Euripides: Helen

by Peter Burian

Overview

Helen who has always been faithful to her husband Menelaus; who never went to Troy, but was carried off to Egypt, where she remains throughout the Trojan War, waiting faithfully for her husband Menelaus to rescue her. Meanwhile, Helen of Troy - a mere phantom fashioned by the gods - has blighted the real Helen's life with undeserved hatred.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780856686511
Publisher:	Liverpool University Press
Publication date:	02/15/2007
Series:	Aris and Phillips Classical Texts
Pages:	292
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 5.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Peter Burian is Professor Emeritus of Classical Studies at Duke University.

Table of Contents

Preface     ix
List of sigla and abbreviations     xi
Key to metrical symbols     xiii
Introduction     1
Euripides and Athens     1
Life and works     1
Helen in its Athenian context     4
The figure of Helen in early Greek culture     10
Myth     10
Cult     14
Helen on stage     16
The 'new' Helen     18
Stesichorus     18
Herodotus     22
Euripides     24
The production     29
Setting and staging     29
Structure and dramatic technique     34
Speech, song, language     38
A tragedy of ideas     46
Knowledge and reality     47
Family, gender, authority     49
Greeks and Egyptians     55
The Gods     61
Genre     66
Helen transformed     72
The text and its transmission     82
Helen     91
Commentary     142
Bibliography     347
Indexes     365

Editorial Reviews

this is a fine and timely presentation of a play whose rich complexity is increasingly recognised.'

JACT - John Taylor