Companions to Greek and Roman Tragedy – serie

Phaedra is one of Seneca's most successful tragedies. It was the first ancient drama to be performed in the Renaissance, marking an epoch in European theatre. The myth, as reworked by Seneca on the basis of dramas by Euripides, was endowed with fresh power, and his characterisation of Phaedra, especially in her frank avowal of love to her stepson, Hippolytus, fired the imagination of later tragic poets, especially Racine. Roland Mayer introduces the reader to the complex dramatic and literary inheritance which Seneca appropriated and in his turn bequeathed, and he sets out some of the main lines of contemporary interpretation and performance practice.

After completing his labours, Herakles finally returns home, sending ahead a young woman, Iole, to serve his bed. In an attempt to regain Herakles' affection and defend her position, his faithful wife Deianeira accidentally destroys the hero by her use of magic. Sophocles' "Women of Trachis" deals with the roles of the sexes within marriage, the function of sex and procreation in the family and society, the conflict between individual motivation and public perception, and the central tragic theme of the limits of human knowledge. This book enables the student new to the study of Greek tragedy to realise more of the interpretative possibilities available in this bold and disturbing work, first by providing the social and historical background, and secondly by employing a number of critical approaches to interpret the major thematic and dramatic issues of the play.

Prometheus Bound is a play beloved of revolutionaries, romantics and rebels, with a fierce optimism tempered by an acute awareness of the compromises, dangers and obsessions of political action. This companion sets the play in its historical context, explores its challenge to authority, and traces its reception from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Many scholars have disputed its Aeschylean authorship, but it has proved the most influential of tragedies outside academia. Marx's favourite tragedy, Prometheus Bound is also a foundational text for the genre of science fiction through its influence on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. In its open-eyed celebration of technology and democracy, it is the tragedy for the modern age.

Set at the end of the Trojan war, "Euripides' Trojan Women" depicts the women of Troy as they wait to be taken into slavery. While choral songs recall the death-throes of the great city, the scenes between the old queen, Hekabe, and the women of her family explore the consequences of the defeat, from the rape of Cassandra, through the triumphant self-exculpation of Helen, to the pitiful death of the child Astyanax, who is thrown from the walls of his ravaged city. Barbara Goff sets the play in its historical, dramatic and literary contexts, and provides a scene-by-scene analysis which brings out the pace and intellectual vigour of the play. The main themes are fully discussed, and the book also introduces readers to the issues that have divided critics, such as the extent to which the play responds to the historical events of the Peloponnesian War. The final chapter, which deals with the reception of the play, offers new insights into several modern works.

Euripides' "Suppliant Women" is an unfairly neglected master work by the most controversial of the three great tragedians of Ancient Greece. It dramatises the story of one of the proudest moments in Athenian mythical history: the intervention of Theseus in support of international law to force the burial of the Argives who were killed during their attack on Thebes. But Euripides adds new characters to the story and presents the myth in a different and sometimes ambiguous light. A sense of uncertainty and undercutting pervades this play, which dramatises the sufferings of the innocent in war and then at the end foretells more war. As well as presenting a scene-by-scene analysis, this book will discuss the date and background of the play, whether people and events from contemporary Athens can be glimpsed in the drama; the problems of staging, and finally the story in later tradition.

In his final play, Sophocles returns to the ever-popular character of Oedipus, the blind outcast of Thebes, the ultimate symbol of human reversal, whose fall he had so memorably treated in the 'Oedipus Tyrannus'. In this play, Sophocles brings the aged Oedipus to Athens, where he seeks succour and finds refuge, despite the threatening arrival of his kinsman Creon, who tries to tempt and then force the old man back under Theban control. Oedipus' resistance shows a fierceness in no way dimmed by incapacity, but he also refuses to aid his repentant son, Polyneices, in his coming attack on Thebes, manifesting once more the passion and harshness which mark his character so thoroughly. His mysterious death at the end of the play, witnessed only by Theseus himself, seems the sole fitting end for such an exceptional and problematic figure, transforming Oedipus into one of the 'powerful dead' whose beneficence towards Athens heralds a positive future for the city. This useful companion provides background, context, a synopsis and detailed analysis of the play.

"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 'Greek tragedy' should be. This book makes "Orestes" accessible to modern readers and performers by explicitly acknowledging the gap between ancient and modern ideas of tragedy. If we are to appreciate what is unusual about the play, we have to think in terms of its impact on its original audience. What did they expect from a tragedy, and what would they have made of "Orestes"?

