?Poochigian's translation is a triumph?a remarkably lucid and vibrant rendition . . . The script's language is precise yet sonorous, expertly constructed in iambic pentameter to both moving and chilling effect.?--Aram Kouyoumdjian, Asbarez?By far the most theatrically assured rendition of the play I've encountered. The fluid translation by Aaron Poochigian is as mercurial as the staging.?--Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times
This new study of Menander casts fresh light not only on the techniques of the playwright but also on the literary and historical contexts of the plays. Menander (342/1-292/1 BCE) wrote over a hundred
Ajax is perhaps the earliest of Sophocles' tragedies, yet the issues at its heart remain profoundly resonant today. Set in the Greek encampment during the siege of Troy, it traces not just the story o
Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides are often described as the greatest tragedians of the ancient world. Of these three pivotal founders of modern drama, Euripides is characterized as the interloper an
In this new student introduction to a Greek tragedy, Isabelle Torrance looks at what makes Iphigenia among the Taurians a successful tragedy in ancient Greek terms, and how dramatic excitement is achi
This book presents a close, linear reading of Aristophanes’ Birds. It argues that the play provides a continuation and deepening of the author’s critique of the sophists found in Clouds.
This is the first volume dedicated to Aristophanes' comedy Peace that analyses the play for a student audience and assumes no knowledge of Greek. It launches a much-needed new series of books each dis
This book argues that Old Comedy's parodic and non-parodic engagement with tragedy, satyr play, and contemporary lyric is geared to enhancing its own status as the preeminent discourse on Athenian art
This book argues that New Comedy has a far richer performance texture than has previously been recognised. Offering close readings of all the major plays of Menander, it shows how intertextuality - the sustained dialogue of New Comedy performance with the diverse ideological, philosophical, literary and theatrical discourses of contemporary polis culture - is crucial in creating semantic depth and thus offsetting the impression that the plots are simplistic love stories with no political or ideological resonances. It also explores how the visual aspect of the plays ('opsis') is just as important as any verbal means of signification - a phenomenon termed 'intervisuality', examining in particular depth the ways in which the mask can infuse various systems of reference into the play. Masks like the panchrēstos neaniskos (the 'all-perfect youth'), for example, are now full of meaning; thus, with their ideologically marked physiognomies, they can be strong instigators of literary and cultur
Oedipus presents ceaseless paradoxes that have fascinated readers for centuries. He is proud of his intellect, but he does not know himself and succumbs easily to self-deceptions. As a ruler he expr
In recent decades literary approaches to drama have multiplied: new historical, intertextual, political, performative and metatheatrical, socio-linguistic, gender-driven, transgenre-driven. New inform
Situated within contemporary posthumanism, this volume offers theoretical and practical approaches to materiality in Greek tragedy. Established and emerging scholars explore how works of the three maj
For centuries the myth of Oedipus, the man who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother, has exerted a powerful hold on the human imagination; but no retelling of that myth has ever come close, in passion, drama, and menace to the one that we find in Sophocles' Oedipus the King. This new full-scale edition of that classic play - the first in any language since 1883 - offers a freshly constituted text based on consultation of manuscripts ancient and mediaeval. The Introduction explores the play's dating and production, its creative engagement with pre-Sophoclean versions, its major themes, and its reception during antiquity. The Commentary offers a detailed analysis, line by line and scene by scene, of the play's language, staging, and dramatic impact. The translation incorporated into the commentary ensures that the book will be accessible to all readers interested in what is arguably the greatest Greek tragedy of all.
