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Why did Aeschylus characterize differently from Sophocles? Why did
Sophocles introduce the third actor? Why did Euripides not make
better plots? So asks H.D.F Kitto in his acclaimed study of Greek
tragedy, available for the first time in Routledge Classics. Kitto
argues that in spite of dealing with big moral and intellectual
questions, the Greek dramatist is above all an artist and the key
to understanding classical Greek drama is to try and understand the
tragic conception of each play. In Kitto's words 'We shall ask what
the dramatist is striving to say, not what in fact he does say
about this or that.' Through a brilliant analysis of Aeschylus's
'Oresteia', the plays of Sophocles including 'Antigone' and
'Oedipus Tyrannus'; and Euripides's 'Medea' and 'Hecuba', Kitto
skilfully conveys the enduring artistic and literary brilliance of
the Greek dramatists.
The ancient Greeks invented democracy, theater, rational science,
and philosophy. They built the Parthenon and the Library of
Alexandria. Yet this accomplished people never formed a single
unified social or political identity. In Introducing the Ancient
Greeks, acclaimed classics scholar Edith Hall offers a bold
synthesis of the full 2,000 years of Hellenic history to show how
the ancient Greeks were the right people, at the right time, to
take up the baton of human progress. Hall portrays a uniquely
rebellious, inquisitive, individualistic people whose ideas and
creations continue to enthrall thinkers centuries after the Greek
world was conquered by Rome. These are the Greeks as you've never
seen them before.
This book traces the international performance history of
Aristophanic comedy, and its implication in aesthetic and political
controversies, from 421 BC to AD 2007. It includes Brechtian
experiments in East Berlin, and musical theatre from Gilbert and
Sullivan to Stephen Sondheim.
A People's History of Classics explores the influence of the
classical past on the lives of working-class people, whose voices
have been almost completely excluded from previous histories of
classical scholarship and pedagogy, in Britain and Ireland from the
late 17th to the early 20th century. This volume challenges the
prevailing scholarly and public assumption that the intimate link
between the exclusive intellectual culture of British elites and
the study of the ancient Greeks and Romans and their languages
meant that working-class culture was a 'Classics-Free Zone'. Making
use of diverse sources of information, both published and
unpublished, in archives, museums and libraries across the United
Kingdom and Ireland, Hall and Stead examine the working-class
experience of classical culture from the Bill of Rights in 1689 to
the outbreak of World War II. They analyse a huge volume of data,
from individuals, groups, regions and activities, in a huge range
of sources including memoirs, autobiographies, Trade Union
collections, poetry, factory archives, artefacts and documents in
regional museums. This allows a deeper understanding not only of
the many examples of interaction with the Classics, but also what
these cultural interactions signified to the working poor: from the
promise of social advancement, to propaganda exploited by the
elites, to covert and overt class war. A People's History of
Classics offers a fascinating and insightful exploration of the
many and varied engagements with Greece and Rome among the working
classes in Britain and Ireland, and is a must-read not only for
classicists, but also for students of British and Irish social,
intellectual and political history in this period. Further, it
brings new historical depth and perspectives to public debates
around the future of classical education, and should be read by
anyone with an interest in educational policy in Britain today.
The extensive performance history of Euripides' Medea since the
Renaissance underscores its lasting social and political relevance.
Here, papers drawn from an interdisciplinary colloquium hosted at
Somerville College by the University of Oxford's Archive of
Performances of Greek and Roman Drama in August 1998 are augmented
by additional essays from specialists. The contributors to this
important volume include Ian Christie, David Gowne, Edith Hall,
Fiona Macintosh, Platon Mavromoustakos, Marianne McDonald, Diane
Purkiss, Margaret Reynolds, Mae Smethurst, Eva Stehlikova, Oliver
Taplin, and Olga Taxidou. (Legenda 2000)
Flying to Heaven to demand an end to war, building Cloudcuckooland
in the sky, descending to Hades to retrieve a dead tragedian such
were the cosmic missions on which Aristophanes, the father of
comedy, sent his heroes of the classical Athenian stage. The wit,
intellectual bravura, political clout and sheer imaginative power
of Aristophanes' quest dramas have profoundly influenced humorous
literature and satire, but this volume, which originated at an
international conference held at the Archive of Performances of
Greek and Roman Drama at Oxford University in 2004, is the first
interdisciplinary study of their seminal contribution to the
evolution of comic performance. Interdisciplinary essays by
specialists in Classics, Theatre, and Modern Literatures trace the
international performance history of Aristophanic comedy, and its
implication in aesthetic and political controversies, from
antiquity to the twenty-first century. The story encompasses
Jonson's satire, Cromwell's Ireland, German classicism, British
Imperial India, censorship scandals in France, Greece and South
Africa, Brechtian experiments in East Berlin, and musical theatre
from Gilbert and Sullivan to Stephen Sondheim.
