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spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
3.0
Originally read for university. Classic Loeb material. Excellent organisation of the parallel texts.
sebseb's review against another edition
4.0
BIRDS: i'm into birds so i had high expectations for bird content and bird-related jokes, was not disappointed. exciting to learn origin of "Cloud Cuckoo Land" and see lots of fourth-wall breaking.
LYSISTRATA: the reason i wanted to read this book was this play which came recommended by mum. gender play and sex jokes in the service of pacifist politics, brilliant. haven't read such a great Greek girl hero since Antigone. her strategy was way more organised and radical than just the famous "denying sex to men" bit, which was cool. thinking about it now, the happy ending is undercut by the real ongoing war with Sparta at the time, bittersweet i guess.
THESMOPHORIAZUSAE: since i've only read a few euripides plays, thought reading/appreciating a piss-take of him would be the toughest part of this collection but instead it was my favourite of the three. begins with the queerest theatre i've ever read, and ends with the euripedes character and his dragged-up kinsman desperately acting out famous scenes from tragedies to try and escape an execution. the play-within-a-play boundary-blurring is surprisingly postmodern and great.
all of three of these were super lewd and also weirdly similar to modern-day musicals. more than other greek stuff i've read i felt the music and dancing were essential to these, and that the text was only a tiny part of the show. sometimes hard for me to vibe with, but the mix of slap-stick and satire was perfect.
LYSISTRATA: the reason i wanted to read this book was this play which came recommended by mum. gender play and sex jokes in the service of pacifist politics, brilliant. haven't read such a great Greek girl hero since Antigone. her strategy was way more organised and radical than just the famous "denying sex to men" bit, which was cool. thinking about it now, the happy ending is undercut by the real ongoing war with Sparta at the time, bittersweet i guess.
THESMOPHORIAZUSAE: since i've only read a few euripides plays, thought reading/appreciating a piss-take of him would be the toughest part of this collection but instead it was my favourite of the three. begins with the queerest theatre i've ever read, and ends with the euripedes character and his dragged-up kinsman desperately acting out famous scenes from tragedies to try and escape an execution. the play-within-a-play boundary-blurring is surprisingly postmodern and great.
all of three of these were super lewd and also weirdly similar to modern-day musicals. more than other greek stuff i've read i felt the music and dancing were essential to these, and that the text was only a tiny part of the show. sometimes hard for me to vibe with, but the mix of slap-stick and satire was perfect.
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