News at Eleven: In an effort to make these classic dramas

user-friendly, [Anne] Carson serves up colloquialisms. She has the Chorus tell Agamemnon, "I wrote you off as a loose cannon." Her Orestes calls Hermione "the little bitch," and the Phrygian slave quips, "Helen screwed Greece as well as Troy." Some of Carson's rhyming comes off as cheesy: Helen is "that wife of strife," Paris is "the bridegroom of doom."

In my opinion, the street-talk gamble seldom pays off: Greek tragedy achieves many of its effects through its majestic diction.

from The Afterword: An Oresteia, translated by Anne Carson

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