Love and loyalty, hatred and revenge, fear, deprivation, and
political ambition: these are the motives which thrust the
characters portrayed in these three Sophoclean masterpieces on to
their collision course with catastrophe. Recognized in his own day
as perhaps the greatest of the Greek tragedians, Sophocles'
reputation has remained undimmed for two and a half thousand years.
His greatest innovation in the tragic medium was his development of
a central tragic figure, faced with a test of will and character,
risking obloquy and death rather than compromise his or her
principles: it is striking that Antigone and Electra both have a
woman as their intransigent 'hero'. Antigone dies rather neglect
her duty to her family, Oedipus' determination to save his city
results in the horrific discovery that he has committed both incest
and parricide, and Electra's unremitting anger at her mother and
her lover keeps her in servitude and despair. These vivid
translations combine elegance and modernity, and are remarkable for
their lucidity and accuracy. Their sonorous diction, economy, and
sensitivity to the varied metres and modes of the original musical
delivery make them equally suitable for reading or theatrical
peformance. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's
Classics has made available the widest range of literature from
around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's
commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a
wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions
by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text,
up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
From renowned classicist Edith Hall, ARISTOTLE'S WAY is an
examination of one of history's greatest philosophers, showing us
how to lead happy, fulfilled, and meaningful lives Aristotle was
the first philosopher to inquire into subjective happiness, and he
understood its essence better and more clearly than anyone since.
According to Aristotle, happiness is not about well-being, but
instead a lasting state of contentment, which should be the
ultimate goal of human life. We become happy through finding a
purpose, realizing our potential, and modifying our behavior to
become the best version of ourselves. With these objectives in
mind, Aristotle developed a humane program for becoming a happy
person, which has stood the test of time, comprising much of what
today we associate with the good life: meaning, creativity, and
positivity. Most importantly, Aristotle understood happiness as
available to the vast majority us, but only, crucially, if we
decide to apply ourselves to its creation--and he led by example.
As Hall writes, "If you believe that the goal of human life is to
maximize happiness, then you are a budding Aristotelian." In expert
yet vibrant modern language, Hall lays out the crux of Aristotle's
thinking, mixing affecting autobiographical anecdotes with a deep
wealth of classical learning. For Hall, whose own life has been
greatly improved by her understanding of Aristotle, this is an
intensely personal subject. She distills his ancient wisdom into
ten practical and universal lessons to help us confront life's
difficult and crucial moments, summarizing a lifetime of the most
rarefied and brilliant scholarship.
A People's History of Classics explores the influence of the
classical past on the lives of working-class people, whose voices
have been almost completely excluded from previous histories of
classical scholarship and pedagogy, in Britain and Ireland from the
late 17th to the early 20th century. This volume challenges the
prevailing scholarly and public assumption that the intimate link
between the exclusive intellectual culture of British elites and
the study of the ancient Greeks and Romans and their languages
meant that working-class culture was a 'Classics-Free Zone'. Making
use of diverse sources of information, both published and
unpublished, in archives, museums and libraries across the United
Kingdom and Ireland, Hall and Stead examine the working-class
experience of classical culture from the Bill of Rights in 1689 to
the outbreak of World War II. They analyse a huge volume of data,
from individuals, groups, regions and activities, in a huge range
of sources including memoirs, autobiographies, Trade Union
collections, poetry, factory archives, artefacts and documents in
regional museums. This allows a deeper understanding not only of
the many examples of interaction with the Classics, but also what
these cultural interactions signified to the working poor: from the
promise of social advancement, to propaganda exploited by the
elites, to covert and overt class war. A People's History of
Classics offers a fascinating and insightful exploration of the
many and varied engagements with Greece and Rome among the working
classes in Britain and Ireland, and is a must-read not only for
classicists, but also for students of British and Irish social,
intellectual and political history in this period. Further, it
brings new historical depth and perspectives to public debates
around the future of classical education, and should be read by
anyone with an interest in educational policy in Britain today.
