Words cannot describe how much good Steve is doing with these series of videos. Many of us, self-proclaimed readers, have never bothered to open books like the ones he is presenting. It is only his second book in "Your daily Penguin" and I have already learnt so much! I take a quick look at the size of that wall behind him… and for some odd reason I feel like I just won the lottery for what’s to come.
Very nice of you to say! Considering how long I've been talking about these books in my life, it strikes me as kind of strange that it took me this long to start talking about them one-by-one on BookTube!
oh yes, so good! It just dawned on me after this series a number of us are in danger of acquiring a colony of penguins! funny thing just happened when I played your video. My wife can recognise your voice now, she wants to keep an eye out on your videos so she can monitor my book purchaces. she choked on her drink when she heard you mentioned "duplicates".
It is a brilliant way for us to experience the penguins! And it ensures months and months of videos to look forward to and learn from. You bring these books to life!! Thank you 😍
I remember the first time I read Agamemnon and it's amazing ending, playing out like a Marvel film. I fell in love with Greek drama because of this trilogy.
I think I am going to enjoy regular doses of Penguin Classics. Thank you Steve. I did get to see Agamemnon performed many years ago when I was at school. Reading A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes has prompted me to revisit Greek drama after forty years. I had honestly forgotten how gripping and complex these plays can be and have resolved to read more. If you have me back on Catullus and Ovid too I will be in trouble.
I think I can safely predict you will be in trouble! These are the books I've read the most, loved the most, traveled with the most, talked about the most, taught the most, and given away the most!
Wonderful video! Last year we saw a version of the Oresteia at the Shakespeare Theatre in DC. It wasn’t perfect but I am so glad we got to see it. I also really enjoyed Anne Carson’s mixed-playwright trilogy.
Steve Donoghue Only a couple of hours. I would love to see a more traditional version sometime. One of my acquaintances teaches Greek and frequently puts on outdoor traditional performances of various plays with her students. And one of my son’s friends staged Antigone in the college football stadium!
I was lucky enough to be friends with a woman whose husband was a retired philosophy professor who staged the Oresteia in his own translation at a local youth theatre - they specialised in doing classics in schools. So I have seen it live and also saw it on the BBC (in 1979) with Diana Rigg as Clymenestra - I don't remember the translation though or whether it is available on video. Tony Harrison (a poet) wrote "The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus" about the discovery and the existing extracts of the one of only two satyr plays - and that was a smash hit in London in the 1990s - Tony Harrison's V might well be of interest to you - it is poetry by a classical scholar who wrote in V about the economically oppressed North of England in the mid-1980s - it is fascinating to listen too and I think hearing him recite his poetry (available on RUclips) helps
The names of 150 Greek authors of tragedy are known...only 3 are extant. Aeschylus who wrote 82 of which 7 survive. Sophocles who wrote 123 of which 7 exist. Euripides who wrote 92 of which 18-19 exist. These texts themselves are the results of untold recopyings which date from the 12-15 centuries therefore subject to possible distorted transcriptions. Papyrus Reed and Parchment (vellum) survived indefinitely only in Egypt due to it's unique climatic conditions also helped by Greek control of that country. The library of Alexandria ( Greek)housed 74-78 of euripides plays.The process of human elimination also played a part in what manuscripts survived. Bye the bye The Tower Beyond Tragedy by Robinson Jeffers is a must read for Orestia fans. All the best my fellow Americans!
I’m adding this one to my tbr! Thanks Steve! One thing I don’t like about black penguin classics is the paper quality, especially the big books. It feels so susceptible to ripping and I can be brutal with my books. I usually prefer Oxford classics editions.
Oh my, you're SO right! I'm brutal with my books too, and some Penguins, particularly older ones, can be flimsy - unlike the Oxford trade paperbacks, which are certainly tougher.
This was a brilliant, heartfelt video. I wasn’t a fan of the daily Penguin idea. I thought it would take too long and I was too eager to eat them all. I stand corrected.
