Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Several interconnected themes unify this book. One is Euripides's mixture of 'mythic' elements with 'realistic' and ratiocinative ones, which produces new forms of tragic discourse. Another is Euripides's deconstruction of such comfortable oppositions as male/female and Greek/barbarian, which dissolves the barriers between actor and audience, self and 'other.' Segal develops his argument with great lucidity, patient reference to the text, broad and informed acknowledgment of the work of others, and an admirable ability to make connections between literary aperçus and the history of ideas."—Peter Burian, Duke University
"The essays are uniformly first rate; they advance the understanding of the plays in detail and in overall perspective; and they address deep, complex questions with a critical sophistication that, for this age, shows itself to be remarkably lucid and sane. I was delighted to learn new things about plays I knew very well, and to reexamine them in a new light."—Kenneth J. Reckford, University of North Carolina
Table of ContentsPreface ix
1. Introduction 3
2. Europides' Muse of Sorrows and the Artifice of Tragic Pleasure 13
Alcestis
3. Cold Delight: Art, Death, and Transgression of Genre 37
4. Female Death and Male Tears 51
5. Admetus' Divided House: Spatial Dichotomies and Gender Roles 73
Hippolytus
6. Language, Signs, and Gender 89
7. Theater, Ritual, and Commemoration 110
8. Confusion and Concealment: Vision, Hope, and Tragic Knowledge 136
Hecuba
9. Golden Armor and Servile Robes: Heroism and Metamorphosis 157
10. Violence and the Other: Greek, Female, and Barbarian 170
11. Law and Universals 191
12. The Problem of the Gods 214
13. Conclusion: Euripides' Songs of Sorrow 227
Notes 237
Bibliography 283
Index 303
