The Fragments Book

This volume contains The Phoenician Women, Orestes, The Bakkahi, Iphigenia in Aulis, and Rhesos

There are two ways to translate Greek drama into English: employ lofty verbiage to convey the exalted nature of the text, or employ casual and common speech to capture the effect of the original Greek on Greek audiences. Dr. Carl R. Mueller has opted for the latter and he achieves it with remarkable success.

By rendering Euripides in a very colloquial and plebeian English, Mueller captures that sense of the pedantic would ought to define the ubiquity, if certainly not the art, of Attic tragedy, in that these works were intended for regular enjoyment by regular people. Do not fret, however, as Mueller never veers into OMG Shakespeare territory.

Mueller also avoids the faults of No Fear Shakespeare and assumes that his readers are not idiots by shunning entirely explanatory footnotes. He does provide, however, a very helpful appendix of names and places for those in need of a refresher course on Classical personages and places.

I would recommend this edition to anyone interested in a quality and yet very comfortable introduction to Greek tragedy. The works of Euripides are valuable not only for their timeless beauty, which Mueller has expertly rendered, but for their timeless value as well; there is much the Greeks may yet teach us.