies could work well as a Theater or English classroom text.
1559626
Really enjoyed this collection.

Because the very limited preview at least currently won't even show the Table of Contents, I am including it here, for people who might be looking for a specific poem, as I so often am:

Contents
A Portrait of the Reader with a Bowl of Cereal 3

I
Fishing on the Susquehanna in July 7
To a Stranger Born in Some Distant Country Hundreds
of Years from Now 9
I Chop Some Parsley While Listening to Art Blakeys Version
of Three Blind Mice 10
Afternoon with Irish Cows 12
Marginalia 14
What I Learned Today 17
Journal 20
Some Days 22
Silence 23
Picnic, Lightning 24

II
In the Room of a Thousand Miles 29
Morning 31
Bonsai 32
Splitting Wood 34
Shoveling Snow with Buddha 37
I Go Back to the House for a Book 39
After the Storm 41
Snow 44
Moon 46
Looking West 48
This Much I Do Remember 49
Japan 51

III
Victorias Secret 55
Muse dea Beaux Art Revisited 59
Lines Composed Over Three Thousand Miles from
Tintern Abbey 61
Paradelle for Susan 64
Duck/Rabbit 65
Egypt 66
Home Again 68
Lines Lost Among Trees 70
The Many Faces of Jazz 72
Taking Off Emily Dickinsons Clothes 74 IV
The Night House 79
The Death of the Hat 81
The List of Ancient Pastimes 83
Passengers 85
Serpentine 87
Reincarnation and You 89
Jazz and Nature 91
And His Sextet 94
Where I Live 96
My Life 98
Aristotle 100

Acknowledgements 103
255634
This is a book for those who want to make a study for themselves of the Presocratics and Sophists from the fragments of their poems and sayings that survived the centuries. Robin Waterfield limits his own commentary as to what they meant, offering just a few guidelines.  It's an excellent resource.
4614693
We can only imagine how many countless millions of students have read the "Iliad" or some version of Homer's epic poem and were surprised to find that the story of the Trojan Horse is not part of the tale.  While the two heroic epics ascribed to Homer are the only extant examples of the genre there are other such works, telling not only about other parts of the Trojan War but also about Heracles, Theseus, and the city of Thebes.  In "Greek Epic Fragments: From the Seventh to Fifth Centuries B.C." edited and translated by Martin L. West we have the original Greek and translated versions of these extant fragments, placed in historical context.

In his introduction West characterizes these poems as "redactions of traditional material" from the archaic period that include poems that narrate a particular heroic episode or series of episodes along with poems that recount the histories of families or people.  These fragments constitute an important part of the mythological record, especially with regards to those that tell the story of the rest of the Trojan War.  Those were what I was interested in tracking down, but you may well have other interests, so here is a list of what you will specifically find inside in this collection:

The Theban Cycle is represented by "Oedipodea"; "Thebaid" tells of the Seven Against Thebes; "Epigoni" is about the sons of the Seven Against Thebes; and "Alcemonis."  The Trojan Cycle features: Stanius' "Cyrpia," where Zeus plans with Themis to bring about the Trojan War, including the Judgment of Paris (Alexandrus); "Aethiopis" by Arctinus of Miletus, follows up on the "Iliad" with the death of Achilles and the fight over his armor; "The Little Iliad" by Lesches of Mitylene, has the death of Ajax, Odysseus stealing the Palladium out of Troy, and the Acheans leaving behind the Trojan Horse; and "The Sack of Iliom," also by Arctinus of Miletus, tells of how the Trojans brought the horse into their city and were destroyed.  It also includes "The Returns" by Agias of Troezen; Eugammon of Cyrene's "Telegony," which picks up on the end of "The Odyssey"; and "Thesprotis."

A section devoted to Poems on Heracles and Theseus has "The Capture of Oichalia" by Creophylus, "Heraclea" by Pisander, "Heraclea" by Panyassis, and "Theseis."  Under Genealogical And Antiquarian Epics there are works by Eumelus ("Titanomachia," "Corinthiaca," "Europia"), Cinaethon, Asius, Hegesinous, and Chersias, along with fragments from "Danais," "Minyas," "Carmen Naupactium," and "Phoronis."  The collection ends with Unplaced Framents, most of which are ascribed to "Homer."  That means West dos not include any Hesiodic fragments or any from poems that are historical and technical (i.e., not strictly mythological).

