Seneca's Troades: Introduction, Text, Translation and Commentary

by A.J. Boyle

Seneca (ca 1 B.C.-A.D. 65) sets his Troades in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Troy. The Trojan women (the troades) were to become the prizes of the victorious Greeks. As the play opens, their husbands and sons dead, their city in ruins, they wait, lamenting, to be allotted to their new masters. But before the Greek warriors sail home with their spoils, further horrors are in store. Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, demands the sacrifice of the Trojan princess Polyxena as a blood offering to his dead father. And the prophet Calchas decrees that the little son of Hecuba, wife of the Trojan prince and hero Hector, must be slaughtered. In this cruel situation the thoughts, actions and reactions of both sides, Greek men and Trojan women, create the unfolding drama. The themes of power, culture, freedom, delusion, history and death make Troades a brilliant piece of theatre, whose concerns speak as directly now as they did to the spectacular, histrionic and self-consuming world of early imperial Rome. The English translation, like that of Boyle's earlier Phaedra edition, is printed facing the Latin and aims at verbal and stylistic fidelity. The introduction and detailed commentary fill in the play's background for students of Latin and of Roman civilisation, and for the generally interested reader.

250 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1994

Reviews

[Ulrike · Rating 5 out of 5]

not even gonna lie i was too caught up trying to speedrun the latin to know wtf was going on with the plot. boyle's translation was good and literal. seneca i love you and i love death and blood and flames.

[Siem Lowis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The grand theme in this book (as a Stoic writer like Seneca should have written it?) is the way in which fortune (and thus also misfortune) is quite arbitrary at times. One moment you have it all, the next you no longer do.

Perhaps it is wrong to interpret it as such, but it seems like the author places a bit of a pro-Troyan twist on the ancient story. I think it´s a great read regardless of that.

Brings home the Stoic message even better than some of the philosophical discourses do!