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(!) Also search within the eBooks in The Classical World, Greek Drama, and Greek Mythology tabs for more information on Aristophanes and his works.
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Lysistrata : 'Love Is Simply the Name for the Desire and the Pursuit of the Whole' by Aristophanes The reality is that little is known of Aristophanes actual life but eleven of his forty plays survive intact and upon those rest his deserved reputation as the Father of Comedy or, The Prince of Ancient Comedy. Accounts agree that he was born sometime between 456BC and 446 BC. Many cities claim the honor of his birthplace and the most probable story makes him the son of Philippus of Ægina, and therefore only an adopted citizen of Athens, a distinction which, at times could be cruel, though he was raised and educated in Athens. His plays are said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more realistically than any other author could. Intellectually his powers of ridicule were feared by his influential contemporaries; Plato himself singled out Aristophanes'play The Clouds as a slander that contributed to the trial and condemning to death of Socrates and although other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher his carried the most weight. His now lost play, The Babylonians, was denounced by the demagogue Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. Aristophanes seems to have taken this criticism to heart and thereafter caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights. His life and playwriting years were undoubtedly long though again accounts as to the year of his death vary quite widely. What can be certain is that his legacy of surviving plays is in effect both a treasured legacy but also in itself the only surviving texts of Ancient Greek comedy.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Notable PlaywrightsCall Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
Volume 1 has a section over Aristophanes.
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Satiric Impersonations : From Aristophanes to the Guerrilla Girls In this entertaining and provocative new work, Joel Schechter selectively surveys political satire covering a wide range of periods and events from Aristophanes to the present. His absorbing essays focus on the satires of Jonathan Swift, Charlie Chaplin, Will Rogers, Dario Fo, and the Guerrilla Girls, among others. Schechter furthermore examines how the histrionic behavior of some politicians and world leaders has prompted them to become unwitting contributors to political satire. He argues that these politicians are as theatrical, if not as comic, as the plays, pamphlets, and films in which they are satirically impersonated. As examples, he cites Hitler, Stalin, and Reagan as performers whose'acts'rival anything a satirist could invent and any impersonation a comedian could stage. In Schechter's view, satiric impersonation is not only an art form through which one living person appears to be another, it is also an act that reveals that the person imitated is an imposter. For example, he comments that'while Hitler conquered Europe, Chaplin [in his film The Great Dictator] in his own way conquered Hitler; adding him to a repertoire that included the Little Tramp and (later) Bluebeard.'Schechter approaches satire with candor and humor, personalizing his text by concluding with a memoir of his own brief career as an actor-politician.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Venom in Verse : Aristophanes in Modern Greece Aristophanes has enjoyed a conspicuous revival in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Greece. Here, Gonda Van Steen provides the first critical analysis of the role of the classical Athenian playwright in modern Greek culture, explaining how the sociopolitical'venom'of Aristophanes'verses remains relevant and appealing to modern Greek audiences. Deriding or challenging well-known figures and conservative values, Aristophanes'comedies transgress authority and continue to speak to many social groups in Greece who have found in him a witty, pointed, and accessible champion from their'native'tradition. The book addresses the broader issues reflected in the poet's revival: political and linguistic nationalism, literary and cultural authenticity versus creativity, censorship, and social strife. Van Steen's discussion ranges from attitudes toward Aristophanes before and during Greece's War of Independence in the 1820s to those during the Cold War, from feminist debates to the significance of the popular music integrated into comic revival productions, from the havoc transvestite adaptations wreaked on gender roles to the political protest symbolized by Karolos Koun's directorial choices. Crossing boundaries of classical philology, critical theory, and performance studies, the book encourages us to reassess Aristophanes'comedies as both play-acts and modern methods of communication. Van Steen uses material never before accessible in English as she proves that Aristophanes remains Greece's immortal comic genius and political voice.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Ancient Warfare : Introducing Current Research This volume provides chapters on current research into ancient warfare. It is a collection with a wide-range, covering a long chronological spread, with many historical themes, including some that have recently been rather neglected. It has wide academic relevance to a number of on-going debates on themes in ancient warfare. Each topic covered is coherently presented, and offers convincing coverage of the subject area. There is a high standard of scholarship and presentation; chapters are well documented with extensive bibliographies. It is readable and successful in engaging the reader's attention, and presents subject matter in an accessible way. The book will particularly appeal to professional historians, students and a wider audience of those interested in ancient warfare.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Arete : Greek Sports From Ancient Sources From the informal games of Homer's time to the highly organized contests of the Roman world, Miller has compileda trove of ancient sources: Plutarch on boxing, Aristotle on the pentathlon, Philostratos on the buying and selling of victories, Vitruvius on literary competitions, and Xenophon on female body building. Arete offers readers an absorbing lesson in the culture of Greek athletics from the greatest of teachers, the ancients themselves, and demonstrates that the concepts of virtue, skill, pride, valor, and nobility embedded in the word arete are only part of the story from antiquity. This bestselling volume on the culture of Greek athletics is updated with a new preface by leading scholar Paul Christesen that discusses the book's continued importance for students of ancient athletics.