Tragedy, Ritual and Money in Ancient Greece
Selected Essays

Reveals the shaping influence of money and ritual on Greek tragedy, the New Testament, Indian philosophy, and Wagner.

Richard Seaford (Author), Robert Bostock (Edited by)

9781107171718, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 November 2018

498 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.5 cm, 0.94 kg

Richard Seaford is one of the most original and provocative classicists of his age. This volume brings together a wide range of papers written with a single focus. Several are pioneering explorations of the tragic evocation and representation of rites of passage: mystic initiation, the wedding, and death ritual. Two papers focus on the shaping power of mystic initiation in two famous passages in the New Testament. The other key factor in the historical context of tragedy is the recent monetisation of Athens. One paper explores the presence of money in Greek tragedy, another the shaping influence of money on Wagner's Ring and on his Aeschylean model. Other papers reveal the influence of ritual and money on representations of the inner self, and on Greek and Indian philosophy. A final piece finds in Greek tragedy horror at the destructive unlimitedness of money that is still central to our postmodern world.

Foreword
Part I. Tragedy: General: 1. Homeric and tragic sacrifice
2. Dionsysos as destroyer of the household: Homer, tragedy and the Polis
3. Dionysos, money and drama
4. Tragic money
5. Tragic tyranny
6. Aeschylus and the Unity of Opposites
Part II. Performance and the Mysteries: 7. The 'Hyporchema' of Pratinas
8. The politics of the mystic
9. Immortality, salvation and the elements
10. Sophocles and the mysteries
Part III. Tragedy and Death Ritual: 11. The last bath of Agamemnon
12. The destruction of limits in Sophocles' Electra
Part IV. Tragedy and Marriage: 13. The tragic wedding
14. The structural problems of marriage in Euripides
Part V. New Testament: 15. 1 Corinthians 13.12: 'Through A Glass Darkly'
16. Thunder, lightning and earthquake in the Bacchae and The Acts of The Apostles
Part VI. The Inner Self: 17. Monetisation and the genesis of the Western subject
18. The fluttering soul
Part VII. Inida and Greece: 19. Why did the Greeks not have Karma?
Part VIII. Money and Modernity: 20. Form and money in Wagner's Ring and Aeschylean tragedy
21. World without limits.

Subject Areas: Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], History: theory & methods [HBA], History [HB], Humanities [H], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Literary studies: general [DSB], Literature: history & criticism [DS], Literature & literary studies [D]