Faber & Faber Oresteia: Agamemnon by Aiskhylos; Elektra by Sophokles; Orestes by Euripides

It's Anne Carson, so the translations are brilliantly done. I was teaching *Elektra* so I ordered this for myself as a paper copy, since the standalone edition of her *Elektra* translation is out of print.But this is *not* the same has having each of her three standalone translations in one place. Rather, you get a much shorter introduction (though still good, but only 7 pages, not 57 for *Elektra* for example) than you would from the standalone, so I'll assume that's true of each. And the text does have difference: she's changed the name of the Old Man to the Pedagogus, or vice versa, and while I don't know if there are other changes in the primary text, there may be, but I haven't noticed yet.The physical quality of this 3 in 1 set is also not great; cheap pulp paper, with obvious printing misalignment / missed register (there's a line almost off the bottom of the page in one instance). But this is why the price is good I guess.If you want her translation and don't mind the much smaller amount of apparatus, it's good to go. And you won't feel guilty for writing in it, given the cheap, slapped together feel of the book itself.

Reading something for its translation is definitely not something I usually do, but I’ve heard so much about Anne Carson and her fascinatingly modern attempt at the classic Greek tragedies that it was high time to remedy that. I chose the Oresteia because it’s what I know best, and although I will never be truly happy with reading something that belongs on a stage, I couldn’t have loved it more. Her Elektra literally jumps out of the page in a way that has never felt so real, and the same goes for the other characters, too. My pencil had lots of work to do, and at the same time I kept wondering why so many other translations still read as if the plays were written sometime in the 19th century.

Hat ihr beim Geschichtsstudium geholfen.

Love the translations. Love the Oresteia being rejigged with the three playwrights.

i LOVED IT. it was PETTY and DRAMATIC in a way normal people could understand but it still kept that classical style about it