A “grand possible”: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s translations of Aeschylus’sPrometheus bound

Victorian Literature and the Reception of Greece and Rome

“…Translations of Greek texts by women have been the focus of much recent study. Elizabeth Barrett (Browning) wrote two versions of Prometheus Bound : the first fairly literal and the second, written after much discussion with Robert Browning, ‘permeated with Christian notions of sin, atonement, martyrdom and selflessness’ (Wallace 332; see also Falk ‘EBB and her Prometheuses’; Prins ‘ Différance of Translation’; Drummond). She also translated ‘sentimental and erotic verses’ for a friend’s projected ‘Classical Album’, including the parting of Hector and Andromache from Homer’s Iliad and one of Theocritus’ Idyls (Wallace 333–6).…”