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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The Associations of Classical Athens : The Response to Democracy Jones'book examines the associations of ancient Athens under the classical democracy (508/7-321 B.C.) in light of their relations to the central government. Associations of all types--village communities, cultic groups, brotherhoods, sacerdotal families, philosophical schools, and others--emerge as fundamentally similar instances of Aristotelian koinoniai. Each, it is argued, acquired its distinctive character in response to particular features of the contemporary democracy. The analysis results in the first integrated, holistic institutional reconstruction of Greece's first city.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Athens: Its Rise and Fall : With Views of the Literature, Philosophy, and Social Life of the Athenian People Athens: Its Rise and Fall, originally published in 1837, is the most important and readable of the Victorian histories of ancient Greece. It stands alongside Macauley and Carlyle as a great historical work of British Romanticism, and anticipates the thinking of George Grote and John Stuart Mill on Greek history by over a decade. Originally published in two volumes, this new one-volume edition includes the text of the never-before published'third volume'on which he was working at the time of his death, recently rediscovered by Oxford academic Oswyn Murray. An absolute must for any scholar of ancient Greece.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Cities, Peasants and Food in Classical Antiquity : Essays in Social and Economic History Sixteen essays in the social and economic history of the ancient world, by a leading historian of classical antiquity, are here brought conveniently together. Three overlapping parts deal with the urban economy and society, peasants and the rural economy, and food-supply and food-crisis. While focusing on eleven centuries of antiquity from archaic Greece to late imperial Rome, the essays include theoretical and comparative analyses of food-crisis and pastoralism, and an interdisciplinary study of the health status of the people of Rome using physical anthropology and nutritional science. A variety of subjects are treated, from the misconduct of a builders'association in late antique Sardis, to a survey of the cultural associations and physiological effects of the broad bean.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Citizen Bacchae : Women’s Ritual Practice in Ancient Greece What activities did the women of ancient Greece perform in the sphere of ritual, and what were the meanings of such activities for them and their culture? By offering answers to these questions, this study aims to recover and reconstruct an important dimension of the lived experience of ancient Greek women. A comprehensive and sophisticated investigation of the ritual roles of women in ancient Greece, it draws on a wide range of evidence from across the Greek world, including literary and historical texts, inscriptions, and vase-paintings, to assemble a portrait of women as religious and cultural agents, despite the ideals of seclusion within the home and exclusion from public arenas that we know restricted their lives. As she builds a picture of the extent and diversity of women's ritual activity, Barbara Goff shows that they were entrusted with some of the most important processes by which the community guaranteed its welfare. She examines the ways in which women's ritual activity addressed issues of sexuality and civic participation, showing that ritual could offer women genuinely alternative roles and identities even while it worked to produce wives and mothers who functioned well in this male-dominated society. Moving to more speculative analysis, she discusses the possibility of a women's subculture focused on ritual and investigates the significance of ritual in women's poetry and vase-paintings that depict women. She also includes a substantial exploration of the representation of women as ritual agents in fifth-century Athenian drama.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity In this book Jonathan Hall seeks to demonstrate that the ethnic groups of ancient Greece, like many ethnic groups throughout the world today, were not ultimately racial, linguistic, religious or cultural groups, but social groups whose'origins'in extraneous territories were just as often imagined as they were real. Adopting an explicitly anthropological point of view, he examines the evidence of literature, archaeology and linguistics to elucidate the nature of ethnic identity in ancient Greece. Rather than treating Greek ethnic groups as'natural'or'essential'- let alone'racial'- entities, he emphasises the active, constructive and dynamic role of ethnography, genealogy, material culture and language in shaping ethnic consciousness. An introductory chapter outlines the history of the study of ethnicity in Greek antiquity.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Greek History Robin Osborne's energetic and lively guidebook is the ideal introduction to the study of ancient Greece, from the end of the Bronze Age (c.1200BC) to the Roman conquest in the second century BC. Covering all the most important topics in the study of the Greek past, it also explores the cultural, political, demographic and economic approaches to Greek history that students will encounter. Professor Osborne sheds light on the full possibilities - and problems - of working with the surviving evidence, by giving examples from archaeological and art historical sources as well as written texts. The book includes a clear and helpful guide to further reading. It is an excellent starting point for those who want to take their studies further.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Greek Lives by Plutarch Lycurgus, Pericles, Solon, Nicias, Themistocles, Alcibiades, Cimon, Agesilaus, Alexander `I treat the narrative of the Lives as a kind of mirror...The experience is like nothing so much as spending time in their company and living with them: I receive and welcome each of them in turn as my guest.'In the nine lives of this collection Plutarch introduces the reader to the major figures and periods of classical Greece. He portrays virtues to be emulated and vices to be avoided, but his purpose is also implicitly to educate and warn those in his own day who wielded power. In prose that is rich, elegant and sprinkled with learned references, he explores with an extraordinary degree of insight the interplay of character and political action. While drawing chiefly on historical sources, he brings to biography a natural story-teller's ear for a good anecdote. Throughout the ages Plutarch's Lives have been valued for their historical value and their charm. This new translation will introduce new generations to his urbane erudition. The most comprehensive selection available, it is accompanied by a lucid introduction, explanatory notes, bibliographies, maps and indexes. