Litsy

Classical Tragedy, Greek and Roman: 8 Plays in Authoritative Modern Translations Accompanied by Critical Essays | Robert Willoughby Corrigan

pick

It is done! Or at least as done as it's going to be from me. I picked up this collection for Euripedes' Medea, was happy to get Sophocles' Antigone in the bargain, and a bonus second Medea by Seneca. Euripides' Bakkhai is a wild time, The Oresteia is pretty familiar ground given the link up to Illiad characters. I wish there was more of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, but what there is extant of it is good. 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? I did Sophocles ' Oedipus the King, and didn't feel in the mood to do Seneca's Oedipus later. I did give the associated essays a try, but they focused more on the plays/play mechanics/playwrights than the stories/myths behind the plays, which are more my interest. Will definitely be seeking more scholarship on Greek myth, (only took 17 years after the Greek and Roman studies degree for me to recover my desire to do research on that topic) 2w

Robotswithpersonality 3/? especially through a modern feminist lens. Antigone and Medea's stories stand out because they exhibit female agency (Clytaemnestra's in The Oresteia is pretty short-lived 😬), and Medea in particular because she 'gets away with it'. Major themes (don't fuck with the gods, expect your family lineage's curse to haunt you in some way, nothing could be more heinous than killing family - except perhaps sleeping with them 🤢) exist throughout. 2w

Robotswithpersonality 4/4 Medea makes for an interesting case because one seems to trump the other - her divine lineage is part of what makes it possible for her to kill and survive - for once no mention of the Furies...will definitely be looking up further modern retellings of her story. Don't get me started on Jason. 🙄
⚠️mentions of SA, suicide, gore, child death 2w

10 likes3 comments

AlaMich

Tragedy of Julius Caesar | William Shakespeare

Mailing our postcards today…
#idesoftrump

The one and only political post I have ever made or ever will make. (probably, but who knows?)

TheBookHippie Mine went out too. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 2w

Aims42 Nice!! 👏👏👏👏 2w

AlaMich @TheBookHippie @Aims42 Gotta channel the rage somewhere!! 2w

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TheBookHippie @AlaMich agreed. 2w

dabbe #metoo! 👊🏻❣️👊🏻 Love the PINK! 🩷 2w

AlaMich @dabbe Thank you! We happened to have some pink cardstock left over from the scrapbooking years. 😊 2w

Amiable Excellent! 👍🏼👍🏼 5h

40 likes7 comments

Robotswithpersonality

Classical Tragedy, Greek and Roman: 8 Plays in Authoritative Modern Translations Accompanied by Critical Essays | Robert Willoughby Corrigan

Ah, yes, because knowing he's the arbiter of his eternal torment is definitely the way to get Prometheus to see Zeus in a more favourable light. 🫣

8 likes1 stack add

TheKidUpstairs

Romeo and Juliet & West Side Story | William Shakespeare, Paul Werstine

Today's Monday Night Hockey is The Jets vs The Sharks. So now I have this stuck in my head: https://youtu.be/twbuT1V5mFE?si=OZWRSdfkL4zPu_v6

#TheatreNerdsUnite

ChaoticMissAdventures When you're a jet you're a jet all the way!! (I am not .. I am a Rangers fan 😂) 1mo

Bookzombie 😂😂 1mo

49 likes2 comments

TiredLibrarian

Hamlet | William Shakespeare

I saw part of the 1948 Olivier Hamlet last night, and it gave me the urge to reread this. It's been a few years, but it's one of my favorite Shakespearean plays. Nothing like a reread of an old favorite on a cold winter's night!

#Shakespeare #Literature #Hamlet

TheBookHippie My son is reading this in English currently. Had to dig mine out! 1mo

GingerAntics 🧡🧡🧡 This is a fav of mine as well 1mo

TiredLibrarian @TheBookHippie I first read it in HS too, and I liked it but didn't love it. I think I needed some more life experience to appreciate it. Funny how books can hit you differently depending on where you are in life when you read them! 1mo

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TiredLibrarian @GingerAntics Glad you love it too! ❤️ 1mo

TheBookHippie @TiredLibrarian oh I feel that way about so many books! 1mo

GingerAntics @TiredLibrarian I have some rather unconventional ideas about this play. You have no idea… and they all stem from the “choose your own adventure” version of it. lol 1mo

TiredLibrarian @GingerAntics I'm intrigued! 1mo

GingerAntics @TiredLibrarian by the choose your own adventure version of Hamlet or my crazy musings? lol 1mo

58 likes8 comments

Eggs

Ethan Frome | Edith Wharton

“They seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods.”

