Produced in Athens during the fifth century BC, the tragedies of Sophocles are a high point in world literature, vividly depicting unforgettable characters confronted with emotional crises, moral dilemmas, and the inscrutable ways of the gods. This volume examines Sophocles' reputation as a dramatic poet both in his own day and later in antiquity, considering how it was that some of his plays survived from his time to ours. It investigates the qualities of those plays, focusing on key aspects of Sophoclean dramaturgy such as stagecraft, narrative, rhetoric, and heroism. And it incorporates...

Plutarch of Chaeronea is one of the most influential and fascinating authors of antiquity. His Parallel Lives and Moralia are storehouses of challenging questions, valuable insights and interesting observations. Moreover, they contain a wealth of quotations from and references to earlier writers and traditions, and thus provide one of the richest gateways to the ancient world. This book introduces the reader to Plutarch's life and to the different facets of his variegated thinking and writing, such as his tremendous erudition, his Platonism and (moral) philosophy, his interpretation of...