Morning all,
I am currently have a crack at Barrett’s Hippolytus, which is excellent, and so far I have found the play surprisingly readable (which is to say, I have managed to get about 200 lines in, and have a vague sense of what’s going on, which I guess means I am improving!). The meter is completley lost on me though!
Anyway, I recently read Kitto’s book on Greek drama and it has got me excited to read the Oedopus plays. I believe Sophocles is damn difficult to read, but if there is a similar edition out there to the Barrett version of Hippolytus (Or Dodds’s Bacchae), I’d love to give it a go.
The other alternative is the Steadman addition - would you recommend that?
Thanks,
A
Hi
Odeipus Rex
Jebb is still good value. Dawe has written a commentary in the Cambridge green and yellow series and I used it when reading the play. Finglass has written a thorough but mostly philological commentary again published by Cambridge which I would certainly look at when I next read the play.
Steadman is obviously helpful in terms of vocabulary but he doesnt pretend to give a thorough commentary alive to the possible meanings of the play. If it looks helpful to you why not use it in conjunction with a meatier commentary?
Greek tragedy
I would suggest you read Simon Goldhill’s reading Greek Tragedy. Although its fairly old now it gives an alternative approach to older accounts such as you find in Kitto. His chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy is a good introduction too. More recent is Sophocles and the Greek Tragic Tradition edited by Goldhill and Hall which includes 4 chapters on Oedipus Rex. Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece by Jean-Pierre Vernant and Pierre Vidal-Naquet is also highly recommended (essential?).
Thank you, I will go and check them all out, and I have no objects ion to ‘old’ books!
I think reading Steadman on the side is a good idea. I am essentially doing so with Hippolytus (using the orange Bristol one as the commute copy with it’s own dictionary). It’s a lot lighter to carry, and the vocabulary is useful. The commentary just doesn’t compare to Barrett though!
Very few commentaries do compare with Barrett!
I didnt mean to suggest that there was anything wrong with “old” books. I try to read everything with a sceptical eye including new books. I recommend looking at more modern approaches to Greek tragedy than Kitto’s simply because its good to know where the current debate stands as opposed to where it was in the 1930s.
On Metre I am sure if you post problems someone will be able to help. Have you looked at this post http://discourse.textkit.com/t/meter-in-tragedy-split-from-topic-lets-read-ajax/14340/24 for general help?
It’s a good point, I do have a tendency to stick to very old academia (even on my degree many moons ago I used to get told off for using Lewis Namier all the time). However, I did enjoy Kitto’s academic catty-ness.
I’ve looked at the Ajax post a few times. I think my Greek simply isn’t at a level yet where meter is a thing I should worry about, though to be honest I struggle with metrical verse in English quite a bit (my eyes glaze over and I nothing I read sinks in).