A Guide to Ancient Greek Drama

Revised and updated, this second edition of Wiley’s guide to ancient Greek drama offers a concise and accessible introduction. Essential material for any student of the Classics, the content combines utility with authority, covering all three genres – tragedy, comedy, and satyr–drama. It features keynote discussions of the five playwrights whose work survives, single–page synopses of every extant play, and entries on known authors whose work has been lost. Regarded as a progenitor of Western drama and literature more generally, Greek drama, which flourished from the sixth to the third century BC, is one of the cornerstones of Western culture. The text offers insights into ancient Greek drama’s political and cultural context and examines its core themes. In addition to critical essays on playwrights, the contents include material on the origins and conventions of drama, the theater, the performers, and the relationship between drama and the worship of Dionysos, the Greek god of ritual, wine, and festivity. The authors also provide helpful guidance about how to read, watch, and teach Greek drama.

Preface List of Figures List of Maps & Plans Abbreviations and Signs 1 Aspects Of Ancient Greek Drama Drama The Dramatic Festivals The Theatrical Space The Performance Drama, Dionysos and the Polis 2 Greek Tragedy On the Nature of Greek Tragedy Aeschylus Sophokles Euripides The Other Tragedians 3 The Satyr–Drama 4 Greek Comedy Origins Old Comedy The Generations of Old Comedy Aristophanes Greek Comedy and the Phlyax–vases Middle Comedy Menander and New Comedy 5 Approaching Greek Drama Formal Criticism Interdisciplinary Approaches Visual Interpretations Reception Studies 6 Play Synopses Aeschylus’ Persians Aeschylus’ Seven against Thebes Aeschylus’ Suppliants Aeschylus’ Oresteia Aeschylus’ Agamemnon Aeschylus’ Libation–Bearers (Choephoroe) Aeschylus’ Eumenides (Furies) Sophokles’ Ajax Sophokles’ Antigone Sophokles’ Trachinian Women Sophokles’ Oedipus Tyrannos Sophokles’ Elektra Sophokles’ Philoktetes Sophokles’ Oedipus at Kolonos Euripides’ Alkestis Euripides’ Medea Euripides’ Children of Herakles Euripides’ Hippolytos Euripides’ Andromache Euripides’ Hecuba Euripides’ Suppliant Women Euripides’ Elektra Euripides’ Herakles Euripides’ Trojan Women Euripides’ Iphigeneia among the Taurians Euripides’ Ion Euripides’ Helen Euripides’ Phoenician Women Euripides’ Orestes Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis Euripides’ Bacchae Euripides’ Cyclops [Euripides’] Rhesos Aristophanes’ Acharnians Aristophanes’ Knights Aristophanes’ Wasps Aristophanes’ Peace Aristophanes’ Clouds Aristophanes’ Birds Aristophanes’ Lysistrate Aristophanes’ Women at the Thesmophoria Aristophanes’ Frogs Aristophanes’ Assembly–Women Aristophanes’ Wealth Menander’s The Grouch Menander’s Samian Woman A Note on Meter Glossary of Names and Terms Timeline Further Reading Index

Ian C. Storey is Emeritus Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Trent University, Canada. The author of Eupolis: Poet of Old Comedy (2003), Euripides’ Suppliant Women (2008), and The Fragments of Old Comedy (2011), he has published numerous papers on Euripides, Old Comedy, and the fiction of C. S. Lewis. Arlene Allan is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Classics at Otago University, New Zealand, where she teaches ancient Greek literature and mythology, as well as ancient Greek and Latin.