Euripides and the Boundaries of the Human

Euripides and the Boundaries of the Human offers the first single-volume detailed reading of the nineteen canonical Euripidean plays in nearly fifty years. The dramas are examined not only in their diversity but also for the themes and ideas that bind them together as the work of a single remarkable playwright.

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Euripides and the Boundaries of the Human presents the first single volume reading in nearly fifty years of all of Euripides’ surviving plays. Rather than the piece meal examination of one or a handful of dramas in monograph or article form, the book insists on the thematic and stylistic parallels that unite a diverse canon of works. Euripides is often referred to as the most modern of the three Ancient Greek Tragedians, but in what way can the work of this fifth century BC artist be claimed as modern? The multi layered presentation of character is new within the context of Athenian Tragedy. The plays reveal also equal concern with the preservation and re-vitalization of tradition, especially with respect to the portrayal of the Olympian gods. Euripidean drama upholds tradition just as vigorously as it posits a new kind of realism in character portrayal in the Ancient Theatre. Euripidean drama fuses what was old with what was new in order to revitalize and perpetuate the art of tragedy.

This book will be of interest to professionals and students in the fields of Classics, Greek Drama in Translation or the original Greek, Theatre Studies, Comparative Literature, Tragedy and Religion.