Sophocles' Philoctetes and the Great Soul Robbery

Sophocles' Philoctetes and the Great Soul Robbery

Author: Norman Austin

Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published: 2011-06-01

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 0299282732

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Norman Austin brings both keen insight and a life-long engagement with his subject to this study of Sophocles’ late tragedy Philoctetes, a fifth-century BCE play adapted from an infamous incident during the Trojan War. In Sophocles’ “Philoctetes” and the Great Soul Robbery, Austin examines the rich layers of text as well as context, situating the play within the historical and political milieu of the eclipse of Athenian power. He presents a study at once of interest to the classical scholar and accessible to the general reader. Though the play, written near the end of Sophocles’ career, is not as familiar to modern audiences as his Theban plays, Philoctetes grapples with issues—social, psychological, and spiritual—that remain as much a part of our lives today as they were for their original Athenian audience.


Late Sophocles

Late Sophocles

Author: Thomas Van Nortwick

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2015-02-26

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 0472119567

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An accessible examination of the evolution of key Sophoclean characters


The Cure at Troy

The Cure at Troy

Author: Seamus Heaney

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2014-01-28

Total Pages: 100

ISBN-13: 1466864052

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Cure at Troy is Seamus Heaney's version of Sophocles' Philoctetes. Written in the fifth century BC, this play concerns the predicament of the outcast hero, Philoctetes, whom the Greeks marooned on the island of Lemnos and forgot about until the closing stages of the Siege of Troy. Abandoned because of a wounded foot, Philoctetes nevertheless possesses an invincible bow without which the Greeks cannot win the Trojan War. They are forced to return to Lemnos and seek out Philoctetes' support in a drama that explores the conflict between personal integrity and political expediency. Heaney's version of Philoctetes is a fast-paced, brilliant work ideally suited to the stage. Heaney holds on to the majesty of the Greek original, but manages to give his verse the flavor of Irish speech and context.


All That You've Seen Here Is God

All That You've Seen Here Is God

Author: Sophocles

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2015-09-01

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 030794977X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

These contemporary translations of four Greek tragedies speak across time and connect readers and audiences with universal themes of war, trauma, suffering, and betrayal. Under the direction of Bryan Doerries, they have been performed for tens of thousands of combat veterans, as well as prison and medical personnel around the world. Striking for their immediacy and emotional impact, Doerries brings to life these ancient plays, like no other translations have before.


Wounded Heroes

Wounded Heroes

Author: Marina McCoy

Publisher:

Published: 2013-09-26

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 0199672784

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

McCoy examines how Greek epic, tragedy, and philosophy offer important insights into the nature of human vulnerability, especially how Greek thought extols the recognition and proper acceptance of vulnerability. Beginning with the literary works of Homer and Sophocles, she also expands her analysis to the philosophical works of Plato and Aristotle.


Image and Argument in Plato's Republic

Image and Argument in Plato's Republic

Author: Marina McCoy

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2020-08-01

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 1438479131

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Although Plato has long been known as a critic of imagination and its limits, Marina Berzins McCoy explores the extent to which images also play an important, positive role in Plato's philosophical argumentation. She begins by examining the poetic educational context in which Plato is writing and then moves on to the main lines of argument and how they depend upon a variety of uses of the imagination, including paradigms, analogies, models, and myths. McCoy takes up the paradoxical nature of such key metaphysical images as the divided line and cave: on the one hand, the cave and divided line explicitly state problems with images and the visible realm. On the other hand, they are themselves images designed to draw the reader to greater intellectual understanding. The author gives a perspectival reading, arguing that the human being is always situated in between the transcendence of being and the limits of human perspective. Images can enhance our capacity to see intellectually as well as to reimagine ourselves vis-à-vis the timeless and eternal. Engaging with a wide range of continental, dramatic, and Anglo-American scholarship on images in Plato, McCoy examines the treatment of comedy, degenerate regimes, the nature of mimesis, the myth of Er, and the nature of Platonic dialogue itself.


Six Greek Tragedies

Six Greek Tragedies

Author: Marianne McDonald

Publisher: Methuen Drama

Published: 2002-09-19

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A selection of six tragedies that have had an immense influence on Western drama. They depict archtypes of the human condition and eternal dilemmas of morality and loyalty.