Hackett Publishing

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Diane Arnson Svarlien’s translation of Euripides’ Andromache, Hecuba, and Trojan Women exhibits the same scholarly and poetic standards that have won praise for her Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus. Ruth Scodel’s Introduction examines the cultural and political context in which Euripides wrote, and provides analysis of the themes, structure, and characters of the plays included. Her notes offer expert guidance to readers encountering these works for the first time.

 

Acclaim for Diane Arnson Svarlien’s Euripides: Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus

“Arnson Svarlien’s translations are an ideal introduction to Euripides for students with no Greek and little knowledge of the ancient world. They remind me of why I love Euripides.”
     —Laurel Bowman, Department of Classics, University of Victoria

“Provides thoughtful, clear and sprightly translations of the works included. Arnson Svarlien has made an effort to provide a given Greek word with a consistent English translation throughout. Hence, for example, aidôs usually appears as ‘reverence,’ sôphrosynê as ‘wise restraint.’ However, as she says, ‘total consistency in this regard is neither possible nor desirable.’ She has used iambic pentameters to correspond to Euripides’ trimeters and anapests to correspond with anapests; for the lyric passages, she has not necessarily followed Euripides metrically, but has very successfully attempted to incorporate responsion between strophes and antistrophes. These efforts are one of the great attractions of the volume.
     “There is a great clarity and simplicity to many of the verses. The translations run smoothly and represent well the snap of Euripidean stichomythia, the rhetorical bent of his speeches, and the graceful yearning characteristic of his odes.”
      —Jennifer Clarke Kosak, New England Classical Journal

“This is the Medea we have been waiting for. It offers clarity without banality, eloquence without pretension, meter without doggerel, accuracy without clumsiness. Arnson Svarlien has shown herself exceedingly skillful in making Euripides sound Euripidean.”
     —David M. Schaps, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

“Arnson Svarlien’s Medea reveals a translator who can write with genuine distinction, in proper sentences, with a rare sense of rhythm.”
      —Malcolm Heath, Greece and Rome


Diane Arnson Svarlien earned her PhD in Classics at The University of Texas at Austin and lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

Ruth Scodel is the D. R. Shackleton Bailey Collegiate Professor of Greek and Latin, University of Michigan.


To view a complete listing of Hackett ancient Greek tragedies in translation, please click here.