Product Description

Much has been written about the heroic figures of Sophocles' dramas. Here Charles Segal focuses not on individual heroes and heroines, but on the world that inspired and motivated their actions - a universe of family, city, nature, and the supernatural. In a series of interconnected essays, Segal studies five of Sophocles' seven extant plays: "Ajax", "Oedipus" "Tyrannus", "Philocletes", "Antigone", and "Trachinian Women". His analysis sheds light on these plays and on their implications for Greek views on the gods, moral life and sexuality.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #395186 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 292 pages

Review
Charles Segal has written a superb critical study of five of the seven extant plays by Sophocles...Segal's analytical interests go beyond the usual discussion of the nature of heroic greatness of tragic stature. He is principally concerned with the 'tragic world' which Sophocles depicts...Segal writes in a lucid, jargon-free prose that is also dramaturgy of the highest order...Segal's strength as a critic issues directly from a wide-ranging sensitivity to the epic tradition and a nuanced awareness of the dramatic use of temporal shifts and poetic displacements. Segal's terrific, lucid book should also be required reading for anyone interested in the tragic stature of women in Greek tragedy. His complex thinking on the subject gives justice to the basic intractability of Sophocles's views on the nature of feminine sensibility. -- Randy Gener "New York Theatre Wire"