You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Over the past decades there has been something of a revolution in the way we view classical drama generally and Euripides in particular. This book, updated in a second edition, reflects that revolution and aims to show how Euripides was continually reinventing himself. A truly Protean figure, he seems to set out on a new journey in each of his surviving 19 plays. Between general introduction and final summary, Morwood's chapters identify the themes that underlie the plays and concentrate, above all, on demonstrating the extraordinary diversity of this great dramatist. New to this edition, which is updated throughout, are further details on the individual plays and extra suggestions for background reading. The volume is a companion to The Plays of Sophocles and The Plays of Aeschylus (both by Alex Garvie) also available in second editions from Bloomsbury. A further essential guide to the themes and context of ancient Greek tragedy may be found in Laura Swift's new introductory volume, Greek Tragedy.
This is the first full-scale commentary on Euripides’ Alexandros, which is one of the best preserved fragmentary tragedies. It yields insight into aspects of Euripidean style, ideology and dramatic technique (e.g. rhetoric, stagecraft and imagery) and addresses textual and philological matters, on the basis of a re-inspection of the papyrus fragments. This book offers a reconstruction of the play and an investigation of issues of characterization, staging, textual transmission and reception, not least because Alexandros has enjoyed a fascinating Nachleben in literary, dramaturgical and performative terms. It also contributes to the readers’ understanding of the trends of later Euripidean...
How can we make sense of the innovative structure of Euripidean drama? And what political role did tragedy play in the democracy of classical Athens? These questions are usually considered to be mutually exclusive, but this book shows that they can only be properly answered together. Providing a new approach to the aesthetics and politics of Greek tragedy, Victoria Wohl argues that the poetic form of Euripides' drama constitutes a mode of political thought. Through readings of select plays, she explores the politics of Euripides' radical aesthetics, showing how formal innovation generates political passions with real-world consequences. Euripides' plays have long perplexed readers. With thei...
Comprehensive edition of this classic play aimed at second-year students and above.
A modern translation exclusive to signet From perhaps the greatest of the ancient Greek playwrights comes this collection of plays, including Alcestis, Hippolytus, Ion, Electra, Iphigenia at Aulis, Iphigenia Among the Taurians, Medea, The Bacchae, The Trojan Women, and The Cyclops.
In this valuable book, Hanna M. Roisman provides a uniquely comprehensive look at Euripides' Hippolytus. Roisman begins with an examination of the ancient preference for the implicit style, and suggests a possible reading of Euripides' first treatment of the myth which would account for the Athenian audience's reservations about his Hippolytus Veiled. She proceeds to analyze significant scenes in the play, including Hippolytus' prayer to Artemis, Phaedra's delirium, Phaedra's "confession" speech, and the interactions between Theseus and Hippolytus. Concluding with a discussion of the meaning of the tragic in Hippolytus, Roisman questions the applicability in this case of the idea of the tragic flaw. Nothing Is as It Seems includes extensive comparisons of Euripides' play with the Phaedra of Seneca. This is a very important book for students and scholars of Greek tragedy, literature, and rhetoric.
This book sets out to interpret Euripides' The Trojan Women in the light of a view of tragedy which sees its function, as it was understood in classical Athens, as being didactic. This function, the author argues, was carried out by an examination of the ideology to which the audience subscribed. The Trojan Women, powerfully exploiting the dramatic context of the aftermath of the Trojan War, is a remarkable example of tragic teaching. The play questions a series of mutually reinforcing polarities (man/god; man/woman; Greek/barbarian; free/slave) through which an Athenian citizen defined himself, and also examines the dangers of rhetoric and the value of victory in war. By making the didactic...
A new translation of one of Euripides' most neglected plays which takes as its subject the figure of Heracles and explores the nature of heroism and myth by portraying the story of the murder of his own wife and children. In treating this act the dramatist explores the boundaries of madnessand Heracles' painful emergence from this state to a bitter realisation of what he has done. A further contrast is drawn between the callous gods who cause the madness and the caring and loving support of human friends and remaining family. This edition attempts to bring out the human and qualities in the play and to defend its structure and dramatic power. The parallel Greek text is that of the new Oxford text with additional introduction, commentary and bibliography.
This book is a study of the agon, or formal debate, in Euripides' tragedies. In these scenes, two characters confront each other, often before an arbitrator or judge, and make long speeches as if they were opponents in a court of law. Most of Euripides' extant plays contain an agon, often of crucial importance to the central conflict of the play. Lloyd provides interpretations of the more important agones, giving special attention to their dramatic context and function. Concentrating on Euripides' rhetorical skill, brilliance in argument, and interest in philosophy, Lloyd explores the role of formal debate in Euripides. He contrasts the agon in Euripides' work with that of Sophocles, and discusses extensively Euripides' relationship to fifth-century rhetorical theory and practice.