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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The Gymnasium of Virtue : Education and Culture in Ancient Sparta The Gymnasium of Virtue is the first book devoted exclusively to the study of education in ancient Sparta, covering the period from the sixth century B.C. to the fourth century A.D. Nigel Kennell refutes the popular notion that classical Spartan education was a conservative amalgam of'primitive'customs not found elsewhere in Greece. He argues instead that later political and cultural movements made the system appear to be more distinctive than it actually had been, as a means of asserting Sparta's claim to be a unique society. Using epigraphical, literary, and archaeological evidence, Kennell describes the development of all aspects of Spartan education, including the age-grade system and physical contests that were integral to the system. He shows that Spartan education reached its apogee in the early Roman Empire, when Spartans sought to distinguish themselves from other Greeks. He attributes many of the changes instituted later in the period to one person--the philosopher Sphaerus the Borysthenite, who was an adviser to the revolutionary king Cleomenes III in the third century B.C.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Health in Antiquity How healthy were people in ancient Greece and Rome, and how did they think about maintaining and restoring their health? For students of classics, history or the history of medicine, answers to these and many previously untouched questions are dealt with by renowned ancient historians, classical scholars and archaeologists. Using a multidisciplined approach, the contributors assess the issues surrounding health in the Greco-Roman world from prehistory to Christian late antiquity. Sources range from palaeodemography to patristic and from archaeology to architecture and using these, this book considers what health meant, how it was thought to be achieved, and addresses how the ancient world can be perceived as an ideal in subsequent periods of history.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Music in Ancient Greece and Rome Music in Ancient Greece and Rome provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of music from Homeric times to the Roman emperor Hadrian, presented in a concise and user-friendly way. Chapters include: • contexts in which music played a role • a detailed discussion of instruments • an analysis of scales, intervals and tuning • the principal types of rhythm used • and an exploration of Greek theories of harmony and acoustics.Music in Ancient Greece and Rome also contains numerous musical examples, with illustrations of ancient instruments and the methods of playing them.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece This book presents a state-of-the-art debate about the origins of Athenian democracy by five eminent scholars. The result is a stimulating, critical exploration and interpretation of the extant evidence on this intriguing and important topic. The authors address such questions as: Why was democracy first realized in ancient Greece? Was democracy'invented'or did it evolve over a long period of time? What were the conditions for democracy, the social and political foundations that made this development possible? And what factors turned the possibility of democracy into necessity and reality? The authors first examine the conditions in early Greek society that encouraged equality and'people's power.'They then scrutinize, in their social and political contexts, three crucial points in the evolution of democracy: the reforms connected with the names of Solon, Cleisthenes, and Ephialtes in the early and late sixth and mid-fifth century. Finally, an ancient historian and a political scientist review the arguments presented in the previous chapters and add their own perspectives, asking what lessons we can draw today from the ancient democratic experience. Designed for a general readership as well as students and scholars, the book intends to provoke discussion by presenting side by side the evidence and arguments that support various explanations of the origins of democracy, thus enabling readers to join in the debate and draw their own conclusions.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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The Poetics of Old Age in Greek Epic, Lyric, and Tragedy A striking feature of ancient Greek literature is its preoccupation with old age. Yet scholars have been slow to explore the subject - a possible reflection of the ageism that characterizes both ancient Greece and our times. This groundbreaking study by Thomas M. Falkner remedies the oversight by providing the most extensive treatment of old age in Greek literature to date. Focusing on three major genres - epic, lyric, and tragedy - Falkner examines the representation of old age and the elderly in a range of texts, including Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Sappho's lyrics, and Sophocles'last tragedy, Oedipus at Colonus.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Pythagorean Women : Their History and Writings In Pythagorean Women, classical scholar Sarah B. Pomeroy discusses the groundbreaking principles that Pythagoras established for family life in Archaic Greece, such as constituting a single standard of sexual conduct for women and men. Among the Pythagoreans, women played an important role and participated actively in the philosophical life. While Pythagoras encouraged women to be submissive to men, his reasoning was based on the desire to preserve harmony in the home. Pythagorean Women provides English translations of all the earliest extant examples of literary Greek prose by Neopythagorean women, shedding light on their attitudes about marriage, the home, music, and the cosmos. Pomeroy sets the Pythagorean and Neopythagorean women vividly in their historical, ecological, and intellectual contexts, illustrated with original photographs of sites and artifacts known to these women.