Euripides: (Understanding Classics)

Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides are often described as the greatest tragedians of the ancient world. Of these three pivotal founders of modern drama, Euripides is characterized as the interloper and the innovator: the man who put tragic verse into the mouths of slaves, women and the socially inferior in order to address vital social issues such as sex, class and gender relations. It is perhaps little wonder that his work should find such resonance in the modern day. In this concise introduction, Isabelle Torrance engages with the thematic, cultural and scholarly difficulties that surround his plays to demonstrate why Euripides remains a figure of perennial relevance. Addressing here issues of social context, performance theory, fifth-century philosophy and religion, textual criticism and reception, the author presents an astute and attractively-written guide to the Euripidean corpus – from the widely read and celebrated Medea to the lesser-known and deeply ambiguous Alcestis.

Table of Contents:
I. Life and Works II. Spectacular Theatre III. Religion and Philosophy IV. Rhetoric and Relevance V. Literary Sophistication VI. Conflicts: Ancient and Modern Conclusion Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Isabelle Torrance is Associate Professor of Classics at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark. She is the author of Aeschylus: Seven Against Thebes (2007) and of Metapoetry in Euripides (2013), co-author – with A Sommerstein – of Oaths and Swearing in Ancient Greece (2014) and editor of Aeschylus and War: Comparative Perspectives on Seven Against Thebes (2017).

Review :
This book was a pleasure to read. Torrance throughout presents the reader with densely packed information, clearly written, laced with good scholarly judgement and ample citation of recent secondary sources … Students and instructors, not just in Classics, will find this an excellent and reliable book that provides a fine introduction to Euripides' dramatic themes … Torrance's enthusiasm for her subject shines throughout the volume. An excellent general introduction to Euripides – well-written, stimulating and full of ideas. Torrance brings the plays to life and manages to convey a real sense of what was so distinctive about Euripidean drama. A book of very high quality, which offers a large audience a highly intellectual introduction. This study indeed pays homage to the many facets of a body of work which is not only well constructed, but which, as Torrance puts it, "has the power to present a very wide range of questions on the human condition".