This book is an accessible guide through the many twists and turns of Euripides’ Children of Heracles, providing several frameworks through which to understand and appreciate the play. Children of Heracles follows the fortunes of Heracles’ family after his death. Euripides confronts characters and audience alike with an extraordinary series of plot twists and ethical challenges as the persecuted family of refugees struggles to find asylum in Athens before taking revenge on its enemy Eurystheus. It is a fast-paced story that explores the nature of power and its abuse, focusing on the appropriate treatment and behaviour of the powerless and the obligations and limitations of asylum. The audience must continually re-evaluate the play’s moral dimensions as the characters respond to complications that range from the fantastic to the frighteningly realistic. Yoon situates Children of Heracles in its literary context, showing how Euripides constructs a unique kind of tragic plot from a wide range of conventions. It also explores the centrality of the dead Heracles and the leading role given to the socially powerless and the dramatically marginal. Finally, it discusses the historical contexts of the play’s original performance and its political resonance both then and now.
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List of figures Preface Chapter 1: Action and expectation Chapter 2: Summing the parts Chapter 3: Heracles and other imagined figures Chapter 4: The power of the weak Chapter 5: Then and now Appendix: Fragments Selected chronology Guide to Further Reading Notes Bibliography Index
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Yoon opens up this play’s neglected riches in crisp, lucid, and precise prose.
An accessible introduction to Children of Heracles, a demanding and intriguing play.
Opens up a play under-served by current resources, but perfect for teaching as it is accessible from many angles.
Accessible introductions to ancient tragedies. Each volume discusses the main themes of the play and the central developments in modern criticism, and addresses the play’s historical context and the history of its performance and adaptation. A guide to further reading, glossary and chronology are included, all Greek and Latin is translated, and technical and theoretical terms are clearly explained.
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781350193871
Publisert
2021-07-29
Utgiver
Vendor
Bloomsbury Academic
Vekt
209 gr
Høyde
216 mm
Bredde
138 mm
Aldersnivå
U, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
176

Forfatter

Biographical note

Florence Yoon is Assistant Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of British Columbia, Canada. She is the author of The Use of Anonymous Characters in Greek Tragedy (2012).