Seven Famous Greek Plays

By Whitney J. Oates and Jr. Eds Oates, Whitney & O'Neill, Eugene

Book Overview

"In the interval between the epics of Homer...and the age of the three great tragic poets, thinkers began to explore the various phenomena of the external world and came to understand many aspects of nature which had hitherto been shrouded in complete mystery. The creative literary activity of this epoch likewise betokens on the part of the Greeks an increasingly higher level of self-understanding and self-consciousness, in the best sense of the word. At this time appeared a group of lyric poets, who had looked deeply within their own natures, and through the vehicle of their poetry, made abundantly evident how thoroughly they understood the essential character of man's inner being. In Greek tragedy as we now have it we meet a fully developed dramatic form....The influence of tragedy on classic comedy is evident in the increasing preoccupation with subjects that are utopian or timeless, [while] the traditional satire on contemporary events and personages recedes more and more into the background." -- from the Introduction, by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394701259
• ISBN13: 9780394701257
• Release Date: July 1955
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.3" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent little anthology

This seems to be the only remaining little anthology of Greek drama. It contains two plays apiece by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and one very, very funny Aristophanes, "The Frogs," which is an especially welcome choice (over the more usual "Lysistrata") since "The Frogs" is the play which satirizes both Aeschylus and Euripides by showing them having a drama contest in Hades to see which one is best. So it's ideal for the casual reader who wants a good selection of Greek drama, and it's even more ideal for the teacher, like me, who can use it to give students a good idea of the range and styles of the three great tragedians, then end it with a delightfully funny spoof of the same guys. Some of the translations are pretty old-fashioned (too much "thee" and "thou"--the original copyright is 1938), but again for a quick sample of the full range of Greek drama in an inexpensive volume, this is ideal.