The Complete Euripides

Book excerpt: Based on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can best re-create the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations series offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order to evoke the poetry of the originals. The tragedies collected here were originally available as single volumes. This new collection retains the informative introductions and explanatory notes of the original editions, with Greek line numbers and a single combined glossary added for easy reference. This volume collects Euripides' Andromache, a play that challenges the concept of tragic character and transforms expectations of tragic structure; Hecuba, a powerful story of the unjustifiable sacrifice of Hecuba's daughter and the consequent destruction of Hecuba's character; Trojan Women, a particularly intense account of human suffering and uncertainty; and Rhesos, the story of a futile quest for knowledge.