Aeschylus, 2

About the Translators: Gail Holst-Warhaft graduated from Melbourne University and received her Ph.D. degree in comparative literature from Cornell University, where she now teaches classics and modern Greek and is active in Balkan studies. She has lectured and taught also in Australia, Portugal, Greece, and Thailand. Her translations of the poems of Nikos Kavadias won the Columbia University translation prize. She has written extensively on Greek popular music and is currently completing a book on the traditional and contemporary manipulation of grief. Her recent books include Mauthausen (translation of a novel by Iakovos Kambanellis), Dangerous Voices: Women's Laments and Greek Literature, Achilles' Fiancee (translation of a novel by Alki Zei), and Road to Rembetika: Music of a Greek Sub-culture (currently in its fifth edition and available in several translations). William Matthews was the author of more than a dozen books, including eight of original poetry and two of translation. His Selected Poems and Translations appeared in 1992. He received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Ingram Merrill Foundation; his poetry received the Oscar Blumenthal Award, the Eunice Tietjens Memorial Prize, and the Union League Prize. He taught at Wells College, Cornell University, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Columbia University, University of Washington, New York University, City College of New York, and elsewhere. Mr. Matthews served on the editorial board of Weslyean University Press and as poetry editor of Iowa Review. He was president of the Poetry Society of America from 1985-89. He died before he could see his translation of Prometheus Bound achieve publication. Stephen Sandy graduated from Yale and received his Ph.D. degree from Harvard University, where he has taught. He has taught also at Tokyo University, Brown University, the Wesleyan University Writers Conference, The Writing Center at the Chautauqua Institution, and Davidson College. His numerous awards and grants include a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, an Ingram Merrill Foundation fellowship; a Fulbright Lectureship, the Academy of American Poets Prize, a Dexter Fellowship, Harvard Monthly Prize, Javits Fellowships, and Yaddo residencies. He has been on the faculty of Bennington College since 1969. He is the author of ten books; his New and Selected Poems is forthcoming. David R. Slavitt was educated at Andover and Yale and has published more than sixty books: original poetry (recently Eight Longer Poems), translations (recently Broken Columns, of Statius and Claudian), novels (recently Lives of the Saints), critical works (recently Virgil), and short stories. He worked for seven years as a journalist at Newsweek and continues to do freelance reporting and reviewing. With Palmer Bovie he coedited the series Complete Roman Drama in Translation.

"Directness, vivid imagery, and rhetorical music prevail." (San Francisco Chronicle) "A boon for classicists and general readers alike. For the reader who comes to tragedy for the first time, these translations are eminently 'accessible,' and consummately American in tone and feeling. For the classicist, these versions constitute an ambitious reinterpretation of traditional masterpieces; after 2,500 years, the poetry of Euripides and Aeschylus has found a new voice-in fact, ten of them." (Boston Book Review)

• Introduction, by Palmer BovieThe Persians-Translated by David R. SlavittSeven Against Thebes-Translated by Stephen SandyThe Suppliants-Translated by Gail Holst-WarhaftPrometheus Bound-Translated by William MatthewsPronouncing Glossary of NamesAbout the Translators