Euripides' Electra : A Commentary

Electra's gripping story and almost contemporary feel help make the play accessible and interesting to modern audiences. The liberties Euripides took with the traditional myth and the playwright's attitudes toward the gods can inspire fruitful classroom discussion about fifth-century Athenian thought, manners, and morals. Roisman and Luschnig invite readers to compare Euripides' treatment of the myth with those of Aeschylus and Sophocles and with variant presentations in epic and lyric poetry, later drama, and modern film. The introduction also places the play in historical context and describes conventions of the Greek theater specific to the work.

Extensive appendices provide a complete metrical analysis of the play, helpful notes on grammar and syntax, an index of verbs, and a Greek-English glossary. In short, the authors have included everything students need to support and enhance their reading of Electra in its original language.

Hanna M. Roisman is Arnold Bernhard Professor in the Arts and Humanities, Emerita, at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, is the author of Loyalty in Early Greek Epic and Tragedy and Nothing Is As It Seems: The Tragedy of the Implicit in Euripides' Hippolytus.

C. A. E. Luschnig, Professor of Classics at the University of Idaho in Moscow, is the author of An Introduction to Ancient Greek and The Gorgon's Severed Head: Studies in Euripides' Alcestis, Electra, and Phoenissae.