This volume brings together a group of interdisciplinary experts who demonstrate that Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes is a text of continuing relevance and value for exploring ancient, contemporary and comparative issues of war and its attendant trauma. The volume features contributions from an international cast of experts, as well as a conversation with a retired U.S. Army Lt. Col., giving her perspectives on the blending of reality and fiction in Aeschylus' war tragedies and on the potential of Greek tragedy to speak to contemporary veterans. This book is a fascinating resource for anyone interested in Aeschylus, Greek tragedy and its reception, and war literature.

About the Author
Isabelle Torrance is Associate Professor and Research Fellow at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Denmark. She has published numerous articles on Greek tragedy and its reception and is author of Aeschylus: Seven Against Thebes (London, 2007), Metapoetry in Euripides (Oxford, 2013), and co-author of Oaths and Swearing in Ancient Greece (Berlin, 2014).

Reviews

Civil war, fratricide, a city under siege and women in mortal terror - these are the themes of Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes, a tragedy that Aeschylus himself (or at least his persona in Aristophanes' comedy, Frogs) boasted was "full of Ares" or martial spirit. This volume takes account of recent research on ancient warfare and of the intimate connection between war and Greek tragedy, which continues to speak to veterans' experiences today. The chapters bring important new perspectives to this undeservedly neglected masterpiece.

- David Konstan, Professor of Classics, New York University, USA

Aeschylus and War is a salutary reminder that Seven against Thebes must be understood in the martial context from which it draws its inspiration. Moreover, it is to be hoped that this useful and thought-provoking collection of papers will help to rekindle critical interest in a great and difficult work, which has for too long been condemned to brood sublimely in relative neglect.

- N. J. Sewell-Rutter, Oxford, UK, in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Book Information
ISBN 9780367595401
Author Isabelle Torrance
Format Paperback
Page Count 226
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 340g