Sophocles' "Ajax" is one of the most disturbing and powerful surviving ancient tragedies. But it is also difficult to understand and interpret. What are we to make of its protagonist's extremism? Does Ajax deserve the isolation and divine punishment he experiences? Why is his state of mind so difficult to determine? This book offers answers to these and many other questions by drawing together the very latest critical work on the play and introducing the reader to key frames for its interpretation, including Sophoclean heroism, language and form; Homeric intertextuality and Athens'...

In Euripides' play we see a very different figure from the Herakles of popular imagination. In his account of Herakles' maddened killing of his children, Euripides emphasises the human to the hero's character, presenting him as a loving father. Herakles is an ideal text for those new to ancient drama, raising many central issues of Greek tragedy. Emma Griffiths analyses the key themes and characters while situating the drama in the wider context of Greek tragedy and mythology. Euripides' approach to drama is illustrated through consideration of the hero's self-awareness, and the reception...

Aeschylus' Persians is the earliest extant Greek tragedy and sole surviving historical tragedy. Produced in 472 BC, the play tells the story of the defeat of the Persian king Xerxes in his attempt to expand his empire by conquering Greece and his return in rags to Persia to face the condemnation of his elders. The first product of the Western imagination to represent the causes and limits of imperialist conquest, the Persians is particularly relevant today. The play is rich in verbal and visual imagery and unflinching in its depiction of the horrors of a defeated invasion and the glory of...

Aeschylus' Agamemnon, opening play of the Oresteia trilogy, with its brilliant theatrical effects, is a masterpiece. The revenge plot - a murder - is simple, the language and imagery complex and thrilling. The play features two extraordinary women: the powerful, dissembling queen Clytemnestra and the frenzied prophetess Cassandra. It als features another original Aeschylean creation, the omnipresent helpless chorus, who are forced to bear witness to Agamemnon's path to death. Through the chorus, the action is seen in the problematic context of justice, destiny, and the role of the gods....

Accessible introductions to ancient tragedies discuss the main themes of a play and the central developments in modern criticism, while also addressing the play's historical context and the history of its performance and adaptation. References to Dionysus in popular culture focus on the god as the incarnation of wild and decadent behaviour, by which humans are intrigued and appalled. The god as he is portrayed in "Euripides' Bacchae" is, however, more complex, paradoxically transcending straightforward notions of the Dionysiac. "Euripides' Dionysus" blurs the dividing line between many of...

"Orestes" was one of Euripides' most popular plays in antiquity. Its plot, which centres on Orestes' murder of his mother Clytemnestra and its aftermath, is exciting as well as morally complex; its presentation of madness is unusually intense and disturbing; it deals with politics in a way which has resonances for both ancient and modern democracies; and, it has a brilliantly unexpected and ironic ending. Nevertheless, "Orestes" is not much read or performed in modern times. Why should this be so? Perhaps it is because "Orestes" does not conform to modern audiences' expectations of what a...

"Euripides' Ion" is the story of a young man's search for his identity, and a woman's attempt to come to terms with her past. Through the story of a divine rape and its consequences, it asks questions about the justice of the gods and the nature of parenthood, encouraging its audience to consider contemporary concerns through the filter of traditional myth. This detailed study outlines the pre-history and later reception of the Ion myth, and provides a literary interpretation of the play's main themes, aiming to combine analysis of the text with a consideration of its cultural contexts....