A companion to Euripides / edited by Laura K. McClure.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

McClure, Laura, 1959- editor.

Series:

Blackwell companions to the ancient world.

THEi Wiley ebooks.

Blackwell companions to the ancient world

THEi Wiley ebooks

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Euripides--Criticism and interpretation.

Euripides.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (726 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chichester, West Sussex : John Wiley & Sons Incorporated, 2017.

System Details:

Access using campus network via VPN at home (THEi Users Only).

Summary:

A COMPANION TO EURIPIDES A COMPANION TO EURIPIDES Euripides has enjoyed a resurgence of interest as a result of many recent important publications, attesting to the poet's enduring relevance to the modern world. A Companion to Euripides is the product of this contemporary work, with many essays drawing on the latest texts, commentaries, and scholarship on the man and his oeuvre. Divided into seven sections, the companion begins with a general discussion of Euripidean drama. The following sections contain essays on Euripidean biography and the manuscript tradition, and individual essays on each play, organized in chronological order. Chapters offer summaries of important scholarship and methodologies, synopses of individual plays and the myths from which they borrow their plots, and conclude with suggestions for additional reading. The final two sections deal with topics central to Euripidean scholarship, such as religion, myth, and gender, and the reception of Euripides from the 4th century BCE to the modern world. A Companion to Euripides brings together a variety of leading Euripides scholars from a wide range of perspectives. As a result, specific issues and themes emerge across the chapters as central to our understanding of the poet and his meaning for our time. Contributions are original and provocative interpretations of Euripides' plays, which forge important paths of inquiry for future scholarship.

Contents:

Intro

Title Page

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

PART I: Text, Author, and Tradition

CHAPTER 1: Introduction

1 Euripides

2 New Approaches

3 This Volume

4 Conclusion

CHAPTER 2: Text and Transmission

1 The Earliest Copies

2 From Alexandria to Late Antiquity

3 The Middle Ages

4 The Lost Plays

5 Modern Editions

CHAPTER 3: The Euripidean Biography

1 What We Know

2 The Poetic Career

3 Ancient Biographical Traditions

4 Misogyny and Misanthropy

5 Popularity

6 A Death in Macedon

7 Summary

CHAPTER 4: Euripides and the Development of Greek Tragedy

1 Life in the Theater

2 Women Bad and Good

3 Language and Composition

4 Coming to the End

5 Conclusion

PART II: Early Plays (438-416 BCE)

CHAPTER 5: Alcestis

1 The Alcestis and Genre

2 Structure, Characterization, and Major Themes in the Alcestis

3 Gender

4 Incongruous Feelings? Pity and Eros in the Alcestis

CHAPTER 6: Medea

1 Medea as Barbarian?

2 Medea as Woman

3 Medea as Avenger: The Ending of the Play

CHAPTER 7: Children of Heracles

1 The Legend of the Heraclidae and Athenian Patriotism

2 Supplication and Athenian Idealism

3 Political Paralysis and Transformation

4 Reversals of Power

CHAPTER 8: Hippolytus

1 Second Attempts and Second Thoughts

2 Phaedra

3 Hippolytus

4 Theseus

5 The Role of the Gods

6 Finding Sympathy

CHAPTER 9: Andromache

1 Synopsis

2 Date and Production

3 Euripides and the Myth

4 "If gods do wrong . . ."

5 Reading Andromache

6 Staging Andromache

7 Final Thoughts

CHAPTER 10: Hecuba

1 Hecuba's Historical Context and Reception

2 Hecuba's Binary Structure

3 Hecuba's Divine Machinery

4 Hecuba's Moral Ontology.

5 The Ethical Positions of Hecuba's Principal Characters

6 Conclusion: Hecuba's Transformations as Expressions of its Moral Landscape

CHAPTER 11: Suppliant Women

1 Myth and Plot

2 The Chorus

3 Aethra

4 Recovery of the Bodies

5 Suicide of Evadne

CHAPTER 12: Electra

2 Date

3 The Myth

4 Dramatic Treatments of the Myth

5 Setting

6 The Farmer's Hut

7 Themes

CHAPTER 13: Heracles

1 Heracles in Pieces

2 A Hero's Return

3 Heracles in Pieces

4 Of God to Man

PART III: Later Plays (After 416 BCE)

CHAPTER 14: Trojan Women

1 Background

2 Anti‐War

3 Women as Victim or Heroic

4 The Love Charm

5 Neither Simply Anti‐war nor Simply Feminist

6 Mortal and Immortal

CHAPTER 15: Iphigenia in Tauris

1 The Myths

2 The Play within the Euripidean Corpus

3 Rescue/Escape/Safety

CHAPTER 16: Ion

1 Autochthony and Identity

2 Psychological Readings: The Role of the Son

3 Psychological Readings: the Role of the Mother

4 Men and Gods

5 Food for the Soul

6 Conclusion

CHAPTER 17: Significant Inconsistencies in Euripides' Helen

1 A Twisted Plot

2 Diverse Interpretations

3 Paradoxes and Discrepancies

4 Formal Anomalies, and a Most Unusual Chorus

5 Final Indeterminacy

CHAPTER 18: Phoenician Women

2 Date and Trilogy

3 Staging and Features of the Fifth‐Century Premiere

4 Phoenician Women and Theban Myth

5 On and Off Stage: Space and the Phoenician Women

6 Final Thoughts

CHAPTER 19: Orestes

1 Electra and Helen Exchange Pleasantries, and Then . . .

2 Agonizing with Orestes

3 More Plotting, Helen Killed (?), Hermione Taken Hostage, the Friends Encircled, the House of Atreus Set on Fire, Apollo Intervenes