"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. Chapters on religion, family, and national identity investigate how Euripides handles these issues in the light of the values of his day, and a chapter on genre discusses the play's upbeat ending and explores how we should define tragedy.

Aeschylus' 'Suppliants' dramatises the myth of the fifty daughters of Danaos, who flee Egypt and come to Argos as suppliants, trying to escape forced marriage to their Egyptian cousins. It was long considered to be the earliest surviving tragedy. Even after the mid-20th century, when new evidence established a later date for the play, critics tended to condemn it for its alleged 'archaic' features. As a result it has long been underestimated, although a careful examination reveals it to be one of the most exciting tragedies. This companion employs a variety of critical approaches to set the play in its literary, dramatic, social and historical contexts, and also offers a thorough examination of the performance of the tragedy, investigating topics such as stage, action, music, song and dance.

The Rhesus came down to us among the plays of Euripides, and was acknowledged as Euripidean by Aristotle. However, there is much debate as to its authorship and it may have been the work of a rival dramatist or 4th-century actors who heavily re-worked or interpolated Euripides' original play with this title.This is the first accessible introduction to the play, analysing its themes, performance and context for students of Euripides and other Greek drama. The Rhesus provides invaluable evidence about 4th-century production and performance of tragedy, which is otherwise known only from very few and short fragments from other lost plays. Stylistic and historical analysis together show what being a "post-classical" tragedy could mean – the play's composition probably took place precisely in the age when the canon of the three great tragedians was instituted and the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides became the incomparable "classical" texts of tragedy.The Rhesus is a splendid example of what "coming after" can mean for literary works: it is situated after, and thus reflects, both Homer and also canonical 5th-century tragedy. Little is written about 4th-century poetry, although its relevance in the incubation of Hellenistic poetry is a topos of literary and historical studies. By putting the Rhesus more solidly on the chronological map, stylistic and historical analysis proves that it can shed light on this tantalizing age.

This book is an accessible guide through the many twists and turns of Euripides’ Children of Heracles, providing several frameworks through which to understand and appreciate the play. Children of Heracles follows the fortunes of Heracles’ family after his death. Euripides confronts characters and audience alike with an extraordinary series of plot twists and ethical challenges as the persecuted family of refugees struggles to find asylum in Athens before taking revenge on its enemy Eurystheus. It is a fast-paced story that explores the nature of power and its abuse, focusing on the appropriate treatment and behaviour of the powerless and the obligations and limitations of asylum. The audience must continually re-evaluate the play’s moral dimensions as the characters respond to complications that range from the fantastic to the frighteningly realistic.Yoon situates Children of Heracles in its literary context, showing how Euripides constructs a unique kind of tragic plot from a wide range of conventions. It also explores the centrality of the dead Heracles and the leading role given to the socially powerless and the dramatically marginal. Finally, it discusses the historical contexts of the play’s original performance and its political resonance both then and now.

Hercules is the best-known character from classical mythology. Seneca’s play Hercules Furens presents the hero at a moment of triumph turned to tragedy. Hercules returns from his final labor, his journey to the Underworld, and then slaughters his family in an episode of madness. This play exerted great influence on Shakespeare and other Renaissance tragedians, and also inspired contemporary adaptations in film, TV, and comics. Aimed at undergraduates and non-specialists, this companion introduces the play’s action, historical context and literary tradition, critical reception, adaptation, and performance tradition.

This new introduction to Euripides' fascinating interpretation of the story of Electra and her brother Orestes emphasizes its theatricality, showing how captivating the play remains to this day. Electra poses many challenges for those drawn to Greek tragedy – students, scholars, actors, directors, stage designers, readers and audiences. Rush Rehm addresses the most important questions about the play: its shift in tone between tragedy and humour; why Euripides arranged the plot as he did; issues of class and gender; the credibility of the gods and heroes, and the power of the myths that keep their stories alive. A series of concise and engaging chapters explore the functions of the characters and chorus, and how their roles change over the course of the play; the language and imagery that affects the audience's response to the events on stage; the themes at work in the tragedy, and how Euripides forges them into a coherent theatrical experience; the later reception of the play, and how an array of writers, directors and filmmakers have interpreted the original.Euripides’ Electra has much to say to us in our contemporary world. This thorough, richly informed introduction challenges our understanding of what Greek tragedy was and what it can offer modern theatre, perhaps its most valuable legacy.

