Greek Tragedy

The seminar explores the intellectual, political, and cultural background of 5th-century Athenian tragedy, with special focus on the theatrical dynamics of the major plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Although the seminar emphasizes a close reading of the tragedies themselves, secondary sources include selections from Homer, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Hegel, and Nietzsche, as well as modern and contemporary classical scholars (Jebb, Dodds, Segal, Taplin, Goldhill, Nussbaum, Easterling, Foley, Seidensticker, Griffiths, Rehm, Wiles, Hall, Budelmann, and others). The seminar assigns the plays in English translation, but students with ancient Greek are encouraged to enroll, and accommodations can be made to attend to their interests. Plays include Persians, Prometheus Bound, the Oresteia trilogy (Aeschylus); Antigone, Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus, Electra, and Philoctetes (Sophocles); and Medea, Heracles, Electra, Ion, Helen, and Bacchae (Euripides).