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Restless Dead : Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece During the archaic and classical periods, Greek ideas about the dead evolved in response to changing social and cultural conditions—most notably changes associated with the development of the polis, such as funerary legislation, and changes due to increased contacts with cultures of the ancient Near East. In Restless Dead, Sarah Iles Johnston presents and interprets these changes, using them to build a complex picture of the way in which the society of the dead reflected that of the living, expressing and defusing its tensions, reiterating its values and eventually becoming a source of significant power for those who knew how to control it. She draws on both well-known sources, such as Athenian tragedies, and newer texts, such as the Derveni Papyrus and a recently published lex sacra from Selinous.Topics of focus include the origin of the goes (the ritual practitioner who made interaction with the dead his specialty), the threat to the living presented by the ghosts of those who died dishonorably or prematurely, the development of Hecate into a mistress of ghosts and its connection to female rites of transition, and the complex nature of the Erinyes. Restless Dead culminates with a new reading of Aeschylus'Oresteia that emphasizes how Athenian myth and cult manipulated ideas about the dead to serve political and social ends.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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The School of History : Athens in the Age of Socrates History, political philosophy, and constitutional law were born in Athens in the space of a single generation--the generation that lived through the Peloponnesian War (431-404 b.c.e.). This remarkable age produced such luminaries as Socrates, Herodotus, Thucydides, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and the sophists, and set the stage for the education and early careers of Plato and Xenophon, among others. The School of History provides the fullest and most detailed intellectual and political history available of Athens during the late fifth century b.c.e., as it examines the background, the context, and the decisive events shaping this society in the throes of war. This expansive, readable narrative ultimately leads to a new understanding of Athenian democratic culture, showing why and how it yielded such extraordinary intellectual productivity. As both a source and a subject, Thucydides'history of the Peloponnesian War is the central text around which the narrative and thematic issues of the book revolve. Munn re-evaluates the formation of the Greek historiographical tradition itself as he identifies the conditions that prompted Thucydides to write--specifically the historian's desire to guide the Athenian democracy as it struggled to comprehend its future. The School of History fully encompasses recent scholarship in history, literature, and archaeology. Munn's impressive mastery of the huge number of sources and publications informs his substantial contributions to our understanding of this democracy transformed by war. Immersing us fully in the intellectual foment of Athenian society, The School of History traces the history of Athens at the peak of its influence, both as a political and military power in its own time and as a source of intellectual inspiration for the centuries to come.A Main Selection of the History Book ClubCall Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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War in Ancient Greece The Athenian Thucydides (c490-395BC) wrote this history of the Peloponnesian War between the Spartans and the Athenians, believing that it would be a greater war than any that had preceded it, and his version of events would serve as a possession for all time.The fragmentary nature of ancient Greece increased the frequency of conflict, but conversely limited the scale of warfare. Unable to maintain professional armies, the city-states relied on their own citizens to fight, reducing the potential duration of campaigns. The rise of Athens and Sparta as preeminent powers, however, led directly to the Peloponnesian War, which saw further development of the nature of warfare, strategy and tactics. Fought between leagues of cities dominated by Athens and Sparta, the increased manpower and financial resources increased the scale, and allowed the diversification of warfare. Set-piece battles during the Peloponnesian war proved indecisive and instead there was increased reliance on attritionary strategies, naval battle and blockades and sieges.This book is essential reading for anyone interested the military history of the classical world.As seen in All About History Magazine.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Women's Influence on Classical Civilization Written by an international range of renowned academics, this volume explores how women in antiquity influenced aspects of culture normally though of as male. Looking at politics, economics, science, law and the arts, the contributors examine examples from around the ancient world asking how far traditional definitions of culture describe male spheres of activity, and examining to what extent these spheres were actually created and perpetuated by women. Women's Influence of Classical Civilization provides students with a valuable wider perspective on the roles and influence of women in the societies of the Greek and Roman worlds.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Women and War in Antiquity The martial virtues—courage, loyalty, cunning, and strength—were central to male identity in the ancient world, and antique literature is replete with depictions of men cultivating and exercising these virtues on the battlefield. In Women and War in Antiquity, sixteen scholars reexamine classical sources to uncover the complex but hitherto unexplored relationship between women and war in ancient Greece and Rome. They reveal that women played a much more active role in battle than previously assumed, embodying martial virtues in both real and mythological combat.The essays in the collection, taken from the first meeting of the European Research Network on Gender Studies in Antiquity, approach the topic from philological, historical, and material culture perspectives. The contributors examine discussions of women and war in works that span the ancient canon, from Homer's epics and the major tragedies in Greece to Seneca's stoic writings in first-century Rome. They consider a vast panorama of scenes in which women are portrayed as spectators, critics, victims, causes, and beneficiaries of war.This deft volume, which ultimately challenges the conventional scholarly opposition of standards of masculinity and femininity, will appeal to scholars and students of the classical world, European warfare, and gender studies.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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(!) Also search within the eBooks in The Classical World, Greek Drama, and Greek Mythology tabs for more information on Aeschylus and his works.
