Sophocles’ Tragic World - Divinity, Nature, Society

Much has been written about the heroic figures of Sophocles dramas. Here Charles Segal focuses not on individual heroes and heroines, but on the world that inspired and motivated their actions - a universe of family, city, nature, and the supernatural. In a series of interconnected essays, Segal studies five of Sophocles seven extant plays: "Ajax", "Oedipus" "Tyrannus", "Philocletes", "Antigone", and "Trachinian Women". His analysis sheds light on these plays and on their implications for Greek views on the gods, moral life and sexuality.

List of contents

Preface Introduction Drama and Perspective in Ajax Myth, Poetry, and Heroic Values in the Trachinian Women Time, Oracles, and Marriage in the Trachinian Women Philoctetes and the Imperishable Piety Lament and Closure in Antigone Time and Knowledge in the Tragedy of Oedipus Freud, Language, and the Unconscious The Gods and the Chorus: Zeus in Oedipus Tyrannus Earth in Oedipus Tyrannus Abbreviations Notes Index

About the author

Charles Segal is the late Walter C. Klein Professor of the Classics, Harvard University.

Summary

In a series of interconnected essays, Charles Segal studies five of Sophocles’ seven extant plays: Ajax, Oedipus Tyrannus, Philoctetes, Antigone, and the often neglected Trachinian Women.

Product details

• Authors: Charles Segal, Segal Charles
• Publisher: University Presses
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 13.01.1998
• EAN: 9780674821019
• ISBN: 978-0-674-82101-9
• No. of pages: 288
• Weight: 372 g
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; History, DRAMA / Ancient & Classical, HISTORY / Ancient / Greece, Ancient (Classical) Greek, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, Literary studies: plays and playwrights