In this richly varied selection of Tony Harrison's provocative
prose of the last fifty years, the great poet of page, stage and
screen presents a lifetime's thinking about art and politics,
creativity and mortality. In so doing, he takes us on an
extraordinary journey through languages and across continents and
millennia, from his Nigerian Lysistrata to the British Raj of his
version of Racine's Phedre, to post-Communist Europe for the film
Prometheus to a one-off performance of The Kaisers of Carnuntum at
the Roman amphitheatre between Vienna and Bratislava, tothe peace
camp at Greenham Common, and from a Leeds street bonfire
celebrating the defeat of Japan by the new atomic bomb to wines
made from the vines on volcanoes. A collection of work filled with
passion and humour that educates as it dazzles. 'Slangy, rooted,
erudite, rhythmic, Harrison is a titan among poets; a unique
Yorkshire brew of Auden, Byron, Brecht and Kipling, with a slug of
Roman satire.' Independent
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Medea and Other Plays (Paperback)
Euripides; Translated by James Morwood; Introduction by Edith Hall
|
R278
R234
Discovery Miles 2 340
Save R44 (16%)
|
Ships in 10 - 15 working days
|
`the most tragic of the poets' Aristotle Euripides was one of the
most popular and controversial of all Greek tragedians, and his
plays are marked by an independence of thought, ingenious dramatic
devices, and a subtle variety of register and mood. He is also
remarkable for the prominence he gave to female characters, whether
heroines of virtue or vice. In the ethically shocking Medea, the
first known child-killing mother in Greek myth to perform the deed
in cold blood manipulates her world in order to wreak vengeance on
her treacherous husband. Hippolytus sees Phaedra's confession of
her passion for her stepson herald disaster, while Electra's
heroine helps her brother murder their mother in an act that
mingles justice and sin. Lastly, lighter in tone, the satyr drama,
Helen, is an exploration of the impossibility of certitude as
brilliantly paradoxical as the three famous tragedies. This new
translation does full justice to Euripides's range of tone and gift
for narrative. A lucid introduction provides substantial analysis
of each play, complete with vital explanations of the traditions
and background to Euripides's world. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100
years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range
of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume
reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most
accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including
expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to
clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and
much more.
'Two things give Kitto's classic book its enduring freshness: he
pioneered the approach to Greek drama through internal artistry and
thematic form, and he always wrote in lively and readable English.'
- Oliver Taplin, University of Oxford, UK
Why did Aeschylus characterize differently from Sophocles? Why
did Sophocles introduce the third actor? Why did Euripides not make
better plots? So asks H.D.F Kitto in his acclaimed study of Greek
tragedy, available for the first time in Routledge Classics.
Kitto argues that in spite of dealing with big moral and
intellectual questions, the Greek dramatist is above all an artist
and the key to understanding classical Greek drama is to try and
understand the tragic conception of each play. In Kitto's words 'We
shall ask what the dramatist is striving to say, not what in fact
he does say about this or that.' Through a brilliant analysis of
Aeschylus's 'Oresteia', the plays of Sophocles including 'Antigone'
and 'Oedipus Tyrannus'; and Euripides's 'Medea' and 'Hecuba', Kitto
skilfully conveys the enduring artistic and literary brilliance of
the Greek dramatists.
H.D.F Kitto (1897 - 1982) was a renowned British classical
scholar. He lectured at the University of Glasgow from 1920-1944
before becoming Professor of Greek at Bristol University, where he
taught until 1962.
Iphigenia among the Taurians Bacchae Iphigenia at Aulis Rhesus The
four plays newly translated in this volume are among Euripides'
most exciting works. Iphigenia among the Taurians is a story of
escape and contrasting Greek and barbarian civilization, set on the
Black Sea at the edge of the known world. Bacchae, a profound
exploration of the human psyche, deals with the appalling
consequences of resistance to Dionysus, god of wine and unfettered
emotion. This tragedy, which above all others speaks to our
post-Freudian era, is one of Euripides' two last surviving plays.
The second, Iphigenia at Aulis, centres on the ultimate
dysfunctional family as natural emotion is tested in the tragic
crucible of the Greek expedition against Troy. Lastly, Rhesus,
probably the work of another playwright, is a thrilling,
action-packed Iliad in miniature, dealing with a grisly event in
the Trojan War. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's
Classics has made available the widest range of literature from
around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's
commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a
wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions
by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text,
up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
This volume of Euripides' plays offers new translations of the
three great war plays Trojan Women, Hecuba, and Andromache, in
which the sufferings of Troy's survivors are harrowingly depicted.
