Euripides and the Poetics of Sorrow

Charles Segal is Professor of Greek and Latin at Harvard University. He is the author of numerous books, including Lucretius on Death and Anxiety, Orpheus: The Myth of the Poet, and Interpreting Greek Tragedy: Myth, Poetry, Text.

• Preface ix1. Introduction 32. Europides' Muse of Sorrows and the Artifice of Tragic Pleasure 13Alcestis 3. Cold Delight: Art, Death, and Transgression of Genre 374. Female Death and Male Tears 515. Admetus' Divided House: Spatial Dichotomies and Gender Roles 73Hippolytus 6. Language, Signs, and Gender 897. Theater, Ritual, and Commemoration 1108. Confusion and Concealment: Vision, Hope, and Tragic Knowledge 136Hecuba 9. Golden Armor and Servile Robes: Heroism and Metamorphosis 15710. Violence and the Other: Greek, Female, and Barbarian 17011. Law and Universals 19112. The Problem of the Gods 21413. Conclusion: Euripides' Songs of Sorrow 227Notes 237Bibliography 283Index 303

"Several interconnected themes unify this book. One is Euripides's mixture of 'mythic' elements with 'realistic' and ratiocinative ones, which produces new forms of tragic discourse. Another is Euripides's deconstruction of such comfortable oppositions as male/female and Greek/barbarian, which dissolves the barriers between actor and audience, self and 'other.' Segal develops his argument with great lucidity, patient reference to the text, broad and informed acknowledgment of the work of others, and an admirable ability to make connections between literary aperÇus and the history of ideas."-Peter Burian, Duke University "The essays are uniformly first rate; they advance the understanding of the plays in detail and in overall perspective; and they address deep, complex questions with a critical sophistication that, for this age, shows itself to be remarkably lucid and sane. I was delighted to learn new things about plays I knew very well, and to reexamine them in a new light."-Kenneth J. Reckford, University of North Carolina