Thanks very much! The more I thought about it, the more I just couldn't bring myself to blast through ten or fifteen of these books in a single video -
We had a “reading” of Agamemnon but not a full “production” in a Greek literature course I took in college. The professor brought in reconstructions of the Greek masks and played the role of Clytemnestra. It was magnificent. Steve, are you on the side of Aeschylus really believing that the out of the Furies becoming the Eumenides and presaging am Athenian jury is reverent rather than a final sarcastic shot from the author of Prometheus Bound?
Many years ago, as a theater major, I performed in our college production of The Oresteia and it was an amazing, all-consuming experience. I no longer have that script (or if I do it’s well-hidden in an attic box) and I don’t remember the translator. Now on my shelves I have the Lattimore translation from University of Chicago Press. I’ve read both Lattimore’s and Fagles’s translation of the Iliad and found that they both have something to recommend them, but I’d like to read the Fagles version of the Orestesia because I just don’t find that Lattimore works as well with theatrical text. Anyway, I’m here for the Daily Penguin!
A CYCLE of plays, certainly, and fascinating to watch the same author returning to the same material, but not actually a trilogy conceived & written all at the same time!
Although Antigone is last within the universe Sophocles creates, it was the first composed by Sophocles and one of his earlier plays. Oedipus at Colonus was written as one of his final plays a generation later. It’s fascinating to see how his writing around the same characters changes over the course of his authorial lifetime.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Words cannot describe how much good Steve is doing with these series of videos. Many of us, self-proclaimed readers, have never bothered to open books like the ones he is presenting. It is only his second book in "Your daily Penguin" and I have already learnt so much! I take a quick look at the size of that wall behind him… and for some odd reason I feel like I just won the lottery for what’s to come.
Very nice of you to say! Considering how long I've been talking about these books in my life, it strikes me as kind of strange that it took me this long to start talking about them one-by-one on BookTube!
This series has me more excited about the classics than I have ever felt, so I hope we get all the way through the whole collection!
A Penguin a day keeps the blues away! Love this series!
I'm in this series for the long haul. Your insights are wonderful.
oh yes, so good! It just dawned on me after this series a number of us are in danger of acquiring a colony of penguins! funny thing just happened when I played your video. My wife can recognise your voice now, she wants to keep an eye out on your videos so she can monitor my book purchaces. she choked on her drink when she heard you mentioned "duplicates".
Hah! Yes, I've learned that quite a few spouses out there in the world now recognize that my videos can lead to excessive book-buying!
It is a brilliant way for us to experience the penguins! And it ensures months and months of videos to look forward to and learn from. You bring these books to life!! Thank you 😍
I got this as part of my gifts for Christmas.
Now I can’t wait to read it.
Thank you, Steve.
I remember the first time I read Agamemnon and it's amazing ending, playing out like a Marvel film. I fell in love with Greek drama because of this trilogy.
Love this new series of videos. Thanks Steve!
I think I am going to enjoy regular doses of Penguin Classics. Thank you Steve.
I did get to see Agamemnon performed many years ago when I was at school. Reading A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes has prompted me to revisit Greek drama after forty years. I had honestly forgotten how gripping and complex these plays can be and have resolved to read more. If you have me back on Catullus and Ovid too I will be in trouble.
I think I can safely predict you will be in trouble! These are the books I've read the most, loved the most, traveled with the most, talked about the most, taught the most, and given away the most!
Wonderful video! Last year we saw a version of the Oresteia at the Shakespeare Theatre in DC. It wasn’t perfect but I am so glad we got to see it. I also really enjoyed Anne Carson’s mixed-playwright trilogy.
I think I read about that production! How long was it?
Steve Donoghue Only a couple of hours. I would love to see a more traditional version sometime. One of my acquaintances teaches Greek and frequently puts on outdoor traditional performances of various plays with her students. And one of my son’s friends staged Antigone in the college football stadium!
Loving this tour/series :)
I'm really enjoying the Daily Penguin. Well done Steve.
I'm so excited to keep watching this series!