Octavia is a unique play: a work of uncertain authorship and date, erroneously attributed to Seneca, it is the only surviving example of a Roman historical drama. Its story focuses on the turbulent events surrounding Nero’s divorce from his first wife – Octavia, daughter of the emperor Claudius – and his marriage to the glamorous Poppaea, a move that sparks open rebellion amongst the Roman populace. With a supporting cast that includes Seneca and Nero himself, Octavia plunges its audience into the muddy waters of Julio-Claudian politics and leads them to confront difficult questions about how the past is remembered.This companion volume introduces the novice reader to Octavia’s historical background, genre, style and main themes. It combines detailed literary analysis with historical, cultural and theatrical knowledge, and concludes with a glance at the play’s enduring influence on later European traditions of tragedy.

Composed in early imperial Rome by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Stoic philosopher and tutor to the emperor Nero, the tragedy Medea is dominated by the superhuman energy of its protagonist: diva, killer, enchantress, force of nature. Seneca’s treatment of the myth covers an episode identical to that of Euripides’ Greek version, enabling instructive comparisons to be drawn. Seneca’s Medea has challenged and fascinated theatre-makers across cultures and centuries and should be regarded as integral to the classical heritage of European theatre.This companion volume sketches the essentials of Seneca’s play and at the same time situates it within an interpretive tradition. It also uses Medea to illustrate key features of Senecan dramaturgy, the way in which language functions as a mode of theatrical representation and the way in which individuals are embedded in their surrounding conditions, resonating dissonantly with the principles of Roman Stoicism.By interweaving some of the play’s subsequent receptions, theatrical and textual, into critical analysis of Medea as dramatic poetry, this companion volume will encourage the student to come to grips immediately with the ancient text’s inherent multiplicity. In this way, reception theory informs not only the content of the volume but also, fundamentally, the way in which it is presented.

This new introduction to Euripides' fascinating interpretation of the story of Electra and her brother Orestes emphasizes its theatricality, showing how captivating the play remains to this day. Electra poses many challenges for those drawn to Greek tragedy – students, scholars, actors, directors, stage designers, readers and audiences. Rush Rehm addresses the most important questions about the play: its shift in tone between tragedy and humour; why Euripides arranged the plot as he did; issues of class and gender; the credibility of the gods and heroes, and the power of the myths that keep their stories alive. A series of concise and engaging chapters explore the functions of the characters and chorus, and how their roles change over the course of the play; the language and imagery that affects the audience's response to the events on stage; the themes at work in the tragedy, and how Euripides forges them into a coherent theatrical experience; the later reception of the play, and how an array of writers, directors and filmmakers have interpreted the original.Euripides’ Electra has much to say to us in our contemporary world. This thorough, richly informed introduction challenges our understanding of what Greek tragedy was and what it can offer modern theatre, perhaps its most valuable legacy.

This book is an accessible guide through the many twists and turns of Euripides’ Children of Heracles, providing several frameworks through which to understand and appreciate the play. Children of Heracles follows the fortunes of Heracles’ family after his death. Euripides confronts characters and audience alike with an extraordinary series of plot twists and ethical challenges as the persecuted family of refugees struggles to find asylum in Athens before taking revenge on its enemy Eurystheus. It is a fast-paced story that explores the nature of power and its abuse, focusing on the appropriate treatment and behaviour of the powerless and the obligations and limitations of asylum. The audience must continually re-evaluate the play’s moral dimensions as the characters respond to complications that range from the fantastic to the frighteningly realistic.Yoon situates Children of Heracles in its literary context, showing how Euripides constructs a unique kind of tragic plot from a wide range of conventions. It also explores the centrality of the dead Heracles and the leading role given to the socially powerless and the dramatically marginal. Finally, it discusses the historical contexts of the play’s original performance and its political resonance both then and now.

