Greek Tragedy After the Fifth Century : A Survey from ca. 400 BC to ca. AD 400

Accessible survey exploring, for the first time in English, both textual and non-textual evidence for the development of Greek tragedy after the fifth century BC. Ranges widely across topics from theatre performance, music and dance to transmission and reception later in antiquity. Essential for classicists and theatre scholars and practitioners.

Did Greek tragedy die along with Euripides? This accessible survey demonstrates that this is far from being the case. In it, thirteen eminent specialists offer, for the first time in English, broad coverage of a little-studied but essential part of the history of Greek tragedy. The book contains in-depth discussions of all available textual evidence (including inscriptions and papyri), but also provides historical perspectives on every aspect of the post-fifth-century history of tragedy. Oft-neglected plays, such as Rhesus, Alexandra, and Exagōgē (the only surviving Biblical tragedy), are studied alongside such topics as the expansion of Greek tragedy beyond Athens, theatre performance, music and dance, society and politics, as well as the reception of Greek tragedy in the Second Sophistic and in Late Antiquity, and the importance of ancient scholarship in the transmission of Greek tragic texts.