Event Description
Diane Rayor: Translating Sappho and Tragedy
How can we transform the fragments of Sappho’s lyric songs from 600 BCE Lesbos for modern readers? In my 2023 Sappho book, I include every scrap remaining of Sappho’s poetry, mimicking the papyrus on the one hand and the oral performance on the other. The fragmentary pieces that remain give us glimpses into a women-centered life and a woman’s voice from ancient Greece that we otherwise lack.
Are there ways to translate Greek tragedy that are true to the Greek and also truly performable? Greek tragedy primarily has been translated for readers. For staging, directors usually piece together an actable script from multiple translations. My collaborative process provides scripts that are performance-ready, while also creating textbooks that accurately reflect the originals.
I will discuss my strategies, process, and results for these two very different kinds of performance genres.
Event Info
May 09, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM EDT
Online, May 9th, 12:00p.m. ET
Guest Speaker
