Greek Drama

Rating:
Summary: Good value, though outdated
Review: Editor Moses Hadas was a world-renowned scholar, and his notes can be helpful, but the translations he presented in this volume have become outdated. Most Greek translations sacrifice something through the morality, prudence, or artistic judgment of the translator. This is a fine text for the value, but if clarity is more important to you, seek a more recent translation.

Rating:
Summary: A most economical collection for introducing Greek drama
Review: I am certainly ambivalent about this collection of "Greek Drama" as a textbook. On the one hand, I totally agree, there are much better translations out there of these plays than what Moses Hadas provides in this volume. But on the other hand, "Greek Drama" includes significant plays by all three of the great Greek tragic dramatists plus a comedy by Aristophanes, all for a lot less than it would cost you for a first rate translation of any single play. True, you can find all of these plays on the Internet, but as a general rule those translations are even older and less satisfying than what Hadas provides here. The selection of plays here is also above average: we have the opening and closing plays of Aeschylus' Oretia trilogy, "Agamemnon" and "Eumenidies," along with a summary of "Choephoroe"; Sophocles' most famous plays "Oedipus the King" and "Antigone," along with a summary of "Oedipus at Colonus" and the lesser known "Philoctetes"; Euripides' "Medea," "Hippolytus" and "Trojan Women"; and Aristophanes' "The Frogs." Although I find the last choice a tad odd, with "Lysistrata" being the obvious substitute (or even "The Clouds"), overall this is a solid introduction to exactly what the title of the book says. On balance, I have to think this tips the scale in favor of this volume, especially when you look at the competition. Final note: Teachers can do a nice ancient/modern analogue with not only the Sophocles and Anoulih versions of "Antigone," but also Euripides' "Hippolytus" and Racine's "Phaedra."

Rating:
Summary: beautifully written
Review: I enjoyed reading this boo