Overview

Aristophanes and His Tragic Muse considers the opposition of comedy and tragedy in 5th century Athens and its effect on the drama of Aristophanes. The study examines tragedy’s focus on necessity and a quest for meaning as a complement to a neglected but critical element in Athenian comedy, a concern with freedom and an underlying ambivalent vision of reality.

Full Product Details

Author:   Stephanie Nelson
Publisher:   Brill
Imprint:   Brill
Volume:   390
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.747kg
ISBN:  

9789004310902

ISBN 10:   9004310908
Pages:   384
Publication Date:   25 February 2016
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 1 The Festivals and Genre 2 The Comic and the Serious 3 Overview: A Developmental Study 1 Comedy and Tragedy in Athens 1 The Development of Comedy and Tragedy 2 Masks, Costumes, Choruses, Language, and Props 3 Comedy, Tragedy, and Euripides 2 Satyr Drama and the Cyclops: Where Tragedy and Comedy Meet 1 Comic Satyrs/Tragic Tales 2 Satyr Play: Net-Draggers, Festival-Goers, Trackers 3 The Cyclops 3 The Acharnians and the Paradox of the City 1 Tragedy, Comedy, and Politics 2 The Oresteia and the Bacchae: The City in a Greater Whole 3 The Double Vision of the Acharnians 4 The Wasps: Comic Heroes/Tragic Heroes 1 Comic and Tragic Consistency 2 Ajax and Medea: A Focus on Identity 3 Wasps: The Hero as Chameleon 4 Aristophanes and the Three Stooges: Pitying Your Betters, Envying Inferior Men 5 Oedipus Tyrannos and the Knights: Oracles, Divine and Human 1 Oedipus Tyrannos: Human and Divine Meaning 2 The Human Oracles of the Knights 3 Hidden Meanings and the Rejuvenation of Demos 4 Comedy and Carnival or Tragedy Upside Down 6 Persians, Peace, and Birds: God and Man in Wartime 1 The Persians: War, Empire, and the Divine 2 The Peace: Finding a God for Athens 3 The Birds: An Athenian on Olympus 7 Women at the Thesmophoria and Frogs: Aristophanes on Tragedy and Comedy 1 Parody, Metatheater, and Dialogue 2 Women at the Thesmophoria: Comedy and Tragedy Talk 3 Frogs: Comedy-and Tragedy-Save the City Conclusion: The Dionysia's Many Voices Synopses Glossary Bibliography Index

Reviews

This lengthy and detailed study takes its place as the most extensive examination to date of the interplay of tragic and comic drama in fifth-century Athens. (...) Nelson's prose flows rather well and she comes across as engaging and involved in the material and ideas. In a number of places a reader can sense the voice of an experienced teacher unpacking a complex text for her students. She has taken pains to make the volume accessible for non-specialists and motivated students, offering passages in translation (mostly without the original Greek), providing ample background and support (e.g., the glossary and synopses), and glossing technical terms so that the book is relatively light on jargon. Wilfred E. Major, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.02.15

Author Information

Stephanie Nelson, author of God and the Land: the metaphysics of farming in Hesiod and Vergil and of numerous papers on Joyce’s Ulysses and the Odyssey, is Associate Professor of Classics and Director of the Core Curriculum at Boston University.

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