Aias (Greek Tragedy in New Translations)

As a warning, this isn't the same version as the paperback edition listed with it. It's an older translation from a time when making translated works sound old and proper was the norm, so it's dense and not very accessible compared to more modern versions. I already wasn't a huge fan of the play, but this version was especially a slog to get through.It only really gets 2 stars because the wildly different translation style from the paperback led to some interesting discussions in my Classics class.

The classic story of demise for Ajax (called 'Aias' here). Not written in the most accessible way to the modern reader, but a resonating story nonetheless.

A+

"A brilliant addition to a distinguished series". That's what Bernard Knox said, and I couldn't agree more. I think most of us who love the classics will agree that if Knox says it is good, he can be taken at his word!This translation is by a somewhat unlikely team. I knew Richard Pevear for his stunning, that is the only word for it, translations of great Russian masterworks such as The Idiot, The Demons, The Brothers Karamazov, Anna Karenina and the Master Margarita. These superb translations were undertaken with his wife, Larissa Volkonsky, and I urge you to grab one. They are somewhat controversial, particularly for a generation of readers who grew up with Victorian and Edwardian translations of the Russian masters. They are very close to the Russian and have an almost breathless immediacy to them. But the ARE different. ...P>So why all this talk about the Russians? Because Pevear (with an able assist from Herbert Golder) has done for the Greeks what he did for the Russians.... but this translations fiery. I have ALWAYS loved Ajax. I recently read a version of the Iliad to my three young nephews. And they each had their favourite. Achilles, Diomedes and Hector. But they each knew, that in a pinch? when the chips were down? when things get ugly? Who do you want beside you in the phalanx? That's right. That big brute Ajax. Bulwark of the Greeks. A killing machine. Taciturn. Implacable. "Even in death", writes Golder in his introduction, "in his sublime Homeric moment, Aias is famous for what Longinus called his 'eloquent silence': the refusal of his shade to speak to Odysseus in Hades." Now you HAVE to love that.And who doesn't secretly admire him for the incident involving Athena. She took her position alongside him in the Greek line and when he saw her, he blasphemously urged her to move on saying, "Go, stand by the rest of the Greeks. The line won't break where I hold it." Yo!Sophocles story deals with his death. And it is in his confrontation with his death that his greatness emerges. And he is given one of the greatest speeches of antiquity -- and Pevear's translation is breathtaking:"Great, unfathomable timebrings dark things into the lightand buries the bright in darkness.Nothing is too strange, time seizesthe most dread oath, the most hardenedmind. Even I, whose willwas tempered like iron, unbendingin action, for a woman's sakeam become a woman in my speech."And, later in the same speech,"For even the most awesome powerssubmit to authority: snow-trackedwinter yields to the rich growthof summer, dark-vaulted nightgives way to the shinning, white-horsedbrightness of day, a blastof appalling winds stills the seas's rage,even all-overwhelming sleepbinds only to let go. Then howshall we not learn wise restraint."Oh...my...god.Here's the skinny on this. Trust me. This is a GREAT story. It is a GREAT play. It is a GREAT translation. And it is about a GREAT hero. Golder writes, "...for the values of endurance, tragic solitude, and heroic hubris -- the basis of the permanent values of the democratic city -- Aias is the paradigm."...

this interpretation offers a great translation of sophocles.Ajax,the greek warrior who took his life too seriuosly or not seriously enough.Ajax is angry because the armour of the fallen Achilles is given to Ulysses and not to him.This is a slight which offends brave Ajax to to the bone,since he believes he is second only to Achilles.So deep does his resentment go that he plans to slaughter his allies in a murderous rage,that he is proud of.Instead he is tricked by the Gods into massacring a herd of farm animals,whom Ajax mistakes for Ulysees and his friends.Was Ajax blinded in a binge of alcoholic excess,or did the Gods actually smite him with a crushing(to Ajax's ego),hallucination?No harm done,since Ajax hasn't killed anyone,except a herd of cattle,could he not just laugh it off with a "Whew what was i thinking?" His wife and friends try to tell him that would probably be the best way out. But Ajax to himself has crossed his own line ,one which only "women" could recross.Now hear Ajax's own words about his reason for not allowing the cattle slaughtering incident to pass as a jest,instead he literally will die of embarrassment,"To stretch your life out when you see that nothing can break its misery is shameful-day after day,moving forward or back from the end line of death.There's no joy in that. Any mortal who warms his heart over empty hopes is worthless in my eyes.Honor in life or in death:if a man is born noble,he must have one or the other.You've heard all there is to say" In other words Ajax believes when he has lost his own self respect,no matter how trivial the reason for it seems to another,he has lost everything.A wonderful rendering of Ajax's last words are given in this interpretation,words that are as pertinent to us today.Pride can cause a fall,but it can also give one a sense of something beyond this world.Who would be the one to judge Ajax's reasoning?After all noone gave more of himself in pursuit of the Trojan War,excepting Achilles, than Ajax.Then when Ajax's allies turn on him he gives out another wise gem to be carried through the ages,"I know now to hate an enemy just so far,for another time we may befriend him.And the friend I help,I will not help too greatly,knowing that one day may find him my enemy.For most mortals friendship is a treacherous harbor." This is a great translation.Poor Ajax,noone took him seriuosly,except to name a bathroom cleanser in memory.This neglected work of Sophocles is short and powerful,and if read,this fresh interpretation could blast the demons from the bowl,like the cleanser.

Good translation with an excellent introduction (worth the price for the introduction alone IMHO)