An Introduction to Greek Tragedy

An accessible introduction for students and anyone interested in increasing their enjoyment of Greek tragic plays.

Ruth Scodel (Author)

9780521705608, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 16 August 2010

226 pages, 2 tables
22.6 x 15 x 1.5 cm, 0.32 kg

'An engaging overview that is informative and accessible without being bland or reductive. Scodel dispenses with unhelpful truisms to present tragedy as a diverse and much-debated art form with multiple meanings and functions.' Sheila Murnaghan, University of Pennsylvania

This book provides an accessible introduction for students and anyone interested in increasing their enjoyment of Greek tragic plays. Whether readers are studying Greek culture, performing a Greek tragedy, or simply interested in reading a Greek play, this book will help them to understand and enjoy this challenging and rewarding genre. An Introduction to Greek Tragedy provides background information, helps readers appreciate, enjoy and engage with the plays themselves, and gives them an idea of the important questions in current scholarship on tragedy. Ruth Scodel seeks to dispel misleading assumptions about tragedy, stressing how open the plays are to different interpretations and reactions. In addition to general background, the book also includes chapters on specific plays, both the most familiar titles and some lesser-known plays - Persians, Helen and Orestes - in order to convey the variety that the tragedies offer readers.

1. Defining tragedy
2. Approaches
3. Origin, festival, and competition
4. Historical and intellectual background
5. Persians
6. The Oresteia
7. Antigone
8. Medea
9. Hippolytus
10. Oedipus the King
11. Helen
12. Orestes
13. Comparing the tragedians
14. The inheritance of Greek tragedy.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]