The Best Translation of The Persians
The Persians was written in Ancient Greek. 3 recommended editions, ranked — with Gröblé’s verdict on which to read first.
David Grene
University of Chicago Press · 2013
Grene's version, from the Grene and Lattimore complete Greek tragedies, holds the play's strangest move steady: an Athenian audience watching their defeated enemy mourn, and being asked to feel it.
Every recommended edition, compared
Sommerstein's Loeb pairs the Greek with clear modern English and dense political notes. The Persians is the only surviving tragedy on a historical event (Salamis, 480 BCE), and the apparatus does real work locating it.
Poochigian is a working poet, and his 2020 version puts the play back into actual English verse. Metered lines, real grief, and a queen Atossa whose dread reads as ancient and present at once.
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Reading The Persians in translation
The Persians was written in Ancient Greek, so unless you read Ancient Greek, the translator decides the book you actually experience — its register, its pace, how it sounds read aloud. Two editions of the same work can feel like different books.
The ranking above is Gröblé’s: one reader’s verdict on which English gets you closest, not a publisher’s blurb. Start with the top pick; reach for the others when you want a different angle on the original.