The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy

by Patricia E. Easterling (Editor)

This book presents ancient Greek tragedy in the context of late-twentieth-century reading, criticism and performance. The twelve chapters, written by seven distinguished scholars, cover tragedy as an institution in the civic life of ancient Athens, a range of approaches to the surviving plays, and changing patterns of reception, adaptation and performance from antiquity to the present.

Genres: Nonfiction, Tragedy, Classics, History, Theatre, Literary Criticism, Reference

392 pages, Paperback

First published October 2, 1997

Reviews

[Michael Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very good, has taught be a lot about Greece and Athens during the Athenian golden age, and the culture around the production of some of my favourite works of literature ever. It's a book I will read again, because I'm sure I am stupid and have not taken a lot of this information in. Rereading is more important than reading I guess.

[Linniegayl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in preparation for a class on Greek Tragedy this fall. It's a book of essays divided into broad sections of (1) the historical context of tragedy (probably my favorite section); (2) the plays themselves; and (3) reception. I liked most of the chapters, and found something useful in pretty much all of them. I know I will use this going forward as a reference.

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely useful collection of essays locating Greek tragedy in its context, and exploring that context thoroughly from multiple perspectives. While many of the authors in this collection stress how little we actually know about the performance practices of Greek theatre, the authors provide the evidence supporting a number of different positions on various issues (like whether women were allowed to attend the theatre at the City Dionysia), and attempt to evaluate how reliable and convincing the existing evidence is for various controversial questions. This approach makes the volume tremendously informative.

[Michael Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent telling of the history of Greek Tragedy.