With its ribald chorus of ithyphallic, half-man / half-horse creatures, satyr drama was a peculiar part of the Athenian theatrical experience. Performed three times each year after a trilogy of traged
Euripides' Bacchae was first performed in 405 BCE, on the eve of Athens' defeat in the Peloponnesian War. This explosive and heart-rending dramatization of an ancient myth uses the character of a youn
Presenting an innovative new reading of Sophocles' plays, Tragic Rites analyzes the poetic and narrative function of ritual in the seven extant plays of Sophocles. Adriana Brook closely examines four
Anne Carson writes, “Euripides was a playwright of the fifth century BC who reinvented Greek tragedy, setting it on a path that leads straight to reality TV. His plays broke all the rules, upended con
Antigone is one of the most influential and thought-provoking of all Greek tragedies. Set in a newly victorious society, where possibilities seem boundless and mankind can overcome all boundaries exce
Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aeschylus explores the various ways Aeschylus’ tragedies have been revisioned and adapted over the last 2500 years, focusing both on his theatrical reception and
Libation Bearers is the 'middle' play in the only extant tragic trilogy to survive from antiquity, Aeschylus' Oresteia, first produced in 458 BCE. This introduction to the play will be useful for anyo
Brill's Companion to the Reception of Sophocles offers a comprehensive account of the reception of Sophocles’ plays over the centuries, across cultures and within a range of different fields, such as
This book offers a resolution of the paradox posed by the pleasure of tragedy by returning to its earliest articulations in archaic Greek poetry and its subsequent emergence as a philosophical problem in Plato's Republic. Socrates' claim that tragic poetry satisfies our 'hunger for tears' hearkens back to archaic conceptions of both poetry and mourning that suggest a common source of pleasure in the human appetite for heightened forms of emotional distress. By unearthing a psychosomatic model of aesthetic engagement implicit in archaic poetry and philosophically elaborated by Plato, this volume not only sheds new light on the Republic's notorious indictment of poetry, but also identifies rationally and ethically disinterested sources of value in our pursuit of aesthetic states. In doing so the book resolves an intractable paradox in aesthetic theory and human psychology: the appeal of painful emotions.
In The Reception of Aeschylus' Plays 15 scholars explore new methods and frontiers for studying and staging Aeschylus’ plays by showing the tensions between traditional scholarship and innovative anal
Aristophanes' engagement with tragedy is one of the most striking features of his comedies: Euripides appears repeatedly as a character in these plays, jokes about tragedy and tragic poets abound, and
Numerous books have been written about Greek tragedy, but almost all of them are concerned with the 32 plays that still survive. This book, by contrast, concentrates on the plays that no longer exist.
Numerous books have been written about Greek tragedy, but almost all of them are concerned with the 32 plays that still survive. This book, by contrast, concentrates on the plays that no longer exist.
This excellent introduction to the six extant plays of Aeschylus is fully revised and updated, with additional further reading, ideal for the student unfamiliar with these earliest of Greek tragedies.
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 revolutio
The emphasis throughout this book, ideal for sixth form and early university students, is on Sophocles' tragic thinking, on the concept of the 'Sophoclean hero', and on the dramatic structure of the p
The latest volume in the Classical World series, this book offers a much-needed up-to-date introduction to Greek tragedy, and covers the most important thematic topics studied at school or university
Euripides' Bacchae is the magnum opus of the ancient world's most popular dramatist. Yet the play is the most modern, perhaps postmodern, of ancient plays. Twentieth-century poets and playwrights ofte
Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aristophanes provides a substantive account of the reception of Aristophanes (c. 446-386 BC) from Antiquity to the present.
A landmark anthology of the masterpieces of Greek drama, featuring all-new, highly accessible translations of some of the world’s most beloved plays, including Agamemnon, Prometheus Bound, Bacchae, El
