Sophocles

The Fragmentary Muse and the Poetics of Refraction in Sappho, Sophocles, Offenbach

[[This essay originally appeared in 2009 in Theater des Fragments: Performative Strategien im Theater zwischen Antike und Postmoderne (eds. A. Bierl, G. Siegmund, Ch. Meneghetti, C. Schuster) 69-102. In this expanded online edition, the page-numbers of the print edition will be indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{69|70}” indicates where p. 69 of the first edition ends and p. 70 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look up references made… Read more

Imagining Illegitimacy in Classical Greek Literature

In Imagining Illegitimacy, Mary Ebbott investigates metaphors of illegitimacy in classical Greek literature, concentrating in particular on the way in which the illegitimate child (nothos) is imagined in narratives. Employing an approach that maintains that metaphors are a key to understanding abstract ideas, Ebbott connects the many complex metaphors associated with illegitimacy to the ancient Greek conception of illegitimacy. The nothos as imagined in ancient Greek literature is metaphorically connected… Read more

Who Am I? (Mis)Identity and the Polis in Oedipus Tyrannus

Oedipus’s major handicap in life is not knowing who he is–and both parricide and incest result from his ignorance of his identity. With two questions—”Who am I?” and “Who is my father?”—on his mind (and on his lips), the obsessed Oedipus arrives at the oracle of Delphi. Unlike the majority of modern and postmodern readings of Oedipus Tyrannus, Efimia Karakantza’s text focuses on the question of identity. Identity, however, is… Read more

Antigone Project Phase II

Students from high schools in Greece, India, the Netherlands, and the United States recently participated in the second phase of the Antigone Project, which invites students to film and share their own performances of the Antigone of Sophocles, with the goal of engaging in a meaningful comparative dialogue with fellow participants from around the globe. Read more