Among Ted Hughes's translations are The Oresteia of Aeschylus, Racine's Phedre, and Tales from Ovid. His last book of poems, Birthday Letters, won the Whitbread Book of the Year Prize. He was Poet Laureate to Queen Elizabeth II and lived in Devon, England until he died in 1998.

"Aeschylus, the fifth-century BC Attic tragedian, is famous for his knottiness, his clotted images and riddling compund words. Ted Hughes, in his postunously published translation of the Orestes trilogy, unites the knots and unpacks the compunded thoughts." --Gary Wills, The New York Times Book Review

"Hughes's translation conveys a sense of the menacing stength of Aeschylus' poetry....Anyone who hears it or reads it will realize that there is much more to Greek drama than verbiage and literary virtuosity" --Mary Lefkowitz, Washington Times

"Hughes's rendering of this appalling story has the hurtling momentum one assumes the playwright's original Greek had for his Athenian audience....To release the play's staggering power Hughes has transformed some thoughtful scholarly commentary into raw horror and agonizing ethical dilemma....Ferociously physical...like the best of Hughes's own poems" --Ron Smith, Richmond Times-Dispatch