Six Greek Tragedies Persians; Prometheus Bound; Women of Trachis; Philoctetes; Trojan Women; Bacchae

by Walton, J. Michael; Raphael, Stephen; McLeish, Kenneth; McDonald, Marianne

• ISBN13: 9780413772565
• ISBN10: 041377256X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-09-19
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama

Summary

A single-volume edition of the major Greek tragedies In a period of sixty-six years, three Athenian playwrights produced a series of tragedies which became a touchstone for drama for the next two and a half thousand years. The six plays in this volume include Aeschylus' Persians (472 BC), the earliest surviving Greek tragedy and only surviving 'history' play; his Prometheus Bound, perhaps the most deeply mythological of all tragedies, presenting an archetype of the human condition; Sophocles' Women of Trachis, a deeply poignant piece, portraying Heracles' death through his wife's mistake; his strange Philoctetes, which presents a fascinating moral debate and a young man's realisation of the importance of loyalty to his own ideals; Euripides' Trojan Women, the greatest anti-war play ever written; and his intangible Bacchae, a play full of paradoxes which functions at many different levels.The volume is edited and introduced by Marianne McDonald, Professor of Theatre and Classics, University of California, San Diego, and J. Michael Walton, Professor of Drama at the University of Hull.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Aeschylus
Persians	1	(36)
Prometheus Bound	37	(36)
Sophocles
Women of Trachis	73	(48)
Philoctetes	121	(56)
Euripides
Trojan Women	177	(46)
Bacchae	223	(52)
A Note on the Translators	275