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Notable PlaywrightsCall Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
Volume 1 has a section over Aeschylus.
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Revenge in Attic and Later Tragedy Modern readings of ancient Athenian drama tend to view it as a presentation of social or moral problems, as if ancient drama showed the same realism seen on the present-day stage. Such views are belied by the plays themselves, in which supremely violent actions occur in a legendary time and place distinct both from reality and from the ethics of ordinary life. Offering fresh readings of Attic tragedy, Anne Pippin Burnett urges readers to peel away twentieth-century attitudes toward vengeance and reconsider the revenge tragedies of ancient Athens in their own context.After a consideration of how our view of Elizabethan drama has obscured an accurate view of the ancient tragedies, Burnett reviews early Greek notions of vengeance as expressed in the Odyssey, Heracles'tales, Pindar's odes, Attic judicial processes, and the legend of Harmodius and Aristogeiton. Then, setting aside post-Platonic and Judeo-Christian notions of criminality, she provides new interpretations of all the Attic tragedies in which revenge is a central theme: Aeschylus'Libation Bearers, Sophocles'Ajax, Electra, and Tereus, and Euripides'Children of Heracles, Hecuba, Medea, Electra, and Orestes.Burnett shows that for the ancients, revenge meant a redress of imbalances in both human and divine worlds, achieved through human actions. The vengeful heroines thus appear in a new light. Electra, Hecuba, Medea, and others cease to be the picture of depravity in dramas that are grotesque and sensational, and are instead representative human figures who respond with grandeur to the outsize demands of necessity and supernatural powers.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
(!) Also search within the eBooks in The Classical World, Greek Drama, and Greek Mythology tabs for more information on Euripides and his works.
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Notable PlaywrightsCall Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
Volume 1 has a section over Euripides.
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Revenge in Attic and Later Tragedy Modern readings of ancient Athenian drama tend to view it as a presentation of social or moral problems, as if ancient drama showed the same realism seen on the present-day stage. Such views are belied by the plays themselves, in which supremely violent actions occur in a legendary time and place distinct both from reality and from the ethics of ordinary life. Offering fresh readings of Attic tragedy, Anne Pippin Burnett urges readers to peel away twentieth-century attitudes toward vengeance and reconsider the revenge tragedies of ancient Athens in their own context.After a consideration of how our view of Elizabethan drama has obscured an accurate view of the ancient tragedies, Burnett reviews early Greek notions of vengeance as expressed in the Odyssey, Heracles'tales, Pindar's odes, Attic judicial processes, and the legend of Harmodius and Aristogeiton. Then, setting aside post-Platonic and Judeo-Christian notions of criminality, she provides new interpretations of all the Attic tragedies in which revenge is a central theme: Aeschylus'Libation Bearers, Sophocles'Ajax, Electra, and Tereus, and Euripides'Children of Heracles, Hecuba, Medea, Electra, and Orestes.Burnett shows that for the ancients, revenge meant a redress of imbalances in both human and divine worlds, achieved through human actions. The vengeful heroines thus appear in a new light. Electra, Hecuba, Medea, and others cease to be the picture of depravity in dramas that are grotesque and sensational, and are instead representative human figures who respond with grandeur to the outsize demands of necessity and supernatural powers.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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History of European Drama and Theatre This major study reconstructs the vast history of European drama from Greek tragedy through to twentieth-century theatre, focusing on the subject of identity. Throughout history, drama has performed and represented political, religious, national, ethnic, class-related, gendered, and individual concepts of identity. Erika Fischer-Lichte's topics include: • ancient Greek theatre• Shakespeare and Elizabethan theatre by Corneilli, Racine, Molière• the Italian commedia dell'arte and its transformations into eighteenth-century drama• the German Enlightenment - Lessing, Schiller, Goethe, and Lenz• romanticism by Kleist, Byron, Shelley, Hugo, de Vigny, Musset, Büchner, and Nestroy• the turn of the century - Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Stanislavski• the twentieth century - Craig, Meyerhold, Artaud, O'Neill, Pirandello, Brecht, Beckett, Müller. Anyone interested in theatre throughout history and today will find this an invaluable source of information.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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Revenge in Attic and Later Tragedy Modern readings of ancient Athenian drama tend to view it as a presentation of social or moral problems, as if ancient drama showed the same realism seen on the present-day stage. Such views are belied by the plays themselves, in which supremely violent actions occur in a legendary time and place distinct both from reality and from the ethics of ordinary life. Offering fresh readings of Attic tragedy, Anne Pippin Burnett urges readers to peel away twentieth-century attitudes toward vengeance and reconsider the revenge tragedies of ancient Athens in their own context.After a consideration of how our view of Elizabethan drama has obscured an accurate view of the ancient tragedies, Burnett reviews early Greek notions of vengeance as expressed in the Odyssey, Heracles'tales, Pindar's odes, Attic judicial processes, and the legend of Harmodius and Aristogeiton. Then, setting aside post-Platonic and Judeo-Christian notions of criminality, she provides new interpretations of all the Attic tragedies in which revenge is a central theme: Aeschylus'Libation Bearers, Sophocles'Ajax, Electra, and Tereus, and Euripides'Children of Heracles, Hecuba, Medea, Electra, and Orestes.Burnett shows that for the ancients, revenge meant a redress of imbalances in both human and divine worlds, achieved through human actions. The vengeful heroines thus appear in a new light. Electra, Hecuba, Medea, and others cease to be the picture of depravity in dramas that are grotesque and sensational, and are instead representative human figures who respond with grandeur to the outsize demands of necessity and supernatural powers.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
