ABSTRACT
Most translators of Greek drama would agree that different principles apply to the translation of comedy and tragedy. The whole issue, writ large, can be found in Euripides' Orestes, to which Vellacott devoted a whole chapter in Ironic Drama, but without referring to what might appear the central and most ironic aspect of any surviving Greek tragedy. This is a play where Euripides specifically draws attention to the most insistent conventions of Greek tragedy, apparently to make fun of them, to 'send them up'. This is a central argument against translators, except for indicating entrances and exits, inserting or inventing stage directions, or worse, attempting, as in many American translations of Roman Comedy, to prescribe a definitive production. Any kind of narrative performance from bardic recitation to Broadway comedy needs contrasts of tempo and mood, imposed by poet or dramatist.
