Book Description
This series of essays by prominent academics and practitioners investigates in detail the history of performance in the classical Greek and Roman world. Beginning with the earliest examples of 'dramatic' presentation in the epic cycles and reaching through to the latter days of the Roman Empire and beyond, the Companion covers many aspects of these broad presentational societies. Dramatic performances that are text-based form only one part of cultures where presentation is a major element of all social and political life. Individual chapters range across a two thousand year timescale, and include specific chapters on acting traditions, masks, properties, playing places, festivals, religion and drama, comedy and society, and commodity, concluding with the dramatic legacy of myth and the modern media. The book addresses the needs of students of drama and classics, as well as anyone with an interest in the theatre's history and practice. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Some great plays
My favorite play was Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl. I'm not sure if this is out in any other form, but certainly the book is worth buying just to read this play, which has the deftness and economy of a classic Greek text, and the emotional range and subjective depth of a modern classic.She's my favorite author of plays. ... Read more

Book Description
Modern scholars have followed Aristotle in noting the importance of philia (kinship or friendship) in Greek tragedy, especially the large number of plots in which kin harm or murder one another. More than half of the thirty-two extant tragedies focus on an act in which harm occurs or is about to occur among philoi who are blood kin. In contrast, Homeric epic tends to avoid the portrayal of harm to kin. It appears, then, that kin killing does not merely occur in what Aristotle calls the "best" Greek tragedies; rather, it is a characteristic of the genre as a whole. In Murder Among Friends, Elizabeth Belfiore supports this thesis with an in-depth examination of the crucial role of philia in Greek tragedy. Drawing on a wealth of evidence, she compares tragedy and epic, discusses the role of philia relationships within Greek literature and society, and analyzes in detail the pattern of violation of philia in five plays: Aeschylus' Suppliants, Sophocles' Philoctetes and Ajax, and Euripides' Iphigenia in Tauris and Andromache. Appendixes further document instances of violation of philia in all the extant tragedies as well as in the lost plays of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Informative Study For a Popular Topic
Belfiore's book on kin-killing is pretty well thought-out, and her writing is direct and to the point without feeling like a list of power point notes.The idea of kin-killing (and similar inversions of "proper" Greek relationships) is a fertile topic.It ties-in rather well with studies about the inversion(s) of ritual and gender that occur so frequently in Greek tragedy (see texts by Rush Rhem, Nicole Loraux, et al.).I have two complaints.One is kind of unfair because it can be and has been leveled at every critic ever: at times it feels like she's really forcing themes and motifs that are treated in specific plays onto Greek tragedy as a whole.But what I do regret after having read this text is the fact that most of her model texts (those tragedies she uses to illustrate her point) are somewhat peripheral or unpopular.I mean, Aeschylus' Oresteia and the three extant Theban plays by Sophocles are extremely popular, and Philoctetes and Ajax are often referred to (although rarely read outside of Classics courses proper).But Euripides' Ion?Surely not when we could be looking at Bacchae or Medea.The better part of the book traces the canonical Orestes mythologies.Admittedly, part of the reason for this is that these texts ARE often ignored (how often does one focus on Orestes outside of Aeschylus?).But the effect that concentrating on these relatively obscure texts (at times) had on me was to make it feel like the tragedies were being fitted into a theory rather than the theory accommodating the tragedies.That said, there are a lot of lucid observations applied to individual tragedies and in locating at least one general theme that occurs (at some level - not necessarily a dominant one) in most extant and known tragedies.There's also a useful discussion/definition of the Greek idea of "philia" (it's part of the group of words related to the verb "philo," to love) but it's application in the Greek world was pervasive and multivalent.Konstan has written a lot about the topic as well.She engages him directly at one point. ... Read more

Book Description
Dramatizing Greek Mythology is an ideal way to develop actingand speaking skills and an appreciation of classic literature. Written forteachers and recreational leaders with varying degrees of dramatic artsexperience, the book offers plays suitable for students of all academicbackgrounds and English language learners.

This unique book contains five Greek myths dramatized to give everyone in aclass of up to 35 students significant roles and to integrate dramatizationwith the study of Greek mythology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Plays suitable for all kinds of students
Aspiring young actors and highschool drama classes planning on dramatizing mythology will find Dramatizing Greek Mythology to be an essential guide to the process. Teachers and recreational leaders receive plays suitable for all kinds of students - including newcomers to English. Five Greek myths provide classes with up to 35 parts, covering the major myths of Hercules, Orpheus, and the Olympian gods and providing not only dialogue but suggestions for props, rehearsal schedules, and insights on how to produce a play. ... Read more

Book Description

Is Sophocles the poet "more important" than Sophocles the moralist, Sophocles the student of character, or Sophocles the storyteller? In this acclaimed work, eminent classicist Richmond Lattimore examines the complex and varied ways in which Greek poetry contributes to Greek drama. While acknowledging the difficulty of separating poetry -- especially in translation -- from other aspects of language, Lattimore offers keen insight into plays by Aeschylus (The Suppliant Maidens, The Persians, The Seven against Thebes, Prometheus Bound), Sophocles (Ajax, Oedipus Tyrannus), and Euripides (Medea, Helen, The Bacchae).

Book Description
Greek plays have survived as written texts, virtually without stage direction, and because the conditions of the first performance were never recorded at the time, it tends to be assumed that language was the most important feature of Greek drama. It is Professor Walton's contention that a close consideration of the surviving Greek tragedies reveals that all three major tragedians wrote with a masked performance in mind which promoted the use of visual images above and beyond the spoken word.
This approach is placed in the context of a visual tradition in the arts in Athens, notably in architecture, sculpture and painting, which reveals a sophisticated appreciation of space and line. A logical extension of this appreciation through other performance elements such as music and dance, suggests that the Greeks viewed tragedy as a synthesis of other means of perception rather than the extension of literature it was later to become.
In The Greek Sense of Theatre, J. Michael Walton proposes t ... Read more