Book, Persians, Os: by Aeschylus[LS]

Language: Brazilian Portuguese. The Persians, which the publisher Perspectiva makes available to the Brazilian reader in its collection Signos, in a new and bold translation by Trajano Vieira, is the oldest remaining tragedy and, nevertheless, remains current: the clash between East and West is approached with rare poeticity, in an atmosphere of fascinating nightmare, presaged by the queen's dream about the two sisters who tore each other apart. Unlike other Greek dramas, the core here is not a mythological event, but a historical fact: the battle of Salamis, which took place in 480 BC, which marks the Persian decline in the so-called Medical Wars. The hypothesis that Aeschylus participated in this conflict is accepted by most experts. The quality and boldness of this transcreation enable the reader to capture all the organization and richness of the original, as well as its strength. The dramatic language reaches moments of rare invention, thanks to the sound printed in the invaders' name catalogs, and the deliberate use of words with the same root, indicators of Eastern monumentality. The extreme refinement, the excessive military contingent are delineated with precision so that its other face emerges more clearly: the fragility of power, unable to perceive its own vulnerability by imagining perennial glory. This is a theme dear to the Greeks, persistent in history: excessiveness as the cause of one's own annihilation, the difficulty of temperance guiding human destiny.