Helping Friends and Harming Enemies
A Study in Sophocles and Greek Ethics

A detailed study of the plays of Sophocles through examination of a fundamental principle of Greek popular ethics.

Ruby Blondell (Author), David Konstan (Foreword by)

9781009465847, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 June 2024

316 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.6 kg

'[Blondell] makes many perceptive and unfamiliar points, and all who take Sophocles seriously will have to take this book on board.' Oliver Taplin, Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of Oxford

Sophocles is often considered the least philosophical of the three great Greek tragedians. However, Ruby Blondell offers a vital examination of the ethical content of the plays by focusing on the pervasive Greek popular moral code of 'helping friends and harming enemies'. Five of the extant plays are discussed in detail from both a dramatic and an ethical standpoint, and the author concludes that ethical themes are not only integral to each drama, but are subjected to an implicit critique through the tragic consequences to which they give rise. Greek scholars and students of Greek drama and Greek thought will welcome this book, which is presented in such a way as to be accessible to specialists and non-specialists alike. No knowledge of Greek is required. This revised edition includes a contextualising new Foreword which engages with critical and scholarly developments in Greek drama since the original publication.

Foreword
Preface
Glossary of Greek words
1. Introduction
2. Helping friends and harming enemies
3. Ajax
4. Antigone
5. Electra
6. Philoctetes
7. Oedipus at Colonus
8. Conclusion
9. Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1]