I understand that West has made some choices in terms of what to include or not include that scholars will find debatable.  Michael J. Anderson of Yale University enumerates these choices in his review of the volume for the Bryn Mawr Classical Review, but obviously neither my interest nor my knowledge allows me to join in on that conversation.  I simply appreciate being able to have access to the original fragments to muse over when we study the Trojan War in my Classical Greek & Roman Mythology course each semester and I rethink again how I think all of these bits and pieces best fit together.
3077343
My only regret was that i did not know which plays were in the book and now I have to find the one which has the other plays i am looking for.
2022218
Bryan Doerries made these translations for use with his Theater of War, with which he presents Greek tragedies to stimulate group discussion within populations experiencing very difficult circumstances.  They are in highly idiomatic English and honed for specific audiences, so I somehow doubt they would meet with a purist's approval. But as a lay reader, and having never read any of these plays previously, I have to say I found them very affecting, most especially the three by Sophocles. "Ajax" and "Philoctetes" are used by Doerries with military audiences to speak to the experiences of anger, betrayal, madness, and PTSD in soldiers. "Women of Trachis" is used with those dealing with end-of-life issues, including assisted suicide. "Prometheus Bound" has been successful with groups of prison employees and (I think?) prisoners. I read them keeping in mind how they are used by Doerries: as dramatic readings meant to, as he says, "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable".
157639
This is a great tool to have as a classical actor.  It includes definitions of words that aren't in standard lexicons; but it does not have every single word and possible definition for specific plays like the standard lexicons do.  I recommend having this as well as lexicons as part of your library.
3036591
This is a collection of one-act plays by Tennessee Williams, most from the late 1930s to `40s. These are sketches and slighter works by a great dramatist, but there is enough here to fill an evening. Student and amateur or small theater groups, scholars, and anyone with a serious interest in Williams will appreciate this offering. If you are new to Tennessee Williams, this is not the volume to start with. Some of the plays have appeared in an actors' edition or in journals, but are more readable and accessible here, and several are appearing in print for the first time.

The quality of the early short sketches varies. They reveal a young Williams developing his craft in comedy, melodrama, tragedy, and social commentary. We might not be interested in all of them if we didn't know they were written by Williams. "At Liberty," "Honor the Living," "The Dark Room," and "Every Twenty Minutes" show his gift for dialogue. "The Case of the Crushed Petunias" is a highly enjoyable playlet written after Williams' first major play production failed in Boston. It features a young shopkeeper in the town of "Primanproper," Massachusetts and a young man who encourages her to explore new things and advises that "Boston's a state of mind that you'll grow out of."

"The Pretty Trap" and "Interior: Panic" present the characters and ideas of "The Glass Menagerie" and "A Streetcar Named Desire," but with more optimistic outcomes than the famous plays. "Kingdom of Earth" also exists as a full-length play, and "I Never Get Dressed Till After Dark on Sundays" is a somewhat experimental treatment of characters who appear at greater length in "Vieux Carre."

One of the most powerful pieces in this collection is the 1980 play "Some Problems for the Moose Lodge." It was expanded into a full-length play ("A House Not Meant to Stand") but works well as a one-act. The aging and probably dying mother Bella, becoming more incoherent as the play proceeds, speaks with unintended poetry at the end, expressing Williams' insight, stated in his plays in so many different ways, that her life and everyone's life is "a question of time."

It's too bad that the one-act play "American Gothic" did not make it into this collection. It premiered at the 2010 Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival. In it, Williams brings the Midwestern farm couple from the famous Grant Wood painting to life, the husband with a pitchfork and the wife who observes that thirty dry summers have made her hard. Their son, a bank robber on the run from the law, arrives with his "floozie" wife, followed not long after by the police. In the notes, the editor states that the existing drafts of this play are unfinished or incomplete, but readers and audiences will certainly enjoy this play, even in an incomplete or somewhat reconstructed form. Let's hope that it appears in a future volume.

Thanks to New Directions and all involved who are promoting the rediscovery of Tennessee Williams.