Though little is known for certain of his early life, Euripides was probably born around 460 b.c.e. to the farmer Mnesarchus and his wife Clito, and his studious nature quickly led him to a literary life in Athens. He turned to playwriting at a young age, achieving his first of five victories in the dramatic competitions of the Athenian City Dionysia in 441 b.c.e. His plays are often ironic, pessimistic, and display radical rejection of classical decorum and rules. Together with Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides provided the canon of Greek tragedy and thereby laid the foundation of Western theatre. "Helen" is a drama which follows an alternative myth of Helen of Sparta after the fall of Troy. It begins with the premise
Though little is known for certain of his early life, Euripides was probably born around 460 b.c.e. to the farmer Mnesarchus and his wife Clito, and his studious nature quickly led him to a literary life in Athens. He turned to playwriting at a young age, achieving his first of five victories in the dramatic competitions of the Athenian City Dionysia in 441 b.c.e. His plays are often ironic, pessimistic, and display radical rejection of classical decorum and rules. Together with Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides provided the canon of Greek tragedy and thereby laid the foundation of Western theatre. "Helen" is a drama which follows an alternative myth of Helen of Sparta after the fall of Troy. It begins with the premise that Helen did not run off to Troy with Paris, but was actually stolen away to Egypt by the gods and replaced by a phantom look-alike in Troy.
William Allan is McConnell Laing Fellow and Tutor in Classical Languages and Literature at University College, Oxford
Table of Contents
Preface ix
List of sigla and abbreviations xi
Key to metrical symbols xiii
Introduction 1
Euripides and Athens 1
Life and works 1
Helen in its Athenian context 4
The figure of Helen in early Greek culture 10
Myth 10
Cult 14
Helen on stage 16
The 'new' Helen 18
Stesichorus 18
Herodotus 22
Euripides 24
The production 29
Setting and staging 29
Structure and dramatic technique 34
Speech, song, language 38
A tragedy of ideas 46
Knowledge and reality 47
Family, gender, authority 49
Greeks and Egyptians 55
The Gods 61
Genre 66
Helen transformed 72
The text and its transmission 82
Helen 91
Commentary 142
Bibliography 347
Indexes 365
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Overview
Though little is known for certain of his early life, Euripides was probably born around 460 b.c.e. to the farmer Mnesarchus and his wife Clito, and his studious nature quickly led him to a literary life in Athens. He turned to playwriting at a young age, achieving his first of five victories in the dramatic competitions of the Athenian City Dionysia in 441 b.c.e. His plays are often ironic, pessimistic, and display radical rejection of classical decorum and rules. Together with Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides provided the canon of Greek tragedy and thereby laid the foundation of Western theatre. "Helen" is a drama which follows an alternative myth of Helen of Sparta after the fall of Troy. It begins with the premise