Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1exp 11/4/83; site ihuxw.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!floyd!clyde!ihnp4!ihuxw!pector
From: pector@ihuxw.UUCP (Scott W. Pector)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Greek and Roman Classics
Message-ID: <633@ihuxw.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 27-Dec-83 11:45:02 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxw.633
Posted: Tue Dec 27 11:45:02 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Dec-83 01:23:58 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 44

Once in a while I get in the mood for the classics; so for the last couple
of months, I read some plays by Aristophanes, Euripides, and Sophocles, and
the satires and epistles of Horace and Persius.  The edition of Aristophanes
that I read was a paperback edition (from Signet or Bantam) that had all
his surviving plays (10).  The plays were good; they are supposedly the only
remaining examples of what is called the Old Comedy.  They attack abuses
in Athenian society and politics.  In fact, they remind me of the kind of
spoofs (except more drawn out) that one sees at the Second City revues in
Chicago (I suspect similar things are done by its sister troop in Toronto
when they aren't on TV).  The material was satisfactory, but at times it
bordered on the ludicrous.  I guess the marvel of it consists of 1) one
wouldn't expect this type of bantering and encouragement of reform to be
presented to the public at that time (in Athens during the Peloponnesian
War:  these plays indicate the almost complete freedom of speech allowed
to writers, even if they attacked the government or its leaders personally);
and 2) the type of humor prevalent in the plays.

The edition of Euripides that I read was a paperback edition (from Signet or
Bantam) that had 10 of his plays.  I found the plays very entertaining.  In
fact, it was hard to put the book down when in the middle of a play.  I par-
ticularly liked "Electra," "Trojan Women," and the plays containing Orestes
and/or Iphigenia.  Orestes is a very interesting character to study, for in
different plays, Euripides views him differently.  Also, Euripides is reported
to have been the first Greek playwright to have given his characters traits
from everyday people rather than those of idealized heroes.

The edition of Sophocles that I read (from Oxford U. Press) had only 3 of
his plays.  Although his characters are more idealized than those of
Euripides, his study of their interactions with each other is quite
fascinating.  I particularly enjoyed the play about Electra and her
interactions with her mother Clytemnestra, and her younger sister, shortly
before Orestes returns to avenge the murder of his father Agamemnon.
Another good play involved the interactions between Odysseus, Achilles'
son, and Hercules' friend (who was given the hero's arrows and quiver which
never failed).

Finally, I was rather unimpressed by the Penguin's Classics edition of
the satires of Horace and Persius.  I found the works of both of these
poets rather lackluster.  About the only things of interest that I found
are their comments on their contemporaries and their attacks on their
societies.  But even these were at times very boring, although that may
have been due to a poor translation.

						Scott Pector