The Encyclopedia of Greek Tragedy presents the first comprehensive reference work to cover all facets of the distinct form of dramatic theater that flourished in ancient Greece and reached its apex in Athens of the 5th century BCE. Contributed by a team of international experts and emerging scholars, entries reflect a careful balance between scholarly precision and accessibility to facilitate a better understanding and appreciation of the great surviving works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and their contemporaries. Coverage includes all the extant works of the playwrights and plays of the period--including what is known about fragmentary and lost plays and their authors--theaters in which the plays were staged; philosophical, cultural, and political contexts in which the plays were performed; and much more. Entries for individual tragedies feature plot summaries, mythical background, and contemporary and ongoing critical discussion as well as their reception. Other topics include the origins and history of Greek tragedy; their texts, language, style, and rhetoric; as well as recurrent themes such as family, death, hybris, city and country, adultery, emotions, happy-ending, etc. With detailed cross-references to aid navigation, The Encyclopedia of Greek Tragedy represents an invaluable reference to the most important dramatic genre of the ancient Greek world.