(!) Also search within the eBooks in The Classical World and Greek Mythology tabs for more information on Homer and his works.
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Homer's Odyssey : A Reading Guide A fresh and exciting approach to this great work of classical literature, which brings it alive for today's students and gives them the tools to appreciate and explore the work themselves.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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The Iliad by Homer Trajectory presents classics of world literature with 21st century features! Our original-text editions include the following visual enhancements to foster a deeper understanding of the work: Word Clouds at the start of each chapter highlight important words. Word, sentence, paragraph counts, and reading time help readers and teachers determine chapter complexity. Co-occurrence graphs depict character-to-character interactions as well character to place interactions. Sentiment indexes identify positive and negative trends in mood within each chapter. Frequency graphs help display the impact this book has had on popular culture since its original date of publication. Use Trajectory analytics to deepen comprehension, to provide a focus for discussions and writing assignments, and to engage new readers with some of the greatest stories ever told. The Iliad (sometimes referred to as the Song of Ilion or Song of Ilium) is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states, tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
Publication Date: 2014 (Trajectory, Inc.)
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The Iliad by Homer The tenth and final year of the Trojan War comes to its climactic end in this infamous Greek epic. With the mighty Achilles brooding on the sidelines of the battle, the Greek army faces almost certain defeat. At the mercy of the intervening gods of Mount Olympus, the legendary warriors of Greece and Troy fight to the death in the name of honor, love, and vengeance. Originally written around 750 BCE, the authorship of this epic poem remains uncertain, but most scholars ascribe it to a blind Greek poet named Homer. William Cowper first published his translation in 1791; this unabridged edition comes from the work edited by Robert Southey, LL.D., with notes by M. A. Dwight, which was published in 1860.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
Publication Date: 2014 (First Avenue Editions)
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The Iliad : A New Translation by Peter Green One of the oldest extant works of Western literature, the Iliad is a timeless epic poem of great warriors trapped between their own heroic pride and the arbitrary, often vicious decisions of fate and the gods. Renowned scholar and acclaimed translator Peter Green captures the Iliad in all its surging thunder for a new generation of readers.Featuring an enticingly personal introduction, a detailed synopsis of each book, a wide-ranging glossary, and explanatory notes for the few puzzling in-text items, the book also includes a select bibliography for those who want to learn more about Homer and the Greek epic. This landmark translation—specifically designed, like the oral original, to be read aloud—will soon be required reading for every student of Greek antiquity, and the great traditions of history and literature to which it gave birth.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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The Iliad by Homer (Book Analysis) : Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide Unlock the more straightforward side of The Iliad with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Iliad by Homer, a classic epos which has inspired countless other artistic works in the Western world, and which narrates the feats of glorious heroes. At the centre of the story is Achilles, an invincible hero, whose anger influences the course of a war, and whose fight against the brave Hector is one of the most famous duels in literary history. Homer's epic poems are credited as being the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education, making him one of the most significant figures of this historic era. Find out everything you need to know about The Iliad in a fraction of the time!This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you:• A complete plot summary• Character studies• Key themes and symbols• Questions for further reflectionWhy choose BrightSummaries.com?Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you in your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time.See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey Whereas traditional commentaries tend to be comprehensive and micro-textual, this narratological commentary, first published in 2001, focuses on one aspect of the Odyssey, its narrativity, and pays lavish attention to the meso- and macro-levels. Drawing on the concepts of modern narratology as well as the insights of Homeric scholarship, it discusses the role of narrator and narratees, methods of characterization and description, plot-development, focalization, and the narrative exploitation of type-scenes. Full attention is also given to the structure, characterizing function, and relation to the narrative context of the abundantly present speeches. Finally, the numerous themes and motifs, which so subtly contribute to the unity of this long text, are traced and evaluated. Although Homer's brilliant narrative art has always been admired, this commentary aims to lay bare the techniques responsible for this brilliance. All Greek is translated and all technical terms explained in a glossary.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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The Odyssey by Homer Trajectory presents classics of world literature with 21st century features! Our original-text editions include the following visual enhancements to foster a deeper understanding of the work: Word Clouds at the start of each chapter highlight important words. Word, sentence, paragraph counts, and reading time help readers and teachers determine chapter complexity. Co-occurrence graphs depict character-to-character interactions as well character to place interactions. Sentiment indexes identify positive and negative trends in mood within each chapter. Frequency graphs help display the impact this book has had on popular culture since its original date of publication. Use Trajectory analytics to deepen comprehension, to provide a focus for discussions and writing assignments, and to engage new readers with some of the greatest stories ever told. The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. The poem was probably written near the end of the eighth century BC, somewhere along the Greek-controlled western present day Turkey seaside, Ionia. The poem is, in part, a sequel to Homer's Iliad and mainly centers around the Greek hero Odysseus (or Ulysses, as he was known in Roman myths) and his long journey home to Ithaca following the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. During this absence, his son Telemachus and wife Penelope must deal with a group of unruly suitors, called Proci, to compete for Penelope's hand in marriage, since most have assumed that Odysseus has died. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon and is indeed the second. The Iliad is the first extant work of Western literature. It continues to be read in Homeric Greek and translated into modern languages around the world. The original poem was composed in an oral tradition by an aoidos, perhaps a rhapsode, and was intended more to be sung than read.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
Publication Date: 2014 (Trajectory, Inc.)
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The Odyssey by Homer Odysseus, the hero of the Trojan War, longs to return home to his kingdom in Ithaca, where a horde of suitors (who believe the long-absent Odysseus to be dead) are courting his beloved wife. Odysseus had angered the sea god, Poseidon, and for the past ten years, he's been beset by a host of challenges. The Greek hero must rely on wit, strength, and the aid of the gods of Mount Olympus to survive tumultuous storms, battles with great beasts, and the seductive powers of witches, sirens, and nymphs as he makes his way homeward. Originally written around 700 BCE, the authorship of this epic poem remains uncertain, but most scholars ascribe it to a blind Greek poet named Homer. This unabridged translation by William Cowper was originally published in 1791.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
Publication Date: 2014 (First Avenue Editions)
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The Odyssey by HomerCall Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
Publication Date: Public domain through Project Gutenberg
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Ransom, Revenge, and Heroic Identity in the Iliad From beginning to end of the Iliad, Agamemnon and Achilleus are locked in a high-stakes struggle for dominance based on their efforts to impose competing definitions of loss incurred and the nature of compensation thereby owed. This typology of scenes involving apoina, or'ransom'and poine, or'revenge'is the basis of Donna Wilson's detailed anthropology of compensation in Homer, which she locates in the wider context of agonistic exchange. Wilson argues that a struggle over definitions is a central feature of elite competition for status in the zero-sum and fluid ranking system characteristic of Homeric society. This system can be used to explain why Achilleus refuses Agamemnon's'compensation'in Book 9, as well as why and how the embassy tries to mask it. Ransom, Revenge, and Heroic Identity in the Iliad thus examines the traditional semantic, cultural and poetic matrix of which compensation is an integral part.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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A Referential Commentary and Lexicon to Homer, Iliad VIII This book aims to provide the reader of Homer with the traditional knowledge and fluency in Homeric poetry which an original ancient audience would have brought to a performance of this type of narrative. To that end, Adrian Kelly presents the text of Iliad VIII next to an apparatus referring to the traditional units being employed, and gives a brief description of their semantic impact. He describes the referential curve of the narrative in a continuous commentary, tabulates all the traditional units in a separate lexicon of Homeric structure, and examines critical decisions concerning the text in a discussion which employs the referential method as a critical criterion. Two small appendices deal with speech introduction formulae, and with the traditional function of Here and Athene in early Greek epic poetry.Call Number: Available in EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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The Returns of Odysseus : Colonization