Aeschylus, 2: The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, the Suppliants, Prometheus Bound

The Penn Greek Drama Series presents original literary translations of the entire corpus of classical Greek drama: tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays. It is the only contemporary series of all the surviving work of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander.

This final volume of the tragedies of Aeschylus relates the historic defeat and dissolution of the Persian Empire on the heels of Xerxes disastrous campaign to subdue Greece, the struggle between the two sons of Oedipus for the throne of Thebes, the story of fifty daughters who seek asylum from their uncle, the king of Egypt, because of his demand that they marry his sons, and the well-known tale of the proud and unrepentant Prometheus, who is chained to a massive rock for revealing fire and hope to humankind.

Translations are by David Slavitt (Persians), Stephen Sandy (Seven Against Thebes), Gail Holst-Warhaft (The Suppliants), and William Matthews (Prometheus Bound).

Author: David R. Slavitt
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 01/01/1998
Pages: 232
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9780812216714

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 07/19/1998 pg. 14

About the Author
About the Translators: Gail Holst-Warhaft graduated from Melbourne University and received her Ph.D. degree in comparative literature from Cornell University, where she now teaches classics and modern Greek and is active in Balkan studies. She has lectured and taught also in Australia, Portugal, Greece, and Thailand. Her translations of the poems of Nikos Kavadias won the Columbia University translation prize. She has written extensively on Greek popular music and is currently completing a book on the traditional and contemporary manipulation of grief. Her recent books include Mauthausen (translation of a novel by Iakovos Kambanellis), Dangerous Voices: Women's Laments and Greek Literature, Achilles' Fiancee (translation of a novel by Alki Zei), and Road to Rembetika: Music of a Greek Sub-culture (currently in its fifth edition and available in several translations). William Matthews was the author of more than a dozen books, including eight of original poetry and two of translation. His Selected Poems and Translations appeared in 1992. He received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Ingram Merrill Foundation; his poetry received the Oscar Blumenthal Award, the Eunice Tietjens Memorial Prize, and the Union League Prize. He taught at Wells College, Cornell University, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Columbia University, University of Washington, New York University, City College of New York, and elsewhere. Mr. Matthews served on the editorial board of Weslyean University Press and as poetry editor of Iowa Review. He was president of the Poetry Society of America from 1985-89. He died before he could see his translation of Prometheus Bound achieve publication. Stephen Sandy graduated from Yale and received his Ph.D. degree from Harvard University, where he has taught. He has taught also at Tokyo University, Brown University, the Wesleyan University Writers Conference, The Writing Center at the Chautauqua Institution, and Davidson College. His numerous awards and grants include a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, an Ingram Merrill Foundation fellowship; a Fulbright Lectureship, the Academy of American Poets Prize, a Dexter Fellowship, Harvard Monthly Prize, Javits Fellowships, and Yaddo residencies. He has been on the faculty of Bennington College since 1969. He is the author of ten books; his New and Selected Poems is forthcoming. David R. Slavitt was educated at Andover and Yale and has published more than sixty books: original poetry (recently Eight Longer Poems), translations (recently Broken Columns, of Statius and Claudian), novels (recently Lives of the Saints), critical works (recently Virgil), and short stories. He worked for seven years as a journalist at Newsweek and continues to do freelance reporting and reviewing. With Palmer Bovie he coedited the series Complete Roman Drama in Translation.