A “heroized” edition of Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes
We are pleased to share a revised translation of Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes that tracks Core Vocab words in the same way as the Sourcebook of Primary Texts in Translation used in HeroesX.[1]
This was the result of a community-driven collaborative “heroization” project. The group revised a translation to indicate each and every occurrence of a Heroes core vocabulary term and to make the translation of these terms as consistent as possible with the glosses given in the Heroes Core Vocabulary Glossary. The base text in this project was the translation of Herbert Weir Smyth.
As with previous heroization projects, the group prepared in advance by using Perseus under PhiloLogic to create an index that indicated every line where one of the core vocab terms occurred. Then the Seven Against Thebes Heroization team, Hélène Emeriaud, Kelly Lambert, Janet M. Ozsolak, Sarah Scott, and Keith Stone, came together for two days in person at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington DC and via Google+ hangouts to work collaboratively through the text. Guided by the Core Vocab index and checking the Greek text at all times, the team worked through the English translation, adding tags and adjusting the translation. This work was highly collaborative. When consensus could not be reached on how to deal with a particular line, the team consulted with Gregory Nagy, Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature at Harvard University and Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies.
The team held one final session via Google+ Hangout to tidy up the text and to ensure consistency.
You can find a link to the drama here, in html format, or as a PDF: Aeschylus Seven Against Thebes[2]
Community-generated introduction to the play (PDF): Introduction to Aeschylus Seven Against Thebes by Jack Vaughan.
If you would like to know more about how to use online tools to search for words, or if you are interested in joining a future heroization project, please post in the forum.
Notes
[1] Sourcebook: The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours Sourcebook of Original Greek Texts Translated into English, Gregory Nagy, General Editor. 2018.08.06. Available online at the Center for Hellenic Studies.
[2] This revised translation is made available online via Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
Image credits
Photo: CHS
Featured image: Etruscan architectural plaque from the column of the temple A at Pyrgi. Scene from the Theban Cycle, the Seven against Thebes: Menerva, Tinia, Capaneus, Tydeus and Melanippus. circa 470-460 BCE, By Ευπάτωρ Talk!! [GFDL 1.2 ], from Wikimedia Commons