Description
Book SynopsisShows how Greek tragedy uses gender relations to explore specific issues in the development of the social, political, and intellectual life in the polis. This work investigates three problematic areas in which tragic heroines act independently of men: death ritual and lamentation, marriage, and the making of significant ethical choices.
Trade Review"Innovative and accessible... [Foley] combines wide coverage with nuance and detail... Hers is the best argument you will find to the effect that Greek tragedy gives heroines a (limited) space from which to assert their private and public virtues alongside male vices and transgressions. This builds to a distinctive and carefully historicized vision of tragedy's role in Athens, not to mention its surprising contribution to modern debates about ethics and gender."--Jon Hesk, Times Literary Supplement "[A] well-documented study of Greek tragedy from a feminisit perspective."--Choice "This impressive work is noteworthy for its comprehensive scope and its lucid style. All those interested in an expanded understanding of ancient drama should benefit from this major study done by a very important scholar."--Mary-Kay Gamel, Theatre Journal "Sensibility of thought and methodology characterize this work that will be valued by scholars, teachers, and students of Greek tragedy... This study excels because of the author's firm grasp of the ancient texts and her willingness to embrace methodologies that do no violence to them."--John E. Thorburn, The Classical Outlook "Foley offers new perspectives and complete presentations of several tragedy women... This book may not be read in an afternoon. But every classics scholar should read it once and most will reread sections to consider again Foley's selected women."--Karelisa V. Hartigan, Religious Studies Review
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introductory Note and Abbreviations xi Introduction 3 I. The Politics of Tragic Lamentation 19 II. The Contradictions of Tragic Marriage 57 III. Women as Moral Agents in Greek Tragedy 107 III.1. Virgins, Wives, and Mothers; Penelope as Paradigm 109 III.2. Sacrificial Virgins: The Ethics of Lamentation in Sophocles' Electra 145 III.3. Sacrificial Virgins: Antigone as Moral Agent 172 III4. Tragic Wives: Clytemnestras 201 III.5. Tragic Wives: Medea's Divided Self 243 III.6. Tragic Mothers: Maternal Persuasion in Euripides 272 IV Anodos Dramas: Euripides' Alcestis and Helen 301 Conclusion 333 Bibliography 339 General Index 369 Index Locurum 387
