Sophocles and the Greek Tragic Tradition

This book contains essays by international experts on Sophocles, asking why he matters, and why he is still read and performed today.

Simon Goldhill (Edited by), Edith Hall (Edited by)

9780521887854, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 February 2009

354 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.69 kg

Review of the hardback: '… a fine book, one that re-appraises Sophocles' legacy in a way that repays consideration.' Bryn Mawr Classical Review

This book contains thirteen essays by senior international experts on Greek tragedy looking at Sophocles' dramas. They reassess their crucial role in the creation of the tragic repertoire, in the idea of the tragic canon in antiquity, and in the making and infinite re-creation of the tragic tradition in the Renaissance and beyond. The introduction looks at the paradigm shifts during the twentieth century in the theory and practice of Greek theatre, in order to gain a perspective on the current state of play in Sophoclean studies. The following three sections explore respectively the way that Sophocles' tragedies provoked and educated their original Athenian democratic audience, the language, structure and lasting impact of his Oedipus plays, and the centrality of his oeuvre in the development of the tragic tradition in Aeschylus, Euripides, ancient philosophical theory, fourth-century tragedy and Shakespeare.

List of illustrations
Notes on contributors
Foreword Paul Cartledge
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
1. Sophocles: the state of play Simon Goldhill and Edith Hall
Part I. Between Audience and Actor: 2. The audience on stage: rhetoric, emotion, and judgement in Sophoclean theatre Simon Goldhill
3. 'The players will tell all': the dramatist, the actors and the art of acting in Sophocles' Philoctetes Ismene Lada-Richards
4. Deianeira deliberates: precipitate decision-making and Trachiniae Edith Hall
Part II. Oedipus and the Play of Meaning: 5. Inconclusive conclusion: the ending(s) of the Oedipus Tyrannus Peter Burian
6. The third stasimon of Oedipus at Colonus Chris Carey
7. The logic of the unexpected: semantic diversion in Sophocles, Yeats (and Virgil) Michael Silk
8. The French Oedipus of the inter-war period Fiona Macintosh
Part III. Constructing Tragic Traditions: 9. Theoretical views of Athenian tragedy in the 5th century BC Kostas Valakas
10. Athens and Delphi in Aeschylus' Oresteia Angus Bowie
11. Feminized males in Bacchae: the importance of discrimination Richard Buxton
12. Hektor's helmet glinting in a fourth-century tragedy Oliver Taplin
13. Seeing a Roman tragedy through Greek eyes: Shakespeare's Julius Caesar Chris Pelling
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]