Despite the outstanding popularity of this play in antiquity and its importance as a link between classical Greek tragedy and later theatrical developments, this new edition (first published in hardback in 1986) is the first in English since 1895. The introduction attempts to reinstate the plot of the drama as its central feature, to which the treatment of character, themes, and formal elements is subsidiary. The play as a whole is a tour de force of dramatic and 'mythopoetic' ingenuity. The text reproduced is that of Murray, but many changes are discussed and some new conjectures offered in the commentary, a special feature of which is the detailed attention to the lyric metres.
