Ajax is perhaps the earliest of Sophocles’ tragedies, yet the issues at its heart remain profoundly resonant today. Set in the Greek encampment during the siege of Troy, it traces not just the story of a respected war hero’s mental breakdown but (like Sophocles’ Antigone) the treatment of an enemy’s remains and the management of his memory. Pitting the fate of the individual against not just his own community but the cosmic world of the divine, it explores questions of loyalty and power, compassion and control, integrity and political expediency – and ultimately what it is to be human. In Antiquity the fate of Ajax fascinated writers and artists alike. Today it has assumed a new importance with Sophocles’ play being used to help treat military veterans suffering from PTSD.
This collection of 12 essays by leading academics from across the UK, US and Ireland draws together many of the themes explored in Ajax, from how Sophocles exploits audiences’ awareness of mythology and visual arts, to questions of politics and religion, staging and characterization, changing perceptions of the heroic, and the therapeutic use to which the play is put today. The essays are accompanied by David Stuttard’s introduction and performer-friendly, accurate and easily accessible English translation.
Table of Contents:
Introduction - Ajax, Bulwark of the Greeks (David Stuttard)
1. Some Visual Influences on Sophocles' Ajax? (David Stuttard)
2. Ajax the Hero (Dr Laura Swift, Senior Lecturer in Classics, The Open University)
3. Shield of the Achaeans (Professor Sophie Mills, Professor of Classics, University of North Carolina at Asheville)
4. The Power of Ajax’s Sword (Dr Rosie Wyles, Lecturer in Classical History & Literature, University of Kent)
5. The Sounds of Ajax's Grief (Alyson Melzer, PhD Candidate in Classics, Stanford University)
6. Ajax’s Suicide (Professor Robert Garland, Roy D. and Margaret B. Wooster Professor of the Classics, Colgate University, New York)
7. Looking at the Isolation of Ajax (Professor Richard Seaford, Emeritus Professor of Ancient Greek, University of Exeter)
8. Tecmessa (Professor Hanna M. Roisman, Professor of Classics, Arnold Bernhard Professor in Arts and Humanities, Colby College, Maine)
9. A Grief Observed: Tecmessa and her Sadness - Work in Sophocles Ajax (Professor Stephen Esposito, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, Boston University)
10. Heroic Values and Lesser Mortals (Carmel McCallum-Barry, formerly Lecturer in Classics, University College, Cork)
11. Odysseus and Empathy (Professor Brad Levett, Associate Professor of Classics, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s Newfoundland)
12. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Performance Reception of Sophocles’ Ajax (Dr Emma Cole, Lecturer in Classics and Liberal Arts, University of Bristol)
Translation of Sophocles’ Ajax by David Stuttard
Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
David Stuttard is a classicist and historian, who has directed his own translations and adaptations of Greek drama throughout the UK and in classical theatres in Turkey and Albania. He is the founder of the theatre company Actors of Dionysus and has edited four 'Looking at' volumes for Bloomsbury: Antigone (2017), Bacchae (2016), Medea (2014) and Lysistrata (2010).
Review :
[A] fresh and insightful take on some very well-trodden themes in the play. Overall, Looking at Ajax presents a detailed introduction to Sophocles’ play that will benefit students and scholars alike.
