Table of Contents

Maps
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Preface
1. The Play in its Context
2. Theatrical Festivals and the Mythical Tradition
3. Dramatic Structure and Unity
4. Interpreting the Acton: Hecuba and the Power of Persuasion
5. Hecuba's Revenge
6. The Role of the Chorus
7. Sizing up Revenge Tragedy
8. Performances of Hecuba
Notes
Guide to Further Reading
Bibliography
Glossary of Ancient and Technical Terms
Chronology
Index

Promotional Information

A comprehensive introductory study of Euripides' controversial and newly popular play Hecuba, exploring the nature of the work, its context and its reception.

About the Author

Helene P. Foley is Professor of Classics, Barnard College, Columbia University, USA. She is the author of books and articles on Greek epic and drama, on women and gender in Antiquity, and on modern performance and adaptation of Greek drama.

Reviews

A short but thorough and well-researched overview of the main themes of the tragedy, as well as its historical background and performance history ... A readable introduction to Euripides' Hecuba, ideal for a spectator or a reader of the play in translation who is looking to delve a little deeper.
*Minerva: The International Review of Ancient Art and Archaeology*

Those coming to the play for the first time will be rewarded by Foley's accessible, concise and thought-provoking discussion ... [This] is an excellent survey of the play’s context, themes, critical issues, and afterlife, and highly recommended as an introduction to this absorbing and difficult tragedy.
*Classics Ireland*

A concise and insightful introduction to one of the most successful ancient plays ... It offers a strong contribution to research on the play, especially to its performance history ... Foley is one of the leading scholars in the study of modern performances of ancient drama and her approach is highly rewarding.
*The Journal of Hellenic Studies*

[A] concise, elegant and wellwritten study ... Eminently readable and admirably accessible, the book ... assumes some classical knowledge. It includes helpful maps, a glossary of ancient and technical terms, a reading list, an exhaustive chronology and notes.
*Journal of Classics Teaching*

This very valuable volume has encompassed a huge amount of material within a relatively small space with great skill and elegance.
*Fiona Macintosh, University Lecturer in Classical Reception, Fellow of St Hilda's College, University of Oxford, UK*

Helene Foley provides an excellent and accessible guide to Hecuba, a play that has regained prominence both in scholarly study and contemporary performance and adaption. She provides a judicious overview of the main interpretive lines that have been applied to a tragedy that is both emotionally wrenching and rhetorically and ethically challenging. A particularly strong feature is the survey of the changing reception of the play, from antiquity to the present, with a perceptive and detailed analysis of the performance tradition during the last two generations.
*Donald J. Mastronarde, Melpomene Professor of Classics, University of California, Berkeley, USA*