With unparalleled intensity, Euripides--whom Aristotle called the
most tragic of poets--describes the horrific brutality that both
women and children undergo during war. Yet, in the war's aftermath,
this brutality is challenged and a new battleground is revealed
where the women of Troy evince an overwhelming greatness of
spirit.
We weep for the aged Hecuba in her name play and in Trojan Women,
while at the same time we admire her resilience amid unrelieved
suffering. Andromache, the slave-concubine of her husband's killer,
endures her existence in the victor's country with a stoic
nobility. Of their time yet timeless, these plays insist on the
victory of the female spirit amid the horrors visited on them by
the gods and men during war.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has
made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the
globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to
scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of
other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading
authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date
bibliographies for further study, and much more.
|
Orestes and Other Plays (Paperback)
Euripides; Translated by Robin Waterfield; Notes by James Morwood; Introduction by Edith Hall
|
R369
R300
Discovery Miles 3 000
Save R69 (19%)
|
Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Ion Orestes The Phoenician Women The Suppliant Women In these four
plays Euripides explores ethical and political themes,contrasting
the claims of patriotism with family loyalty, pragmatism and
expediency with justice, and the idea that 'might is right' with
the ideal of clemency. Ion is a vivid portrait of the role of
chance in human life and an exploration of family relationships,
which combines a sympathetic portrait of a rape victim with remarks
on Athenian xenophobia. In Orestes, the most popular of the
tragedian's plays in the ancient world, Euripides explores the
emotional consequences of Orestes' murder of his mother on the
individuals concerned, and makes the tale resonate with advice to
Athens about the threat to democracy posed by political pressure
groups. The Suppliant Women is a commentary on the politics of
empire, as the Athenian king Theseus decides to use force of arms
rather than persuasion against Thebes. The Phoenician Women
transforms the terrible conflict between Oedipus' sons into one of
the most savage indictments of civil war in Western literature by
highlighting the personal tragedy it brings. ABOUT THE SERIES: For
over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the
widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable
volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the
most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features,
including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful
notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further
study, and much more.
A ghost summoned with bizarre rituals from the underworld, the
elaborate protocol of the Persian court, desperate lamentation,
self-mutilation, and a thrilling eye-witness account of the battle
of Salamis - these are some of the features of Aeschylus' Persians
which make it one of the most exciting examples of ancient theatre.
As the earliest surviving European drama it is of incalculable
interest to students of ancient literature: as the only extended
account of the Persian wars by an author who fought in them, it is
a unique document of the Athenian historical imagination. In this,
the first English language edition of the text with a commentary
for thirty-five years, the particular focus is on the visual and
aural effects Aeschylus created, his extraordinarily rich imagery,
and the play's unique contribution to Athenian democratic ideology.
[Greek text with facing-page translation, commentary and notes.
This edition was reprinted in 2007. Although it was not
substantially revised or updated, a short bibliographic update
describing important contributions to scholarship on Persians has
been included.]
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Heracles and Other Plays (Paperback)
Euripides; Translated by Robin Waterfield; Introduction by Edith Hall; Notes by James Morwood
|
R307
R249
Discovery Miles 2 490
Save R58 (19%)
|
Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Alcestis * Heracles * Children of Heracles * Cyclops Euripides
wrote about timeless themes, of friendship and enmity, hope and
despair, duty and betrayal. The first three plays in this volume
are filled with violence or its threat, while the fourth, Cyclops,
is our only surviving example of a genuine satyr play, with all the
crude and slapstick humour that characterized the genre. There is
death in Alcestis, which explores the marital relationship of
Alcestis and Admetus with pathos and grim humour, but whose status
as tragedy is subverted by a happy ending. The blood-soaked
Heracles portrays deep emotional pain and undeserved suffering; its
demand for a more humanistic ethics in the face of divine
indifference and callousness makes it one of Euripides' more
popular and profound plays. Children of Heracles is a rich and
complex work, famous for its dialogues and monologues, in which the
effects of war on refugees and the consequences of sheltering them
are movingly explored. In Cyclops Euripides takes the familiar
story of Odysseus' escape from the Cyclops Polyphemus and turns it
to hilarious comic effect. Euripides' other plays are all available
in Oxford World's Classics. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years
Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of
literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects
Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate
text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert
introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the
text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
|
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