Hippolytos -- Euripides

In most versions of the Hippolytos myth, Phaidra is depicted as an utterly debauched character, a woman reduced to shamelessness by the power of Aphrodite. In Euripides' <em>Hippolytos</em>, however--informed by the playwright's moral and religious fascination--we find a Phaidra resisting the goddess of love with all her strength, though in the end unsuccessfully. Phaidra becomes a tragic foil for Hippolytos, making his superhuman virtue at once believable and understandable.<br>Robert Bagg's profound translation of this Euripidean masterpiece is idiomatic, natural, and intensely lyrical, designed not only to be read but performed. Unlike most versions, Bagg's <em>Hippolytos</em> sustains the dramatic tome and dynamics to the very end--even after Phaidra's death--and the moving scenes between Hippolytos and Theseus, and later Hippolytos' death-scene with Artemis, receive here unprecedented plausibility and power.<br><br><b>Author:</b> Euripides, Robert Bagg<br><b>Publisher:</b> Oxford University Press, USA<br><b>Published:</b> 10/29/1992<br><b>Pages:</b> 128<br><b>Binding Type:</b> Paperback<br><b>Weight:</b> 0.35lbs<br><b>Size:</b> 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.40d<br><b>ISBN:</b> 9780195072907<br><b>Age Range:</b> 22<br><p><b>About the Author</b><br><strong>Robert Bagg</strong> is a recipient of the Prix de Rome for poetry and is author of critical studies of Sappho and Catallus.</p><p></p>