Hecuba was the most widely read play of Euripides from antiquity to the Renaissance, appealing to readers and spectators for its controversial treatment of moral themes: revenge, war and slavery, violence, human sacrifice, gender and ethnic relations. It narrates the death of Hecuba's daughter Polyxena, sacrificed by the Greeks to placate the ghost of Achilles, and that of her son Polydorus, killed out of greed by the Thracian king who was supposed to protect him. Hecuba successfully plots a cruel and shocking revenge against the killer. The play is now at the centre of the attention of scholars and performing artists. This edition offers new textual and interpretive suggestions, and provides detailed guidance on problems of language as well as employing conceptual tools from contemporary linguistics. It will be useful for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, as well as of interest to scholars.

A new interpretation of a Greek tragedy on the fall of Troy: do violence, war and slavery make people less human?

About the Author
Luigi Battezzato is Professor of Greek Literature at the Universita degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale Amadeo Avogradro, Vercelli. His publications include Italian translations of Aeschylus' Choephori (1995) and Euripides' Hecuba (2010), and he is the author of Il monologo nel teatro di Euripide (1995) and Linguistica e retorica della tragedia greca (2008). He has also published extensively on Greek tragedy and lyric, Greek metre and language, textual criticism and the history of classical scholarship.


Book Information
ISBN 9780521138642
Author Luigi Battezzato
Format Paperback
Page Count 296
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 380g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 138mm * 16mm