#IllicitLoveAffair

#FeelinThelove ❤️🧡💛

—Edith Wharton

dabbe Excellent one. 🩶💚🩶 1mo

Texreader Oooh great quote 1mo

MaGoose I read this book in college and loved it. It's on my list to reread. 🤎 1mo

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Eggs @dabbe @Texreader @MaGoose Wharton is a treasure 🌟 1mo

MaGoose @Eggs Agreed. I want to read more of her stuff when I get a chance 1mo

bookandbedandtea I've been meaning to read this forever and the absolutely beautiful cover on your version is encouraging me to do it soon! 1mo

Suet624 That looks like a happy little cover. It‘s not a happy little story. 🥴 1mo

Bookwormjillk Great pick. I love this book. 1mo

Eggs @bookandbedandtea I hope you enjoy 😊 1mo

Eggs @Suet624 True 1mo

Eggs @Bookwormjillk Me too 1mo

72 likes11 comments

Eggs

Romeo and Juliet (Updated) | William Shakespeare

In Ovid's "Metamorphoses," love and hate are deeply intertwined with the central theme of transformation. The plays A Midsummer Night's Dream (Pyramus&Thisbe)
and Romeo and Juliet (based on Metamorphoses) are more similar than they appear. Both, written at the same time, deal with forbidden romance and power and control. One play having a comedic end, while the other ends in tragedy, are partly the same tale with a different outcome.
⬇️

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Eggs #LoveHatePairing #FeelingTheLove (edited) 1mo

52 likes1 comment

Lunakay

Romeo and Juliet: Tragedies by William Shakespeare | Shakespeare

Happy Valentine's Day, dear Littens!

Since the Q1 theme is poetry, what better day to enjoy some sonnets or love poems! ❤️

How are the classics going for #classicschallenge 2025?

💖💖💖

Lunakay @Dilara @TheSpineView @BarbaraJean @AnishaInkspill @LapReader @AvidReader25 @BookBelle84 @Kristy_K 2mo

Dilara Good idea!

I read the first (7th c.) written version of Majnun Leyla earlier this year. I still have two later versions (medieval + renaissance) in my To Read pile.
Right now, I am reading a Kazakh contemporary poetry anthology. I don't know if the poems count as “classics“. They might be too recent for that as they were all written in the 20th c. but some of the authors have been deemed “postal stamp worthy“.

Arabic Love Poetry from the Desert: Majnun Leyla, Arabic Text, Commentary and Translations

2mo

AvidReader25 I am in the middle of Swann‘s Way (my 1st Proust!) and finished The Pursuit of Love and Dickens‘ Hard Times. So far, so good! (edited) 1mo

24 likes3 comments

Robotswithpersonality

Medea | Euripides

pick

Felt the need for a reread after reading Glorious Exploits, was not disappointed. Euripides' version is shorter than I remember, but I did enjoy the modern feel to the language in Michael Townsend's translation (the version I read came from Classical Tragedy Greek And Roman: 8 plays edited by Robert W. Corrigan). 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? I appreciate the nuance and conflict Euripides introduced around Medea's seemingly unfathomable choices, while still emphasizing the morality of his time. Medea seems pre-condemned as a family destroyer, emphasizing her involvement in her father's and brother's deaths, yet those same actions can form part of the sins heaped at Jason's feet, adding to the list of reasons he deserves punishment. 2mo

Robotswithpersonality 3/? Similarly convoluted messaging around the children: to be exiled or abandoned, shamed by their father's actions and displaced by his ambition, like Medea, they no longer have a home, and so Medea can find moments of justification beyond her own thirst for vengeance in determingintheir fate. Jason is an odd figure, at first the self-aggrandizing villain identity is obvious, whatever he says, his actions are to further his own interests, 2mo

Robotswithpersonality 4/? no thought for his wife and children, unless you believe the like that his new marriage will better their station, even as he moves to have a family with the princess. Yet his remorse at this childrens' murder seems genuine - is it's only purpose to allow Medea to have her full sense of revenge, or, even as she promises to bury them where he cannot reach them, is she protecting them from him still? (edited) 2mo

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Robotswithpersonality 5/? Medea's othering is also briefly touched on, the idea that she has power, due to her lineage and her collaboration in violent acts previously, and her vicious cursing of the royal family her husband has now switched his allegiance to, her being a 'foreigner', both in Jason's homeland and her sought asylum in Athens. The chorus admonishes her for her blood-thirsty plans, 2mo

Robotswithpersonality 6/? and while that falls in line with some tenets of ancient Greek morality on display: Aigeus swears an oath as a future host having answered Medea's supplication, Medea's broken family bonds by murder and is cursed by it, it also leaves one wondering if anyone is on her side. The othering continues when she and Jason both emphasize women's 'failings' when it suits them, the difficulties inherent in motherhood and how that may clash with other 2mo

Robotswithpersonality 7/7 goals, other sides of a child-bearer's identity.
A bit of a nostalgic read because it got me thinking about analysis from college course, and also a masterful snippet exploring the dark side of 'what would you do' feminine rage and pride versus more traditional feminine roles, the bonds of love and loyalty to family. It's no wonder the tale has lasted this long.
⚠️ misogyny, child death 2mo

11 likes6 comments

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