Alcestis: A Play

Alcestis: A Play

<p>In the years before his death at age sixty-eight in 1998, Hughes translated several classical works with great energy and ingenuity. His<i> Tales from Ovid </i>was called "one of the great works of our century" (Michael Hofmann, <i>The Times</i>, London), his <i>Oresteia of Aeschylus</i> is considered the difinitive version, and his <i>Ph¨dre</i>was acclaimed on stage in New York as well as London. Hughes's version of Euripides's <i>Alcestis</i>, the last of his translations, has the great brio of those works, and it is a powerful and moving conclusion to the great final phase of Hughes's career. </p><p>Euripides was, with Aeschylus and Sophocles, one of the greatest of Greek dramatists. Alcestis tells the story of a king's grief for his wife, Alcestis, who has given her young life so that he may live. As translated by Hughes, the story has a distinctly modern sensibility while retaining the spirit of antiquity. It is a profound meditation on human mortality. </p><p>Ted Hughes's last book of poems, <i>Birthday Letters</i>, won the Whitbread Book of the Year Prize. He was Poet Laureate to Queen Elizabeth II and lived in Devon, England until he died in 1998.</p>