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Euripides: Four Plays

Euripides: Four Plays: Medea, Hippolytus, Heracles, Bacchae 

Edited by Stephen Esposito

Boston University

2003 • 1-58510-048-X • paper • 320 pages •  5 ½ x 8 ½ • $18.95

|  About the Author  |  Contents  |  Preface  |

 Description                                             

A compilation of four recent works from the Focus Classical Library, this anthology includes outstanding translations which remain close to the original, with extensive introductions, interpretive essays, and footnotes. This series is designed to provide students and general readers with access to the nature of Greek drama, Greek mythology, and the context of Greek culture, as well as highly readable and understandable translations of four of Euripides most important plays.

 Author                                                    

Stephen Esposito is an Associate Professor at Boston University.  He serves as series editor for the Focus Classical Library, with whom he published a translation and commentary of Euripides Bacchae (1998).  A translation and commentary of Sophocles Ajax is forthcoming.  He is also editing the classical essays of William Arrowsmith.

 Table of Contents                                     

Preface

Introduction

Medea
    Translation and notes by A.J. Podlecki

Hippolytus
    Translation and notes by Michael R. Halleran

Heracles
    Translation and notes by Michael R. Halleran

Bacchae
    Translation and notes by Stephen Esposito

Map

Appendix One: The Hippolytus: An Interpretation
    By Michael R. Halleran

Appendix Two: The Heracles: An Interpretation
    By Michael R. Halleran

Bibliography

 Preface                                                  

Notes on revisions to the translations (2002)

All four translations in this anthology have been previously published as separate volumes in the Focus Classical Library: Heracles (1988, revised 1993), Medea (1989, revised 1998), Bacchae (1998), and Hippolytus (2001). Each translation has been updated for this volume. In revising the previous editions for this anthology, I have abridged (substantially) the notes to the Medea and Bacchae. The notes to the Hippolytus and Heracles have been altered very little. Virtually all those notes in the earlier editions which concerned the state of the Greek text have been removed in this volume.

A few brief remarks with regard to alterations made to each play: In A.J. Podlecki’s Medea I have made substantial revisions throughout the translation, especially in the choral odes. I made these numerous changes in light of recent scholarship and in fruitful consultation with Tony Podlecki. Unfortunately the superb new commentary by Donald Mastronarde, Euripides: Medea (Cambridge, 2002) appeared too late, and is used only in my introduction.

The only changes made to Michael Halleran’s Hippolytus 2001 edition are typographical.

In Halleran’s Heracles, two changes were made, one of which is quite important. Both Halleran and I agree that line 1351 should be translated “I will brave death” rather than “I will endure life.” In this we follow both the ancient manuscript tradition (which reads thanaton, “death” rather than bioton, “life”) and also numerous modern scholars (e.g. W. Arrowsmith, J. Gibert). Another change, of less moment, has been made at line 1313, where Halleran has provided a supplemental translation to fill in a gap left in the Greek text.

In my own Bacchae, the only important textual change is in the translation of the controversial choral refrain at 877-81 (= 897-901). This passage has been retranslated in light of a discussion I had with Charles Segal. His argument can now be found in his commentary (pp. 121-22) in Euripides: Bakkhai (Oxford, 2001) trans. Reginald Gibbons, notes and introduction by C. Segal.

Notes on revisions to the translations (2004)

All four translations have been updated in one form or another for this corrected version of the 2002 edition. The revisions have involved correction of simple errors as well as substantial changes to the general introduction, translations, notes, and stage directions. The bibliography has also been updated to reflect recent scholarship on Euripides, the plays herein, and Athenian tragedy generally. The most numerous and significant alterations have been made to Esposito’s Bacchae, especially in light of the recent splendid work of David Kovacs, namely the sixth and final volume of his Loeb series, Euripides: Bacchae, Iphigeneia at Aulis, Rhesus (Harvard UniversityPress: Cambridge, Ma. and London, 2002) as well as his philological studies of the Greek text in Euripidea Tertia (Brill: Leiden and Boston, 2003) with pages 111-136 on Bacchae.

I would like to thank Madeline McNeely for her moral support and Ron Pullins for his editorial assistance and continued passion for bringing the Greek and Roman Classics to the students of America through the Focus Classical Library.

                                                          -- Stephen Esposito, Boston University, June 2004