A Roman tragedy widely considered to be post-Senecan and of unknown authorship, Hercules on Oeta is the longest play to survive from antiquity. This accessible volume offers a concise yet thorough introduction for readers coming to the play for the first time, exploring issues of authorship, date and performance alongside chapters on its literary antecedents, historical context, main characters and key themes, and reception in antiquity and beyond. Hercules on Oeta demonstrates that Hercules' death and deification was at least as important in art and myth as his twelve labours. The first half of the play is devoted to probing the humiliation he inflicted on his wife by returning with a pregnant, unwilling mistress, whose family he destroyed. Infected with a flesh-eating virus, the torment of Hercules became so great that he built a pyre for self-immolation: he appears again to his mother at the play’s end, now deified. As a study of the frictions between loyalty, fidelity and personal responsibility, the play raises the central question of whether one should be forgiven bad deeds by virtue of having also performed good deeds. There is more than one Hercules, and all his aspects are represented in this play: glutton, sexual opportunist, quick to violence and lacking in compassion, he was endearing but deeply flawed, tottering between pathos and parody, and very much a figure of our own time.

The book is written mainly for students to enable them better to appreciate and enjoy Euripides’ Andromache. Its presentation seeks to combine depth of analysis with clarity and accessibility. It discusses Greek theatre and performance, the myth behind the play, and the literary, intellectual, and political context in which it was written and first performed. The book provides analyses of the various characters, and highlights the play’s ambiguities and complexities. What makes Andromache of special interest is the fact that, of the 32 extant tragedies, it might have been originally produced outside Athens. This in turn leads the discussion of how the play’s scrutiny of the Spartan characters affected the off-stage audience. Andromache is the only play that portrays the human toll caused by the Trojan War to both the Trojan and the Greek sides. After the Fall of Troy, Andromache, former wife of Hector, has been given to Neoptolemus, Achilles’ son, as a war-prize. Andromache bore Neoptolemus a son, Molossus, before Neoptolemus married Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus and Helen. While Neoptolemus is away, Menelaus and Hermione attempt to kill Andromache and Molossus, causing a rift between the two families who were the major players in the War: the house of Atreus and the house of Peleus, father of Achilles. Although Neoptolemus is murdered, the play ends with a prophecy for the future of the line of descent of Peleus and Thetis in the form of the blessed kingdom of Molossia.

The book is written mainly for students to enable them better to appreciate and enjoy Euripides’ Andromache. Its presentation seeks to combine depth of analysis with clarity and accessibility. It discusses Greek theatre and performance, the myth behind the play, and the literary, intellectual, and political context in which it was written and first performed. The book provides analyses of the various characters, and highlights the play’s ambiguities and complexities. What makes Andromache of special interest is the fact that, of the 32 extant tragedies, it might have been originally produced outside Athens. This in turn leads the discussion of how the play’s scrutiny of the Spartan characters affected the off-stage audience. Andromache is the only play that portrays the human toll caused by the Trojan War to both the Trojan and the Greek sides. After the Fall of Troy, Andromache, former wife of Hector, has been given to Neoptolemus, Achilles’ son, as a war-prize. Andromache bore Neoptolemus a son, Molossus, before Neoptolemus married Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus and Helen. While Neoptolemus is away, Menelaus and Hermione attempt to kill Andromache and Molossus, causing a rift between the two families who were the major players in the War: the house of Atreus and the house of Peleus, father of Achilles. Although Neoptolemus is murdered, the play ends with a prophecy for the future of the line of descent of Peleus and Thetis in the form of the blessed kingdom of Molossia.

Antigone is Sophocles’ masterpiece, a seminal influence on a wide range of theatrical, literary, and intellectual traditions. This volume sets the play in the contexts of its mythical background, its performance, its relation to contemporary culture and thought, and its rich reception history. But its main aim is to encourage first-hand engagement with the complexities of interpretation that make the play so enduringly thought-provoking and rewarding. Though Creon’s actions prove disastrous and Antigone’s are vindicated, the Antigone is no simple study in the excesses of tyranny or the virtues of heroic resistance, but a more nuanced exploration of conflicting views of right and wrong and of the conditions that constrain human beings’ efforts to control their destinies and secure their happiness.The book’s chapters consider the extent of the original audience’s acquaintance with earlier versions of the legends of Antigone’s family, the structure of the plot as it unfolds in theatrical performance, the presentation of the characters and the motivations that drive them, the major political, social, and ethical themes that the play raises, and the resonance of those themes in the ways that the play has been interpreted, adapted, performed, and appropriated in later periods.