4 A Tragedy for All Ages

CHAPTER 20: Iphigenia at Aulis

1 Plot.

2 Characters and Changes of Mind

3 Chorus

4 Marriage and Sacrifice

5 War, Slavery, Politics

6 A Self‐Conscious Drama

CHAPTER 21: Bacchae

1 Recent Trends in Scholarship on the Bacchae

2 Foreign Cult

3 Sex, Drugs, and Kettledrums

PART IV: Satyr, Spurious, and Fragmentary Plays

CHAPTER 22: Cyclops

1 Satyr Drama: "Tragedy at Play"

2 Cyclops and Major Themes of Satyric Drama

3 Setting the Scene

4 Burgeoning Philia: Odysseus and the Satyrs vs Polyphemos

5 With(out) a Little Help from his Friends, or Odysseus' Revenge

6 Cyclops and Satyrs: An Overview

CHAPTER 23: Rhesus

1 What Happens in Rhesus?

2 The Rhesus Myth before Rhesus

3 Stagecraft and Dramaturgy: Accomplishments and Failures

4 Language and Style: A Derivative Play

5 Did Euripides Write the Rhesus we Have?

CHAPTER 24: Fragments and Fragmentary Plays

1 A Few Facts and Figures

2 The Nature of the Evidence and how it has Survived

3 Collecting, Editing, and Studying the Fragments

4 List of Euripides' Known Plays, with (Mostly Approximate) Dates

5 Reconstruction of Fragmentary Plays: Possibilities and Limits

6 What and how do Fragments add to the Appreciation of Euripides?

7 Some Individual Phenomena: Pairs of Name‐Plays

Satyr‐Plays

Unassigned Fragments

8 Illustrative Case‐Studies: Ino, Palamedes, Phoenix

the Oedipus‐myth

9 Supplementary Note 2015

PART V: Form, Structure, and Performance

CHAPTER 25: Form and Structure

1 Aristotelian Basics

2 Formal Structures: Basic Units, Special Scene‐Types, Microstructures, Other Features

3 Narrative Patterns in Euripides

4 The Interplay of Formal Structures and Narrative Patterns

5 Clear Partition and Alternation between Actors' Scenes and Choral Parts

6 Blending or Interlacing of Actors' Scenes and Choral Parts.

7 Initial Exposition of the Principal Character and His/Her Situation

8 Intense Distress, Violent Backstage Action, Plot Acceleration

9 Conclusion

CHAPTER 26: The Theater of Euripides

1 Theater Industry and Audiences

2 Social Change and Innovation in Euripides

3 Formal Matters

4 "Metatheater" and Stage Machinery: Theater in Construction

5 Plum Roles in Euripidean Drama

6 Theater Beyond Euripides

CHAPTER 27: The Euripidean Chorus

1 Varieties of Choral Experience

2 Choral Sympathies

3 Wider Contexts

4 The Chorus as a Tragic Theme

5 Musical History

CHAPTER 28: Euripides and the Sound of Music

1 The Music of Attic Drama

2 Music in Euripides' Tragedies

3 Euripides and the New Music

4 The Orestes Musical Papyrus

5 The Sound of Music

PART VI: Topics and Approaches

CHAPTER 29: Euripides and his Intellectual Context

1 Literacy and the Alphabet

2 Specialized Skills

3 Relativism and Humanism

4 Anthropology and Progress

5 Agency and Responsibility

CHAPTER 30: Myth

1 Tradition, Innovation, and Multiplicity

2 The Selection and Deployment of Myths

3 "Skepticism" and "Heterodoxy" in Context

4 What Makes Euripides' Myths Distinctive?

CHAPTER 31: Euripides and Religion

1 The Gods

2 Impiety and Perjury

3 Ritual

4 Deformed Rituals

5 False Rituals

6 Syncretism

7 Priestesses

8 Conclusion

CHAPTER 32: Gender

1 Critical Responses

2 Gender in Context

PART VII: Reception

CHAPTER 33: Euripides, Aristophanes, and the Reception of "Sophistic" Styles

1 Euripides, Agathon, and the Bumsy Style

2 Socrates and Euripides

3 Styles and "Styles"

4 Literary Critical Practices and Places

5 Euripides, Plato, and Later Reception

CHAPTER 34: Euripides in the Fourth Century BCE

1 Euripides' Supposed Unpopularity.

2 Fourth‐century Performances of Euripides

3 Evidence for Euripides' Influence on Fourth‐century Tragedy

4 Conclusions

CHAPTER 35: Euripides and Senecan Drama

1 Seneca on Euripides

2 Madness of Hercules

3 Trojan Women

4 Phoenician Women

5 Medea

6 Phaedra

7 Conclusion

CHAPTER 36: All Aboard the Bacchae Bus

1 Criticism and Translation

2 Performances

3 Published Adaptations

Index

End User License Agreement.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781119257547

1119257549

9781119257516

1119257514

9781119257523

1119257522

9781119257530

1119257530

OCLC:

966446344