Euripides: Hecuba Contributor(s): Foley, Helene P. (Author), Harrison, Thomas (Editor) |
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ISBN: 1472569067 ISBN-13: 9781472569066 Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic OUR PRICE: $36.58 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 2015 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Ancient And Classical - History | Ancient - General |
Dewey: 882.01 |
LCCN: 2014017407 |
Series: Companions to Greek and Roman Tragedy |
Physical Information: 0.38" H x 5.42" W x 8.55" (0.46 lbs) 160 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - Ancient (To 499 A.D.) |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Chosen as one of the ten canonical plays by Euripides during the Hellenistic period in Greece, Hecuba was popular throughout Antiquity. The play also became part of the so-called 'Byzantine triad' of three plays of Euripides (along with Phoenician Women and Orestes) selected for study in school curricula, above all for the brilliance of its rhetorical speeches and quotable traditional wisdom. Translations into Latin and vernacular languages, as well as stage performances emerged early in the sixteenth century. The Renaissance admired the play for its representation of the extraordinary suffering and misfortunes of its newly-enslaved heroine, the former queen of Troy Hecuba, for the courageous sacrificial death of her daughter Polyxena, and for the beleaguered queen's surprisingly successful revenge against the unscrupulous killer of her son Polydorus. Later periods, however, developed reservations about the play's revenge plot and its unity. Recent scholarship has favorably reassessed the play in its original cultural and political context and the past thirty years have produced a number of exciting staged productions. Hecuba has emerged as a profound exploration of the difficulties of establishing justice and a stable morality in post-war situations. |
Contributor Bio(s): Foley, Helene P.: - Helene P. Foley is Professor of Classics, Barnard College, Columbia University. She is the author of books and articles on Greek epic and drama, on women and gender in Antiquity, and on modern performance and adaptation of Greek drama.Harrison, Thomas: - Thomas Harrison is Rathbone Professor of Ancient History and Classical Archaeology at the University of Liverpool, UK. His publications include Divinity and History: the religion of Herodotus (2000), The Emptiness of Asia: Aeschylus' Persians and the history of the fifth century (2000); as editor Greeks and Barbarians (2002) and the Edinburgh Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome (2006). |