Product Description

This up-to-date edition makes Euripides’ most famous and influential play accessible to students of Greek reading their first tragedy as well as to more advanced students. The introduction analyzes Medea as a revenge-plot, evaluates the strands of motivation that lead to her tragic insistence on killing her own children, and assesses the potential sympathy of a Greek audience for a character triply marked as other (barbarian, witch, woman). A unique feature of this book is the introduction to tragic language and style. The text, revised for this edition, is accompanied by an abbreviated critical apparatus. The commentary provides morphological and syntactic help for inexperienced students and more advanced observations on vocabulary, rhetoric, dramatic techniques, stage action, and details of interpretation, from the famous debate of Medea and Jason to the ‘unmotivated’ entrance of Aegeus and the controversial monologue of Medea.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #346877 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 442 pages

Review
‘… predictably fine, thoughtful and polished … a nicely self-contained teaching-tool … Throughout, Mastronarde displays virtues known from his previous activity as a commentator: clarity of exposition; fairness in the treatment of controversial issues; philological acumen; command of the primary and secondary literature … a keen eye for the theatrical dimension of drama; and an openness to engage with broader, and often complex, non-philological aspects of interpretation.‘ Mouseion, Journal of the Classical Association of Canada

‘We may confidently say now that future students will face a less difficult task thanks to the work of D. J. Mastronarde, whose knowledge of Greek theatre and uncommon talent as a teacher have combined to produce a most valuable book. It is easy to foresee that students will be grateful to M. for his admirably concise and useful treatment of language, style and metre … Mastronarde‘s book is an outstanding contribution to the understanding of Medea and a valuable introduction to Greek tragedy as a whole. It deserves to take pride of place on the shelves of Euripidean scholars beside the time-honoured commentary of Page.‘ Journal of Hellenic Studies

‘… this series has consistently proven itself to provide high quality commentaries for teaching Greek texts in the original. Mastronarde‘s fine work does not disappoint. … this is a volume which will prove very useful to students of Greek tragedy in the original and will also be a valuable resource for professional colleagues.‘ Hermathena

About the Author
Donald Mastronarde is Melpomene Distinguished Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at the University of California, Berkeley.