Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick)/Preface 2
PREFACE TO THE FOUR PLAYS.
The kind reception accorded to my version of the Oresteian trilogy has encouraged me to complete my task by translating the remaining dramas of the great Athenian bard.
It is impossible to determine with accuracy the original number of the Æschylean dramas; the lowest estimate is seventy-five, the highest one hundred. Of this treasure of poetry seven dramas only, together with a few isolated fragments, have escaped the wreck of time. Æschylus has been compared, not inaptly, to the Sphinx of the Egyptian desert, buried up to its shoulders beneath the accumulated sands of ages. "Enseveli et éternel, le front sortant du sépulcre, Eschyle regarde les générations."
The influence of his genius has been far-reaching in space, as well as enduring in time:—it is interesting to consider the vast area over which the spirit and language of Hellas were diffused by means of her colonies, which were found scattered and isolated in every region of the known world; from Spain in the west to the countries bordering upon the Euxine in the east; from Pannonia in the north to Libya in the south.
The importance of poetry as one of the great civilizing forces of humanity was not overlooked by these Hellenic communities. They recognized the prime truth that "the mind of a nation constitutes its firmest bulwark." Theatres accordingly were erected beside their citadels. These edifices, it must be remembered, were not, as with us, mere places of amusement. Owing to the religious element, which from its cradle pervaded the Athenian drama, the Hellenic theatres were invested with somewhat of a sacred character, and their dramatic performances constituted a characteristic feature of the national life. Æschylus, we are told, was the favourite poet of the Hellenic colonists.
"Æschylus present, Hellas was not altogether absent. His colossal genius thus protected these infant communities from the inroads of surrounding barbarism, and maintained them in the circle of Hellenic civilization."
It would be well if the civilizing agency of poetry were more universally recognized. The human mind requires to be lifted occasionally above the level of ordinary life, where it is exposed to the perpetual harass of material cares. Poetry, the highest embodiment of idealized passion and imaginative thought, must ever be regarded as a mighty agent for the accomplishment of this object. Poets of the highest order belong, however, not to one age or country, but to humanity. It is therefore important that the productions of those master-spirits should be adequately translated and thus rendered generally accessible. This is more especially true at the present time, when, with the spread of education, the multitude of readers will be indefinitely increased.
Shakespeare has been not inappropriately styled "the modern Æschylus;" an association which, to the English reader at least, invests with peculiar interest the prophetic poet of the ancient world. The perusal of his master-works, like those of his great compeer, illustrates the truth proclaimed by the Apostle from the Athenian Areopagus, "that God has made of one blood all nations of men;" notwithstanding the diversity of external surrounding, we discern, in the personages of the Æschylean dramas, whether human or superhuman, beings of like passions with ourselves, endowed with the same mental constitution, and subject to the moral laws impressed by the Creator upon our common humanity. In his sublimer passages we soar with the poet as on eagle's wings, and anon we come upon pregnant utterances which
"fix themselves
Deep in the heart as meteor stones in earth
Dropped from some higher sphere."
"Who can mistake great thoughts?
They seize upon the mind,—arrest and search
And shake it; bow the tall soul as by wind,—
Rush over it like rivers over reeds,
Which quaver in the current."
Such are the thoughts of Æschylus!
From all this wealth of poetry many readers are, however, practically excluded, not only by the foreign language in which it is embodied, but also by their unfamiliarity with the mythological lore of Hellas. Like travellers in a foreign country, they shrink from the exertion of exploring an unknown region without the assistance of a guide. In order in some measure to supply this want, I have prefixed to each drama a brief introduction, setting forth the main incidents of the situation, together with other explanatory details. In these introductions I make no claim to originality; I have consulted the various works, bearing upon the subject, to which I had access, and from them I have endeavoured to bring together, as concisely as possible, such materials as seemed subservient to the object which I had in view.
With regard to Prometheus, I have felt the impossibility of treating adequately, within the narrow limits of an introduction, a subject so vast, and with reference to which such diverse opinions are entertained. The theory propounded by Schoemann appears to me to be one of the most successful attempts to reconcile the apparent discrepancy between the character of Zeus as portrayed in the Prometheus Bound, and that depicted in the remaining dramas of Æschylus, more especially in the Suppliants and the Oresteian trilogy. I have accordingly given, in my introduction, a brief epitome of some leading ideas embodied in Schoemann's essay, and to that I must refer the reader for a more complete exposition of his views.
In the introduction to my translation of the Oresteian trilogy, I have alluded at some length to the theory which refers the origin of the Hellenic mythology to the phenomena of the natural world; and which, through the researches of Prof. Max Müller and other mythologists, is shown to rest upon a basis of fact. The application of the theory to the legendary lore of Hellas has given rise to so much controversy, and has opened so wide a field of speculation, that I have abstained from entering upon the subject, and must refer the reader to the Rev. G. W. Cox's "Mythology of the Aryan Nations," where it is fully discussed.
Having in the choral odes of my second volume observed the arrangement of Strophe and Antistrophe, which forms a characteristic feature of the original, I have thought it advisable to bring my version of the Oresteian trilogy, in this respect, into harmony with the remaining dramas of Æschylus, and have moreover carefully revised the whole.
In conclusion, I have great pleasure in expressing my grateful acknowledgments to my friend Professor Newman, for his most kind and valuable assistance. This assistance has reference not merely to the interpretation of the more obscure passages of the original, the difficulty of which is greatly enhanced by the corrupt condition of the text, but also to his proposed corrections, for which I refer the reader to the notes printed, as in the Trilogy, at the end of each drama. I have in addition to thank him for important aid in rendering the original into English. The whole of my translation has been submitted to his revision, and, with his permission, I have freely availed myself of the numerous proposed emendations with which he has from time to time most kindly favoured me.
I am also indebted to my friend Mr. W. W. Lloyd for several valuable suggestions, for which I beg to express my cordial thanks. I moreover gladly acknowledge my obligation to previous commentators and translators.
In the preparation of my introductions I have consulted the following works, from which, for the most part, I have borrowed my materials. Grote's 'History of Greece;' Bunsen's 'Gott in der Geschichte;' 'Ariadne,' von O. F. Gruppe; 'Die Aeschylische Trilogie Prometheus,' etc., von F. G. Welcker; 'Des Aeschylos gefesselter Prometheus,' von G. F. Schoemann; 'Des Aeschylos Werke,' übersetzt von J. G. Droysen; Hegel's 'Vorlesungen über die Aesthetik.' I am also indebted to an interesting essay on the religion of Æschylus, by Brook F. Westcott, which appeared in the 'Contemporary Review.' In the preface to my second volume I have borrowed some thoughts from Victor Hugo's 'Shakespeare.'
I am happy to state that in a separate volume my translation of the Æschylcan dramas is asssociated with Flaxman's illustrations.
- Regent's Park, 1872.