Aias (Ajax)
-
- £2.99
-
- £2.99
Publisher Description
The oldest surviving play of the great Greek tragedian Sophocles, "Aias" or "Ajax" unfolds the destiny of the warrior Aias after the Trojan War. He is infuriated with the Greek leaders for awarding the armor of Achilles to Odysseus, and he vows to kill them in his vengeance. When he attempts to seek his revenge, however, the goddess Athena interferes, leading him into disgrace. Determined to end his own life, Aias disregards the pleading of his wife and gives a stirring final speech before committing suicide. What follows is the question of his burial: does he deserve respect in death for leading an otherwise noble life?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tipton takes the colloquial directness of Robert Fagles and the blunt eroticism of Anne Carson to the breaking point in this experimental translation of one the stranger and more unyielding works by one of Western civilization's founding dramatists. Tipton's opening dialogue between Athena and Odysseus astonishes, and his treatment of the chorus ventures into the territory of the Ontological-Hysteric Theatre: "where will it end/ the count of years wandering/ the toll the statistics of missiles/ in flight that fall/ back to the ground/ where a crater accuses." Flood Editions are published by Chicago poet Devin Johnston and poet Michael O'Leary.
