Sophocles

David Raeburn

Pat Easterling

Sophocles’ innovative plays transformed Greek myths into dramas featuring complex human characters, through which he explored profound moral issues. Electra portrays the grief of a young woman for her father Agamemnon, who has been killed by her mother’s lover. Aeschylus and Euripides also dramatized this story, but the objectivity and humanity of Sophocles’ version provides a new perspective. Depicting the fall of a great hero, Ajax examines the enigma of power and weakness combined in one being, while the Women of Trachis portrays the tragic love and error of Heracles’ deserted wife Deianeira, and Philoctetes deals with the conflict between physical force and moral strength.

Electra and Other Plays

Mark A. Giembycz

For researchers using animals to investigate human asthma, explains physiological and pharmacological process in the lung , and reviews the animal models available for studying the bronchospasm and inflammation associated with human asthma. Also discusses such methodological aspects as administering drugs to animal airways and the mechanics of assessing lung function. Also considers the use of genetically altered animals as research models. The sixth volume in the sub- series. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Modelling the Asthmatic Response in Vivo

Airways Smooth Muscle

Oliver Thomas

This commentary discusses Aeschylus' play Agamemnon (458 BC), which is one of the most popular of the surviving ancient Greek tragedies, and is the first to be published in English since 1958. It is designed particularly to help students who are tackling Aeschylus in the original Greek for the first time, and includes a reprint of D. L. Page's Oxford Classical Text of the play. The introduction defines the place of Agamemnon within the Oresteia trilogy as a whole, and the historical context in which the plays were produced. It discusses Aeschylus' handling of the traditional myth and the main ideas which underpin his overall design: such as the development of justice and the nature of human responsibility; and it emphasizes how the power of words, seen as ominous speech-acts which can determine future events, makes a central contribution to the play's dramatic momentum. Separate sections explore Aeschylus' use of theatrical resources, the role of the chorus, and the solo characters. Finally there is an analysis of Aeschylus' distinctive poetic style and use of imagery, and an outline of the transmission of the play from 458 BC to the first printed editions.

A Commentary for Students

The Agamemnon of Aeschylus

Greek Tragedies as Plays for Performance is a unique introduction to the genre that explores these works as dramatic artefacts intended for performance—instead of as ancient literature solely to be read and studied. Written by a scholar who combines his academic understanding of Greek tragedy with his singular theatrical experience of producing these ancient dramas for the modern stage, this text pays special attention to construction, design, staging, and musical composition in terms of the ancient medium and original resources. The author discusses the masters of the genre—Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides—including similarities, differences, their use and development of Greek tragedy’s hybrid form, the significance that each poet attaches to familiar myths and his distinctive approach as a dramatic artist. The text examines 10 plays in detail, from Persae and TheOresteia to Antigone and Oedipus Tyrannus and then Medea and Bacchae, including the 2 Electra plays. It delves into important components of these dramas, including performances by the chorus and the 3 actors, the need to captivate audiences attending a major civic and religious festival, and the importance of the lyric sections for emotional effect. The book also contains a companion website, available upon publication at www.wiley.com/go/raeburn, with 136 audio recordings of Greek tragedy that illustrate the beauty of the Greek language and the powerful rhythms of the songs. With extended dramatic analysis of important Greek tragedies at an appropriate level for readers coming to the topic for the first time, this is a fresh and insightful foray into these ancient works of art. David Raeburn has recently retired from a stipendiary Lectureship in Classical Languages at New College in the University of Oxford,UK, where he previously held the Grocyn Lectureship in the Faculty of Literae Humaniores. Before that, he spent more than 40 years as a Classics teacher and headmaster of two secondary schools. He is the co-author of The Agamemnon of Aeschylus (2010) and translator of the Penguin Classics editions of Sophocles’ Electra and Other Plays (2008) and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (2004). His research interests include Greek tragedy and Augustan poetry in Latin. He has directed over 30 full-scale or workshop productions of 18 of the 33 extant Greek tragedies, performed either in the original language or in translation with school and university students.

Greek Tragedies as Plays for Performance

Aeschylus

This commentary on Aeschylus' Agamemnon offers the reader a thorough introduction, extensive notes, and separate sections which explore Aeschylus' use of theatrical resources, an analysis of his distinctive poetic style and use of imagery, and an outline of the transmission of the play from 458 BC to the first printed editions.

David Raeburn

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