Aeschylus: Agamemnon (1983 TV) part 1/10

Peter Hall = love

Minchia, che parodo|

Thank you for posting. This is amazing!!

OMG how great to see this! I saw this magnificent production as a student in London in 1981 and it changed the way I thought about theater. Thanks so much for posting! And this, as I'm getting ready to finally perform in my first Greek tragedy after so many years. Yippee!

Greek Mythology..... the best "history"

No you are right. Ancient Greek poetry didn't have verses at all. Instead it was quantitative: syllabic length was its pattering agent, and it was ordered by short and long Syllables in very complicated schemes. But that is of course nearly impossible to convey in modern languages. Therefore the translator has used verses instead to express the original feeling. Personally I really dont like it when I read the Tragedies, but in a performance it gives some sense.

How is this? They most certainly did have verses. This translation might have added a few, yes, and I know for a fact it removed some (noteably the famous 'pathei mathos' line.) What you are speaking of, Dominicussen, was that it did not work on the basis of stress, but rather syllabic length. However, these patterns were arranged into verses, in the case of the dialogue in such a play as this, Iambic Trimeter (a misnomber, for there are in fact six iambs.) The schemes, however, are not complex.

Oh yes, sorry, they composed in verse. I just forgot that Verse doesnt means rhymed verse: as in saw /.claw for instance, but refer to any kind of metrical composition. So what I meant was just that this modern way of constructing verse by rhyme was not used as the governing principle. However, here in this translation it is also quite rare that they sing in rhymed verse.

As for complexity, maybe most parts are not that complex, and he often uses dactylic, iambic and trochaic, but some parts are. Cf. for instance this description from D. S. Raven Greek Metre about the choir song at 192-257: Chiefly iambic, with heavy syncopation. Choriambic substitution at the ends of stanzas (p. 110).
Greetings Jon and nice to have these kind of discussions on You-tube!

Ah, I see what you mean now. Yes, indeed, the chorus can be rather difficult to deal with (more so than the dialogue) especially in Aeschylus. I'm not that familiar with the Agamemnon in Greek, but have done some work on the Seven Against Thebes, so I suppose I'll have to amend my statement and agree that, as you have said, they can become rather complex at times... and that's saying nothing of syntax and vocabulary!