Thyestes E-Book

Seneca

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

A violent tragedy by a contemporary of Nero, in a faithful and uncut translation by one of our leading dramatists. Atreus, Agamemnon's father, takes revenge on his brother Thyestes by murdering Thyestes's sons and serving their flesh up for their father's dinner. 'a bleakly eloquent new translation... leaves you deeply impressed' - Sunday Times 'It is a sign of Ms Churchill's success that, without rubbing in any parallels, her version constantly prompts thoughts... of the ethics of revenge, of the latest reports from Rwanda, of what has happened in its time on all five continents' - Sunday Telegraph 'The effect is cold-bloodedly illuminating' - Independent on Sunday

Leseprobe

Lucius Annæus Seneca

THYESTES

translated and introduced by

Caryl Churchill

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Introduction

Characters

Original Production

Thyestes

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Introduction

‘Now could I drink hot blood,’ says Hamlet,’and do such bitter business as the day would quake to look on.’ He wants to be a hero in a Seneca play. I didn’t know that till I read Thyestes.

In the summer of 1992 I went to see Ariane Mnouchkine’s production of the House of Atreus plays, and wondered why there were no Greek plays about the beginning of the story. But there had been, James Macdonald told me, though none of them survived. What did survive was a Latin Thyestes by Seneca. I got the Loeb edition with Latin on one page and English opposite. At first I was attracted by the Ghost of Tantalus and a Fury, then by the revenge story, the drought (it was a hot dry summer), the fears of the world ending, which all felt oddly topical. Then I started getting interested in the language, in trying to get through the opaque screen that a translation can’t help being to see what Seneca had actually said. I’d studied Latin at school, and with the Loeb and a dictionary began to pick my way through a few bits that interested me.