Euripides: Helen (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics) - Softcover

Euripides, .

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521545412 ISBN 13: 9780521545419

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2008

Synopsis

This up-to-date edition offers a detailed literary and cultural analysis of Euripides' Helen, a work which arguably embodies the variety and dynamism of fifth-century Athenian tragedy more than any other surviving play. The story of an exemplary wife (not an adulteress) who went to Egypt (not to Troy), Euripides' 'new Helen' skilfully transforms and supplants earlier currents of literature and myth. The Introduction elucidates Euripides' treatment of Helen and sets the play in its wider intellectual context. It also discusses questions of genre and reception, rejecting such descriptions as 'tragicomedy' or 'romantic tragedy', and showing how later artists have responded to Euripides' unorthodox heroine and her phantom double. The Commentary's notes on language and style are intended to make Helen fully accessible to readers of Greek at all levels, while the edition as a whole is designed for use by anyone with an interest in Greek tragedy.

About this title

Review:

"Allan's commentary is a valuable and needed contribution to the study and dissemination of Euripides' Helen. It is rich in contextual information, straightforward in its analysis and contentions, and judicious in its treatment of the text. Additionally, it does a significant portion of the necessary work of bringing the last four decades of scholarship to bear upon our reading of the play. For all these reasons, Allan's new commentary will go a long way towards achieving his stated goal of demonstrating that 'Helen is an extraordinary exuberant and inventive drama that deserves to be read (and performed) more widely.'" --BMCR

Book Description:

Offers a detailed literary and cultural analysis of Euripides' Helen, a work which arguably embodies the variety and dynamism of fifth-century Athenian tragedy more than any other surviving play. The Commentary's notes on language and style make the play fully accessible to readers of Greek at all levels.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0521545412
• ISBN 13: 9780521545419
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 386