When Hercules returns home with a beautiful young princess, Daysair, his jealous wife, gives him a cloak treated with what she believes is a powerful love potion in hopes of winning him back.
This new translation of Sophokles’ Women of Trachis is a living script in conversation with the past. Rachel Kitzinger, a Classicist, and Eamon Grennan, a poet, have captured the tones of ancient Greek in strong, swift English, making this translation suitable for a modern audience, whether as readers, listeners, or viewers. The unique addition of an audio recording of the text performed by Vassar College students contributes to the play's accessibility and vividness. Offering a picture both of domestic life and of the values and expectations that characterize Athenian men, Women of Trachis is a rich resource for those interested in gender roles in Greek antiquity.
Sophocles' "Women of Trachis" tells the tragic tale of Herakles return home from his labours. This companion to the play provides the social and historical background and employs a number of critical approaches to interpret the major thematic and dramatic issues of the play.
The Women of Trachis (named for the Trachinian women who make up the chorus) dramatizes Deianeira's accidentally killing Heracles after he had completed his famous twelve labors. Tricked into thinking it is a love charm, Deianeira applies poison to an article of Heracles' clothing; this poisoned robe causes Heracles to die an excruciating death. Upon learning the truth, Deianeira commits suicide.
This handbook provides students and scholars with a highly readable yet detailed analysis of all surviving Greek tragedies and satyr plays. John Ferguson places each play in its historical, political, and social context—important for both Athenian and modern audiences—and he displays a keen, discriminating critical competence in dealing with the plays as literature. Ferguson is sensitive to the meter and sound of Greek tragedy, and, with remarkable success, he manages to involve even the Greekless reader in an actual encounter with the Greek as poetry. He examines language and metrics in relation to each tragedian's dramatic purpose, thus elucidating the crucial dimension of technique that other handbooks, mostly the work of philologists, renounce in order to concentrate on structure and plot. The result is perceptive criticism in which the quality of Ferguson's scholarship vouches for what he sees in the plays. The book is prefaced with a general introduction to ancient Greek theatrical production, and there is a brief biographical sketch of each tragedian. Footnotes are avoided: the object of this handbook is to introduce readers to the plays as dramatic poetry, not to detail who said what about them. There is an extensive bibliography for scholars and a glossary of Greek words to assist the student with the operative moral and stylistic terms of Greek tragedy.
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.
A Study Guide for Sophocles's "Women of Trachis: Trachiniae," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.
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.