Tragic Heroines in Ancient Greek Drama - Paperback

by Hanna M. Roisman (Author)

The heroines of Greek tragedy presented in the plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides have long captivated audiences and critics. In this volume each of the eleven chapters discusses one of the heroines: Clytemnestra, Hecuba, Medea, Iphigenia, Alcestis, Antigone Electra, Deianeira, Phaedra, Creusa and Helen. The book focuses on characterisation and the motivations of the women, as well as on those of the male playwrights, and offers multiple viewpoints and critiques that enable readers to understand the context of each play and form their own views. Four core themes bridge the depictions of the heroines: the socio-political dynamic of ancient Greek expectations of women and their roles in society, the conflict of masculinity versus femininity, the alternation of defiance and submission, and the interplay between deceit and rhetoric.

Author Biography

Hanna M. Roisman is Arnold Bernhard Professor of Arts and Humanities and Professor of Classics Emerita at Colby College, USA. She is the author of numerous books, including Loyalty in Early Greek Epic and Tragedy (1984); Nothing is As It Seems: The Tragedy of the Implicit in Euripides' Hippolytus (1999); Sophocles: Philoctetes (2005); Sophocles: Electra: Translation with Notes (2008/2017); and Sophocles' Electra: A Commentary (2020). She is also the editor of The Encyclopedia of Greek Tragedy (2014). co-author of: The Odyssey Re-Formed (1996); Euripides' Alcestis: A Commentary (2003); Euripides' Electra: A Commentary (2011).