Sophocles and Alcibiades: Athenian Politics in Ancient Greek Literature

by Michael Vickers

Overview

Literary historians have long held the view that the plays of the Greek dramatist Sophocles deal purely with archetypes of the heroic past and that any resemblance to contemporary events or individuals is purely coincidental. In this book, Michael Vickers challenges this view and argues that Sophocles makes regular and extensive allusion to Athenian politics in his plays, especially to Alcibiades, one of the most controversial Athenian politicians of his day.

Vickers shows that Sophocles was deeply involved in Athenian political life, which was often intensely personal. He argues cogently that classical writers employed hidden meanings and that Sophocles consciously or subconsciously projected onto his plays hints of contemporary events or incidents, mostly of a political nature, hoping that his audience's passion for politics would enhance the popularity of his plays. Vickers strengthens his case about Sophocles by discussing authors-Thucydides, Plato, and Euripides-whose work contains a body of allusions to Alcibiades and others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801447327
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	07/10/2008
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michael Vickers is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Senior Research Fellow in Classical Studies at Jesus College, Oxford, and Curator of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum. His books include Pericles on Stage: Political Comedy in Aristophanes' Early Plays.

Table of Contents

Preface     vi
The mythologizing of history     1
Antigone, Pericles and Alcibiades     13
Oedipus Tyrannus, Alcibiades, Cleon and Aspasia     34
Ajax, Alcibiades and Andocides     47
Philoctetes, Alcibiades, Andocides and Pericles     59
Alcibiades in exile: Euripides' Cyclops     82
Oedipus at Colonus, Alcibiades and Critias     95
Critias and Alcibiades: Euripides' Bacchae     104
Alcibiades and Melos: Thucydides 5.84-116     115
Thucydides on tyrannicides: not a "digression"     133
Alcibiades and Persia (and more Thucydidean "digressions")     141
Alcibiades and Critias in the Gorgias: Plato's "fine satire"     153
Epilogue     177
Bibliography     179
Index locorum     193
Index     201

What People are Saying About This

Gabriel Herman

This book contains a very important finding, which is likely to inject an entirely new, hitherto by and large unsuspected, element into the study of Greek drama. Thoroughly original, this book constitutes an important landmark in the study of Greek tragedy.

Barry Strauss

Michael Vickers has written an ingenious, original, and scholarly book on an important subject. It is an argument that students of period need to take into account. Vickers is doing truly seminal work.

Editorial Reviews

"Michael Vickers has written an ingenious, original, and scholarly book on an important subject. It is an argument that students of period need to take into account. Vickers is doing truly seminal work."—Barry Strauss, Cornell University

"This book contains a very important finding, which is likely to inject an entirely new, hitherto by and large unsuspected, element into the study of Greek drama. Thoroughly original, this book constitutes an important landmark in the study of Greek tragedy."—Gabriel Herman, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

From the Publisher