and Ethnicity This remarkably rich and multifaceted study of early Greek exploration makes an original contribution to current discussions of the encounters between Greeks and non-Greeks. Focusing in particular on myths about Odysseus and other heroes who visited foreign lands on their mythical voyages homeward after the Trojan War, Irad Malkin shows how these stories functioned to mediate encounters and conceptualize ethnicity and identity during the Archaic and Classical periods. Synthesizing a wide range of archaeological, mythological, and literary sources, this exceptionally learned book strengthens our understanding of early Greek exploration and city-founding along the coasts of the Western Mediterranean, reconceptualizes the role of myth in ancient societies, and revitalizes our understanding of ethnicity in antiquity.Malkin shows how the figure of Odysseus became a proto-colonial hero whose influence transcended the Greek-speaking world. The return-myths constituted a generative mythology, giving rise to oral poems, stories, iconographic imagery, rituals, historiographical interpretation, and the articulation of ethnic identities. Reassessing the role of Homer and alternative return-myths, the book argues for the active historical function of myth and collective representations and traces their changing roles through a spectrum of colonial perceptions—from the proto-colonial, through justifications of expansion and annexation, and up to decolonization.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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(!) Also search within the eBooks in The Classical World, Greek Drama, and Greek Mythology tabs for more information on Sophocles and his works.
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Antigone by Sophocles Oedipus, the former ruler of Thebes, has died. Now, when his young daughter Antigone defies her uncle, Kreon, the new ruler, because he has prohibited the burial of her dead brother, she and he enact a primal conflict between young and old, woman and man, individual and ruler, family and state, courageous and self-sacrificing reverence for the gods of the earth and perhaps self-serving allegiance to the gods of the sky. Echoing through western culture for more than two millennia, Sophocles'Antigone has been a touchstone of thinking about human conflict and human tragedy, the role of the divine in human life, and the degree to which men and women are the creators of their own destiny. This exciting translation of the play is extremely faithful to the Greek, eminently playable, and poetically powerful. For readers, actors, students, teachers, and theatrical directors, this affordable paperback edition of one of the greatest plays in the history of the western world provides the best combination of contemporary, powerful language, along with superb background and notes on meaning, interpretation, and ancient beliefs, attitudes, and contexts.'Sophocles'text is inexhaustibly actual. It is also, at many points, challenging and remote from us. The Gibbons-Segal translation, with its rich annotations, conveys both the difficulties and the formidable immediacy. The choral odes, so vital to Sophocles'purpose, have never been rendered with finer energy and insight. Across more than two thousand years, a great dark music sounds for us.'--George Steiner, Churchill College, Cambridge'Produces a language that is easy to read and easy to speak.... Enthusiastically recommended.'--Library Journal [Starred Review]Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
Publication Date: 2003 (Oxford University Press)
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Antigone by /SophoclesCall Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
Publication Date: Public domain through Project Gutenberg
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Notable PlaywrightsCall Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
Volume 3 has a section over Sophocles.
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Oedipus the King by Sophocles (Book Analysis) : Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide Unlock the more straightforward side of Oedipus the King with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!This engaging summary presents an analysis of Oedipus the King by Sophocles, a world-famous tragedy in which a man discovers that he has murdered his father and married his mother, despite having tried to escape this fate. The tragic irony in the play and the pathos of the scenes leading up to its final tragic ending have made it one of the major theatrical works of Ancient Times. Sophocles wrote 120 plays during his lifetime, but Oedipus the King is one of just seven to have survived. This classic tragedy has inspired many plays and films, and was even the basis for Freud's famous theory of the Oedipus Complex. Find out everything you need to know about Oedipus the King in a fraction of the time!This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you:• A complete plot summary• Character studies• Key themes and symbols• Questions for further reflectionWhy choose BrightSummaries.com?Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you in your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time.See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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The Oedipus Trilogy — Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone by Sophocles Disregard for messages from the oracles and gods doesn't turn out well for characters in Greek stories, and Oedipus is no exception. Encompassing murder and betrayal, incest and patricide, this set of three plays follows the life of a man doomed to suffer from birth. Sophocles wrote these classic Greek tragedies in fifth century BCE. This English translation, by F. Storr, was first published in 1912.Call Number: Available through EBSCO eBooks (see title link above)
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