With a stunning command of the Greek language and a mastery of poetic nuance, this translation of Euripides' play breathes unparalleled life into an ancient masterpiece. Using vocabulary that gives the sense that the play was written with an appreciation of and application to the 20th and 21st centuries, this adaptation goes beyond the timeless plot of the consequences of war and the fate of both the victors and the losers and focuses on the modern-day issues of feminism and women's rights. Also included in this volume are two long poems—"Helen" and "Orestes"—by contemporary Greek poet Yannis Ritsos, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize.

The island is shy and exuberant, savage and fair, bold yet self-effacing. It is a woman in heat, a man in despair, a blonde horse at sunset, a riot of fig trees, a flaking white salt bed, an arid garden of thyme and oregano, a hundred clotheslines full of octopi hung up to dry, a warm night of fireflies and tiny shrimps with burning eyes.In her first work of nonfiction, Mermaids and Ikons: A Greek Summer, originally published in 1978, beloved poet and novelist Gwendolyn MacEwen explores her strongly personal responses to a complex civilization. Partly written during a trip to Greece in 1971, MacEwen moves from the urban tumult of Athens to the radiant simplicity of an island in the Aegean.In this intimate and exquisitely written travel diary, she evokes the very spirit of Greece — the exuberance of the people, the sun-drenched landscape, and the shaping power of ancient traditions and myths in modern Mediterranean life.This edition features a new...