Surviving Greek Tragedy - by Robert Garland (Paperback)

About the Book

"Surviving Greek Tragedy" is a history of the physical survival to the present day of the thirty-two extant tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.

Book Synopsis

Surviving Greek Tragedy is a history of the physical survival to the present day of the thirty-two extant tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. Beginning with the first revival of the plays in the fourth century BC, it charts the course of their transmission down the centuries as they passed through the hands of actors, readers, scholars, schoolteachers, monks, publishers, translators and theatre directors.

Over the course of this 2,400-year period, the plays were at different times performed, copied, quoted, emended, excerpted, analysed, taught, translated, censored, adapted, or merely left to moulder in a library, as each successive culture charged with their safe-keeping saw fit. In the last thirty years Greek tragedy has become the medium through which most people encounter the classical heritage, and in the book Garland gives extensive coverage to modern stagings of the plays all over the world, taking this fascinating story right up to the present.

Fully illustrated with images from all the periods under discussion--from Greek vase paintings to Deborah Warner's production of Medea at the Queen's Theatre, London.

About the Author

Robert Garland is Professor of Classics at Colgate University in the State of New York. He is the author of many books including The Greek Way of Life, The Greek Way of Death, The Piraeus, Introducing New Gods and The Eye of the Beholder.