Antigone is Sophocles’ masterpiece, a seminal influence on a wide range of theatrical, literary, and intellectual traditions. This volume sets the play in the contexts of its mythical background, its performance, its relation to contemporary culture and thought, and its rich reception history. But its main aim is to encourage first-hand engagement with the complexities of interpretation that make the play so enduringly thought-provoking and rewarding. Though Creon’s actions prove disastrous and Antigone’s are vindicated, the Antigone is no simple study in the excesses of tyranny or the virtues of heroic resistance, but a more nuanced exploration of conflicting views of right and wrong and of the conditions that constrain human beings’ efforts to control their destinies and secure their happiness.The book’s chapters consider the extent of the original audience’s acquaintance with earlier versions of the legends of Antigone’s family, the structure of the plot as it unfolds in theatrical performance, the presentation of the characters and the motivations that drive them, the major political, social, and ethical themes that the play raises, and the resonance of those themes in the ways that the play has been interpreted, adapted, performed, and appropriated in later periods.

Chosen as one of the ten canonical plays by Euripides during the Hellenistic period in Greece, Hecuba was popular throughout Antiquity. The play also became part of the so-called 'Byzantine triad' of three plays of Euripides (along with Phoenician Women and Orestes) selected for study in school curricula, above all for the brilliance of its rhetorical speeches and quotable traditional wisdom. Translations into Latin and vernacular languages, as well as stage performances emerged early in the sixteenth century. The Renaissance admired the play for its representation of the extraordinary suffering and misfortunes of its newly-enslaved heroine, the former queen of Troy Hecuba, for the courageous sacrificial death of her daughter Polyxena, and for the beleaguered queen's surprisingly successful revenge against the unscrupulous killer of her son Polydorus. Later periods, however, developed reservations about the play's revenge plot and its unity. Recent scholarship has favorably reassessed the play in its original cultural and political context and the past thirty years have produced a number of exciting staged productions. Hecuba has emerged as a profound exploration of the difficulties of establishing justice and a stable morality in post-war situations. This book investigates the play's changing critical and theatrical reception from Antiquity to the present, its mythical and political background, its dramatic and thematic unity, and the role of its choruses.

Chosen as one of the ten canonical plays by Euripides during the Hellenistic period in Greece, Hecuba was popular throughout Antiquity. The play also became part of the so-called 'Byzantine triad' of three plays of Euripides (along with Phoenician Women and Orestes) selected for study in school curricula, above all for the brilliance of its rhetorical speeches and quotable traditional wisdom. Translations into Latin and vernacular languages, as well as stage performances emerged early in the sixteenth century. The Renaissance admired the play for its representation of the extraordinary suffering and misfortunes of its newly-enslaved heroine, the former queen of Troy Hecuba, for the courageous sacrificial death of her daughter Polyxena, and for the beleaguered queen's surprisingly successful revenge against the unscrupulous killer of her son Polydorus. Later periods, however, developed reservations about the play's revenge plot and its unity. Recent scholarship has favorably reassessed the play in its original cultural and political context and the past thirty years have produced a number of exciting staged productions. Hecuba has emerged as a profound exploration of the difficulties of establishing justice and a stable morality in post-war situations. This book investigates the play's changing critical and theatrical reception from Antiquity to the present, its mythical and political background, its dramatic and thematic unity, and the role of its choruses.

In this new student introduction to a Greek tragedy, Isabelle Torrance looks at what makes Iphigenia among the Taurians a successful tragedy in ancient Greek terms, and how dramatic excitement is achieved through the exotic setting, the cast of characters, and the chorus. Assuming no knowledge of Greek, and with students in mind, the central themes of ethnicity and gender relations are examined to show how Euripides manipulates established stereotypes. The play was one of Aristotle’s favourites and his enthusiasm derived from the fact that, in spite of its ostensibly happy ending, the play presents the audience with an exquisitely constructed reversal of events: when Iphigenia recognizes that she has been about to sacrifice her long-lost brother, kin-murder is avoided and the plot turns into an escape drama. Other significant concerns of the play surround ritual and the gods, and these are discussed to highlight how the drama asks probing theological questions. Finally, the vast reception history of the play in a variety of genres, such as ancient comedy, Roman philosophy, European opera, and 20th century theatre, is sketched out from antiquity to the present day.

