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This Very Short Introduction introduces the life, work, and influence of one of the greatest dramatists of all time, Sophocles the Athenian.
Placing his plays within their historical context, and explaining the conventions of ancient Greek tragic theatre, Edith Hall spotlights their distinctive features-tight plots, titanic personalities, lucid style, sympathetic women, exquisite poetry, and stagecraft. This analysis is followed by an account of how and why Sophoclean dramas have survived to be read and widely performed into the twenty-first century.
List of Illustrations
Map
1:Sophocles' Life
2:Sophoclean Tragedy
3:The Limits of Freewill: Oedipus Tyrannus and Antigone
4:Athenian Mythmaking: Ajax and Oedipus at Colonus
5:Retribution and Rage: Electra and Philoctetes
6:Sex, Settings & Soundscapes: Women of Trachis and Trackers
7:Sophocles' Afterlives
Further Reading
Description
This Very Short Introduction introduces the life, work, and influence of one of the greatest dramatists of all time, Sophocles the Athenian.
Placing his plays within their historical context, and explaining the conventions of ancient Greek tragic theatre, Edith Hall spotlights their distinctive features-tight plots, titanic personalities, lucid style, sympathetic women, exquisite poetry, and stagecraft. This analysis is followed by an account of how and why Sophoclean dramas have survived to be read and widely performed into the twenty-first century.
