'Matthiessen's Hekabe inaugurates a series of translated and annotated editions of Greek tragedy, published by de Gruyter under the editorial oversight of Jens Holzhausen and Bernd Seidensticker and evidently conceived as a German counterpart to the Aris and Phillips series of bilingual (Greek/ English or Latin/ English) texts. The double-paged layout is designed to eliminate paging back and forth between text and notes. On the left side appears a line-by-line prose translation reflecting the Greek as closely as possible. Beneath the translation is printed as much Greek text as the facing commentary will accommodate, and beneath the Greek text appears a selective apparatus criticus written in German that also offers linguistic and grammatical pointers for students reading the play in Greek. On the right side is a more wide-ranging commentary intended to be accessible to readers without Greek. Ancillary matter includes a translation of the play's two hypotheses, a list of textual divergences from Diggle, and a selective bibliography. Regrettably, there are no metrical schemes and no indices.(...) Matthiessen's 45-page introduction covers Euripides' biography and the play's mythical background, structure and production, while also paying careful attention to interpretative issues. (...) Matthiessen's learning and experience are in evidence throughout. On easy terms with the entire classical tradition, he cites Scaliger from 1561 as readily as Hose from 2008. His approach is refreshingly relaxed (...). This is not the major edition of the play Euripideans have been waiting for; that, according to Matthiessen (p. 45), is still to come. In the meantime this commentary will ensure that Hekabe continues to receive the attention it deserves.' (JUSTINA GREGORY in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2009.05.35). From the library of the late Professor Doktor Nikolaus Himmelmann.