Wow this series gets better and better thanks Steve 😉
I was lucky enough to be friends with a woman whose husband was a retired philosophy professor who staged the Oresteia in his own translation at a local youth theatre - they specialised in doing classics in schools. So I have seen it live and also saw it on the BBC (in 1979) with Diana Rigg as Clymenestra - I don't remember the translation though or whether it is available on video.
Tony Harrison (a poet) wrote "The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus" about the discovery and the existing extracts of the one of only two satyr plays - and that was a smash hit in London in the 1990s - Tony Harrison's V might well be of interest to you - it is poetry by a classical scholar who wrote in V about the economically oppressed North of England in the mid-1980s - it is fascinating to listen too and I think hearing him recite his poetry (available on RUclips) helps
I am ecstatic! This new series is my dream!
The names of 150 Greek authors of tragedy are known...only 3 are extant.
Aeschylus who wrote 82 of which 7 survive.
Sophocles who wrote 123 of which 7 exist.
Euripides who wrote 92 of which 18-19 exist.
These texts themselves are the results of untold recopyings which date from the 12-15 centuries therefore subject to possible distorted transcriptions.
Papyrus Reed and Parchment (vellum) survived indefinitely only in Egypt due to it's unique climatic conditions also helped by Greek control of that country. The library of Alexandria ( Greek)housed 74-78 of euripides plays.The process of human elimination also played a part in what manuscripts survived.
Bye the bye The Tower Beyond Tragedy by Robinson Jeffers is a must read for Orestia fans.
All the best my fellow Americans!
I’m adding this one to my tbr! Thanks Steve! One thing I don’t like about black penguin classics is the paper quality, especially the big books. It feels so susceptible to ripping and I can be brutal with my books. I usually prefer Oxford classics editions.
Oh my, you're SO right! I'm brutal with my books too, and some Penguins, particularly older ones, can be flimsy - unlike the Oxford trade paperbacks, which are certainly tougher.
This was a brilliant, heartfelt video. I wasn’t a fan of the daily Penguin idea. I thought it would take too long and I was too eager to eat them all. I stand corrected.
Thanks very much! The more I thought about it, the more I just couldn't bring myself to blast through ten or fifteen of these books in a single video -
It's been years since I read the Oresteia. . .
We had a “reading” of Agamemnon but not a full “production” in a Greek literature course I took in college. The professor brought in reconstructions of the Greek masks and played the role of Clytemnestra. It was magnificent.
Steve, are you on the side of Aeschylus really believing that the out of the Furies becoming the Eumenides and presaging am Athenian jury is reverent rather than a final sarcastic shot from the author of Prometheus Bound?
Many years ago, as a theater major, I performed in our college production of The Oresteia and it was an amazing, all-consuming experience. I no longer have that script (or if I do it’s well-hidden in an attic box) and I don’t remember the translator. Now on my shelves I have the Lattimore translation from University of Chicago Press. I’ve read both Lattimore’s and Fagles’s translation of the Iliad and found that they both have something to recommend them, but I’d like to read the Fagles version of the Orestesia because I just don’t find that Lattimore works as well with theatrical text. Anyway, I’m here for the Daily Penguin!
Actually PERFORMED in the Oresteia? Incredible!
Do you recommend the penguin editions of Lysistrata (Sommerstein) and Medea (Davie) or are there better alternatives?
What about Sophocles Oedipal Cycle (Rex, Colonus, Antigone)? That's not considered a trilogy?
Although they are often grouped together they were actually written at different times and each originally had other plays making up their trilogy.
Each of those plays actually comes from a different trilogy, but are usually placed together by modern editors.
A CYCLE of plays, certainly, and fascinating to watch the same author returning to the same material, but not actually a trilogy conceived & written all at the same time!
Although Antigone is last within the universe Sophocles creates, it was the first composed by Sophocles and one of his earlier plays. Oedipus at Colonus was written as one of his final plays a generation later. It’s fascinating to see how his writing around the same characters changes over the course of his authorial lifetime.
I was right refusing to set any bookish goals and to make any bookish resolutions. With these videos you would derail them all on a daily basis:)