Chosen as one of the ten canonical plays by Euripides during the Hellenistic period in Greece, Hecuba was popular throughout Antiquity. The play also became part of the so-called 'Byzantine triad' of three plays of Euripides (along with Phoenician Women and Orestes) selected for study in school curricula, above all for the brilliance of its rhetorical speeches and quotable traditional wisdom. Translations into Latin and vernacular languages, as well as stage performances emerged early in the sixteenth century. The Renaissance admired the play for its representation of the extraordinary suffering and misfortunes of its newly-enslaved heroine, the former queen of Troy Hecuba, for the courageous sacrificial death of her daughter Polyxena, and for the beleaguered queen's surprisingly successful revenge against the unscrupulous killer of her son Polydorus. Later periods, however, developed reservations about the play's revenge plot and its unity. Recent scholarship has favorably reassessed the play in its original cultural and political context and the past thirty years have produced a number of exciting staged productions. Hecuba has emerged as a profound exploration of the difficulties of establishing justice and a stable morality in post-war situations. This book investigates the play's changing critical and theatrical reception from Antiquity to the present, its mythical and political background, its dramatic and thematic unity, and the role of its choruses.
Chosen as one of the ten canonical plays by Euripides during the Hellenistic period in Greece, Hecuba was popular throughout Antiquity. The play also became part of the so-called 'Byzantine triad' of three plays of Euripides (along with Phoenician Women and Orestes) selected for study in school curricula, above all for the brilliance of its rhetorical speeches and quotable traditional wisdom. Translations into Latin and vernacular languages, as well as stage performances emerged early in the sixteenth century. The Renaissance admired the play for its representation of the extraordinary suffering and misfortunes of its newly-enslaved heroine, the former queen of Troy Hecuba, for the courageous sacrificial death of her daughter Polyxena, and for the beleaguered queen's surprisingly successful revenge against the unscrupulous killer of her son Polydorus. Later periods, however, developed reservations about the play's revenge plot and its unity. Recent scholarship has favorably reassessed the play in its original cultural and political context and the past thirty years have produced a number of exciting staged productions. Hecuba has emerged as a profound exploration of the difficulties of establishing justice and a stable morality in post-war situations. This book investigates the play's changing critical and theatrical reception from Antiquity to the present, its mythical and political background, its dramatic and thematic unity, and the role of its choruses.
Maps
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Preface
1. The Play in its Context
2. Theatrical Festivals and the Mythical Tradition
3. Dramatic Structure and Unity
4. Interpreting the Acton: Hecuba and the Power of Persuasion
5. Hecuba's Revenge
6. The Role of the Chorus
7. Sizing up Revenge Tragedy
8. Performances of Hecuba
Notes
Guide to Further Reading
Bibliography
Glossary of Ancient and Technical Terms
Chronology
Index
A comprehensive introductory study of Euripides' controversial and newly popular play Hecuba, exploring the nature of the work, its context and its reception.
Helene P. Foley is Professor of Classics, Barnard College, Columbia University, USA. She is the author of books and articles on Greek epic and drama, on women and gender in Antiquity, and on modern performance and adaptation of Greek drama.
A short but thorough and well-researched overview of the main
themes of the tragedy, as well as its historical background and
performance history ... A readable introduction to Euripides'
Hecuba, ideal for a spectator or a reader of the play in
translation who is looking to delve a little deeper.
*Minerva: The International Review of Ancient Art and
Archaeology*
Those coming to the play for the first time will be rewarded by
Foley's accessible, concise and thought-provoking discussion ...
[This] is an excellent survey of the play’s context, themes,
critical issues, and afterlife, and highly recommended as an
introduction to this absorbing and difficult tragedy.
*Classics Ireland*
A concise and insightful introduction to one of the most successful
ancient plays ... It offers a strong contribution to research on
the play, especially to its performance history ... Foley is one of
the leading scholars in the study of modern performances of ancient
drama and her approach is highly rewarding.
*The Journal of Hellenic Studies*
[A] concise, elegant and wellwritten study ... Eminently readable
and admirably accessible, the book ... assumes some classical
knowledge. It includes helpful maps, a glossary of ancient and
technical terms, a reading list, an exhaustive chronology and
notes.
*Journal of Classics Teaching*
This very valuable volume has encompassed a huge amount of material
within a relatively small space with great skill and elegance.
*Fiona Macintosh, University Lecturer in Classical Reception,
Fellow of St Hilda's College, University of Oxford, UK*
Helene Foley provides an excellent and accessible guide to Hecuba,
a play that has regained prominence both in scholarly study and
contemporary performance and adaption. She provides a judicious
overview of the main interpretive lines that have been applied to a
tragedy that is both emotionally wrenching and rhetorically and
ethically challenging. A particularly strong feature is the survey
of the changing reception of the play, from antiquity to the
present, with a perceptive and detailed analysis of the performance
tradition during the last two generations.
*Donald J. Mastronarde, Melpomene Professor of Classics, University
of California, Berkeley, USA*
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