Content Description #Includes bibliographical references and index.

Building on her previous works, Shirley Darcus Sullivan takes an in-depth look at Euripides' use of psychological terms - phr?n, nous, prapides, thumos, kardia, kear, and psych? - and compares his usage to that of both earlier and contemporary poets, most notably Aeschylus and Sophocles.

Annotation Sullivan (classics, U. of British Columbia) analyzes how the 6th-5th BC Greek poet used eight key psychological terms that appear frequently in ancient Greek texts but have a wide range of possible meanings. She also compares his use with that of earlier and contemporary poets, including Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, and Bacchylides, to assess the degree to which his usage was innovative or traditional. She very adroitly explains the use of the Greek terms for readers who do not read Greek. Canadian card order number: C97-900392-X. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Sullivan discusses each term separately, gathering them from Euripides' seventeen extant tragedies and from fragments of other plays. She begins with a broad look at how both earlier and contemporary poets used the various terms, moving on to a detailed discussion of Euripides' own usage, from his most often used phr_n to his new use of psych_. Euripides' Use of Psychological Terminology will be of interest to scholars of classics, in particular those studying the fifth-century, as well as to those interested in psychology and its presentation in ancient literature.

This highly original book is both a study of emotional discourse in the Early Middle Ages and a contribution to the debates among historians and social scientists about the nature of human emotions.

Are we free agents? This perennial question is addressed by tragedy when it dramatizes the struggle of individuals with supernatural forces, or maps the inner conflict of a mind divided against itself. The first part of this book follows the adaptations of four myths as they migrate from classical Greek tragedy to Seneca and on to seventeenth-century France: the stories of Agamemnon, Oedipus, Medea, and Phaedra. Detailed linguistic analysis charts the playwrights’ contrasting assumptions about agency and autonomy. In the second part, six plays by Corneille and Racine are discussed to show how the problem of agency and free will is explored in scenarios which show protagonists who are in thrall to their past, to their rulers, or to their own ideals.

An exploration of the poetic qualities of the Greek tragic dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides highlighting their similarities and differences.