Under the Sign of the Shield - (Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches) 2nd Edition by Froma I Zeitlin (Hardcover)

About the Book

A study of the last drama of Aeschylus' trilogy concerned with the fortunes of the house of Laius that ends with the story of Oedipus' sons, the enemy brothers, who self-destruct in mutual fratricide but thereby save the besieged city of Thebes. The book's findings, however, f...

Book Synopsis

A study of the last drama of Aeschylus' trilogy concerned with the fortunes of the house of Laius that ends with the story of Oedipus' sons, the enemy brothers, who self-destruct in mutual fratricide but thereby save the besieged city of Thebes. The book's findings, however, far exceed these limits to explore the relationships between language and kinship, as between family and city, self and society, and Greek ideas about the nature of human development and identity.

Review Quotes

Since its original publication in 1982, Under the Sign of the Shield has inspired many readers and critics with its close readings and uncompromising embrace of a theoretical approach. The first edition represented the leading edge of classics and literary theory, and even 25 years later its interpretations cut deep. This new edition of Zeitlin's seminal study of Seven Against Thebes makes a hitherto difficult-to-find text available to a wider audience. We should applaud its rerelease, with a brief but useful new introduction, additions to notes and bibliography, and a postscript on "Tragic Thebes."

This is undoubtedly the one book to read on Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes, a classic of the criticism of tragedy. The range of questions, the brilliance of the analyses, the importance of the issues raised make this a book that anyone thinking about tragedy should know intimately. The Seven Against Thebes was one of the most influential of ancient tragedies, and, with Zeitlin's reading, we can see how many of the great themes of tagedy were put in place here.

With this brilliant analysis of Aeschylean drama, Froma Zeitlin shows twenty-first century students, scholars, and lovers of antiquity how to read Greek tragedy.

About the Author

Froma I. Zeitlin is professor of classics and the Charles Ewing Professor of Greek Language and Literature at Princeton University.