What Others Have Said About This Translation

"These new dramatic releases provide us once again with that powerful and direct style of translation for which Professor Johnston has become known. Students reading these translations will have no doubt of the passion and issues raised by the plays."

                                               Princeton Professor Emerita.Elaine Fantham

Hear NPR's review of this translator's work.

 

Read what others have said about this book and translator's other works

 

I found your translation of  Antigone on the internet and decided to produce it as my thesis project for my Masters of Arts in Theatre Production. . .  I preferred the readability of your translation as well as the fact that it did not try to make the language sound too modern (as Corrigan's often sounds). I wanted to perform the play that Sopholces wrote which led me away from adaptations and toward translations instead.
Ellensburg, Washington

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Excellent translation, easy to read, wonderful entry to epic Greek poems.

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Thank you so much for you e-text translations of Euripides and Aristophanes.  I am home schooling my children in Lima, Peru where we cannot access English libraries.  My daughter who is in tenth grade is reading through the classic literature. The translations I found of Euripides' 'The Bacchae' and Aristophanes' 'Peace', 'Birds', and 'Frogs' were not very good.  I thank you so much for providing a much clearer translation in a format that we can access.
Lima, Peru

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Hello. I'm a student at the University of Illinois - Chicago and am a big fan of your work. I strangely find myself coming back again and again to your work in Johnstonia, leaving each time with a satisfying reading experience. As I'm sure you are acutely aware, your work has a certain pristine quality to it that other translations fall short of.  The clarity of your expression (and the accuracy too) is quite remarkable. I've long been a fan of your translation of the Iliad---now that the Odyssey's here, I can't be happier. Do you have a fairly modern translation of Lysistrata? I love the translation of Oedipus the King I wish to congratulate you on a fine translation of Homers epic poem. For poetic content, I always favored Lattimer's translation. (Who else rendered English into the Greek favored Spondaic Hexameter?) But for flow and understanding, you translation is, in my humble opinion, vastly superior.

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For my Classical Literature class, I have made great use of your translation of Agamemnon, its considerably easier and more understandable language helped me a lot regarding it more correctly than the version we were given.
Ankara, Turkey

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I want to thank you, first, for your excellent translation of Aristophanes' Frogs.  I have used it with great success in an undergraduate course this term. It is a Mythology
Furman University

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I have found your very good translation of "Agamemnon" which, if you allow me, I would like to quote (just the first 30 vs) in my work on Clement of Alexandria.

University College, Chichester, UK

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My wife and I will be seeing Aristophanes' Birds next week at Stratford, Ontario, and in preparation for the event, we've been looking for a version of the play to read.  We thank you for your eminently readable and entertaining comedy, in a language that would play very well on the stage these days.

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Please let me express my thanks for your excellent, most readable  translation of The Bacchae. I've been working on my own version and I found  your text invaluable.

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I downloaded and read "The Libation Bearers". Thanks, I really like your translation. Sometimes I think Mr. Lattimore and I are on different wavelengths :).