That the works of the ancient tragedians still have an immediate and profound appeal surely needs no demonstration, yet the modern reader continually stumbles across concepts which are difficult to interpret or relate to – moral pollution, the authority of oracles, classical ideas of geography – as well as the names of unfamiliar legendary and mythological figures. A New Companion to Greek Tragedy provides a useful reference tool for the ‘Greekless’ reader: arranged on a strictly encyclopaedic pattern, with headings for all proper names occurring in the twelve most frequently read tragedies, it contains brief but adequately detailed essays on moral, religious and philosophical terms, as well as mythical genealogies where important. There are in addition entries on Greek theatre, technical terms and on other writers from Aristotle to Freud, whilst the essay by P. E. Easterling traces some connections between the ideas found in the tragedians and earlier Greek thought.

That the works of the ancient tragedians still have an immediate and profound appeal surely needs no demonstration, yet the modern reader continually stumbles across concepts which are difficult to interpret or relate to - moral pollution, the authority of oracles, classical ideas of geography - as well as the names of unfamiliar legendary and mythological figures. A New Companion to Greek Tragedy provides a useful reference tool for the 'Greekless' reader: arranged on a strictly encyclopaedic pattern, with headings for all proper names occurring in the twelve most frequently read tragedies, it contains brief but adequately detailed essays on moral, religious and philosophical terms, as well as mythical genealogies where important. There are in addition entries on Greek theatre, technical terms and on other writers from Aristotle to Freud, whilst the essay by P. E. Easterling traces some connections between the ideas found in the tragedians and earlier Greek thought.

This classic work not only records developments in the form and style of Greek drama, it also analyses the reasons for these changes. It provides illuminating answers to questions that have confronted generations of students, such as: * why did Aeschylus introduce the second actor? * why did Sophocles develop character drawing? * why are some of Euripides' plots so bad and others so good? Greek Tragedy is neither a history nor a handbook, but a penetrating work of criticism which all students of literature will find suggestive and stimulating.

The Libation Bearers of Aeschylus is the central tragedy of his Oresteia, one of the outstanding masterpieces of Greek literature. This edition, including text, translation and commentary, seeks to take full account of the latest advances in scholarship while making the play accessible to a wide range of readers