Oedipus, king of Thebes, is one of the giant figures of ancient mythology. Through the centuries, his story has inspired works of epic poetry, lyric poetry, tragedy, opera, a gospel musical and more. The myth has been famously deployed in psychology by Sigmund Freud. It may not be too bold to claim that Oedipus is the name from Greco-Roman mythology best known beyond the academy at the present time, thanks to Freud's famous phrase 'the Oedipus complex'. The most famous version of the Oedipus myth from antiquity is the Greek play by Sophocles. But there is another version, the Latin drama by the Roman philosopher and politician Seneca.Seneca's version is an entirely different treatment from that of Sophocles and reflects concerns special to the author and his Roman audience in the first century AD. Moreover, the play actually exercised a much greater influence on European literature and thought than has usually been suspected. This book offers a compact and incisive study of the multi-faceted Oedipus myth, of Seneca as dramatist, of the distinctive characteristics of Seneca's play and of the most important aspects of the reception of the play in European drama and culture. The scope of the book ranges chronologically from Homer's treatment of Oedipus myth in the Odyssey down to a twenty-first century Senecan treatment by a Lebanese Canadian dramatist. No knowledge of Latin or other foreign languages is required.

Oedipus, king of Thebes, is one of the giant figures of ancient mythology. Through the centuries, his story has inspired works of epic poetry, lyric poetry, tragedy, opera, a gospel musical and more. The myth has been famously deployed in psychology by Sigmund Freud. It may not be too bold to claim that Oedipus is the name from Greco-Roman mythology best known beyond the academy at the present time, thanks to Freud's famous phrase 'the Oedipus complex'. The most famous version of the Oedipus myth from antiquity is the Greek play by Sophocles. But there is another version, the Latin drama by the Roman philosopher and politician Seneca.Seneca's version is an entirely different treatment from that of Sophocles and reflects concerns special to the author and his Roman audience in the first century AD. Moreover, the play actually exercised a much greater influence on European literature and thought than has usually been suspected. This book offers a compact and incisive study of the multi-faceted Oedipus myth, of Seneca as dramatist, of the distinctive characteristics of Seneca's play and of the most important aspects of the reception of the play in European drama and culture. The scope of the book ranges chronologically from Homer's treatment of Oedipus myth in the Odyssey down to a twenty-first century Senecan treatment by a Lebanese Canadian dramatist. No knowledge of Latin or other foreign languages is required.

With its ribald chorus of ithyphallic, half-man / half-horse creatures, satyr drama was a peculiar part of the Athenian theatrical experience. Performed three times each year after a trilogy of tragedies, it was an integral part of the 5th- and 4th-century City Dionysia, a large festival in honour of the god Dionysus. Euripides: Cyclops is the first book-length study of this fascinating genre’s only complete, extant play, a theatrical version of Odysseus’ encounter with the monster Polyphemus. Shaw begins with a look at the history of the genre, following its development from early 6th-century religious processions up to the Hellenistic era. He then offers a comprehensive analysis of the Cyclops’ plot and performance, using the text (alongside ancient literary fragments and visual evidence) to determine the original viewing experience: the stage, masks, costumes, actions and emotions. A detailed examination of the text reveals that Euripides associates and distinguishes his version of the story from previous iterations of the myth, especially book nine of Homer’s Odyssey. Euripides handles many of the same themes as his predecessors, but he updates the Cyclops for the Athenian stage, adapting his work to reflect and comment upon contemporary religious, philosophical and literary-musical trends.

With its ribald chorus of ithyphallic, half-man / half-horse creatures, satyr drama was a peculiar part of the Athenian theatrical experience. Performed three times each year after a trilogy of tragedies, it was an integral part of the 5th- and 4th-century City Dionysia, a large festival in honour of the god Dionysus. Euripides: Cyclops is the first book-length study of this fascinating genre’s only complete, extant play, a theatrical version of Odysseus’ encounter with the monster Polyphemus. Shaw begins with a look at the history of the genre, following its development from early 6th-century religious processions up to the Hellenistic era. He then offers a comprehensive analysis of the Cyclops’ plot and performance, using the text (alongside ancient literary fragments and visual evidence) to determine the original viewing experience: the stage, masks, costumes, actions and emotions. A detailed examination of the text reveals that Euripides associates and distinguishes his version of the story from previous iterations of the myth, especially book nine of Homer’s Odyssey. Euripides handles many of the same themes as his predecessors, but he updates the Cyclops for the Athenian stage, adapting his work to reflect and comment upon contemporary religious, philosophical and literary-musical trends.