The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy

This book deals with the historical context of ancient Greek tragic performances, with the plays themselves, and with later adaptation and re-performance, down to modern times.

The twelve essays in this distinguished collection consider the importance of ancient Greek tragedy as a creative medium. The three main emphases are on tragedy as an institution in the civic life of ancient Greece; on critical interpretations of the texts; and on changing patterns of reception, adaption, and performance from antiquity to present.As a creative medium, ancient Greek tragedy has had an extraordinarily wide influence: many of the surviving plays are still part of the theatrical repertoire, and texts like Agamemnon, Antigone, and Medea have had a profound effect on Western culture. This Companion is not a conventional introductory textbook but an attempt, by seven distinguished scholars, to present the familiar corpus in the context of modern reading, criticism, and performance of Greek tragedy. There are three main emphases: on tragedy as an institution in the civic life of ancient Athens, on a range of different critical interpretations arising from fresh readings of the texts, and on changing patterns of reception, adaptation, and performance from antiquity to the present. Each chapter can be read independently, but each is linked with the others, and most examples are drawn from the same selection of plays.