Category: Literature and criticism
-
The content of the tragedy “Alcestis” by Euripides
Of the surviving tragedies of Euripides, the oldest by chronology was the drama “Alcestis” staged in 438 BC. It was staged together with the now lost plays “Cretans”, “Telephus” and “Alkmeon in Psophida”. In that year at the competition tragedians this tetralogy took second place, and the first was taken by none other than Sophocles…
-
Pre-Philosophy: The Nine Lyricists
After the above-mentioned five semi-mythical characters and poets of the “Cyclic” – follows the epoch of the “sages” (which, by the way, is very funny, because the word “philosopher” means a lover of wisdom, and “sage” therefore stands above “philosopher”). But the same “Cyclic” poets had other lyricist contemporaries, so before I go on to…
-
The scale of the catastrophe for ancient literature
Not everything of ancient literature has survived, it is a well-known fact; and even the little that has survived has not always been preserved in its complete form. We know a great many names of ancient authors from whom we have not a single line; but even of those authors whose works have survived and…