The Authenticity of Prometheus Bound

by Mark Griffith

• ISBN13: 9780521038140
• ISBN10: 0521038146
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-07-30
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Prometheus Bound was accepted without question in antiquity as the work of Aeschylus, and most modern authorities endorse this ascription. But since the nineteenth century several leading scholars have come to doubt Aeschylean authorship. Dr Griffith here provides much the most thorough and wide-ranging study of the problem that has yet been made, and concludes: 'Had Prometheus Bound been newly dug up from the sands of Oxyrhynchus... few scholars would regard it as the work of Aeschylus.' After a preliminary assessment of the external evidence, Dr Griffith examines minutely the idiosyncrasies of metre, dramatic technique, vocabulary, syntax and expression to be found in the play, applying the same tests to other plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides in order to provide a control for his methods. In his final chapter he discusses how the conditions surrounding the ancient transmission and cataloguing of texts may have led to the ascription to Aeschylus.

Table of Contents

List of tables

Preface

The problem

External evidence

The lyric metres

The recitative Anapaests

The Iambic trimeters

Structure and dramatic technique

Staging

Vocabulary

Style and syntax

Alternatives to Aeschylean authorship

Appendixes

Notes

Bibliography

Subject index

Index of Greek words discussed

Index of passages cited

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