Euripides and the Gods

Mary Lefkowitz

Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture

Offers a critical new perspective on a major classical author by one of the world's leading authorities
Advances a new theory of Euripides' intentions, namely, that he is not trying to undermine traditional theology

Euripides and the Gods

Mary Lefkowitz

Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture

Description

Many modern readers believe that, in his dramas, Euripides was questioning the nature and sometimes even the existence of the gods. In Euripides and the Gods, eminent classicist Mary K. Lefkowitz shows that the tragedian is not undermining ancient religion, but rather describing with a brutal realism what the gods are like, reminding his mortal audience of the limitations of human understanding. Although some scholars have begun to express similar views about the theology of individual plays, no one so far has written an extended treatment of these issues for a general audience who do not necessarily know ancient Greek. Lefkowitz will provide a book that will deal with all of his dramas, accessible to non-specialist readers, containing a more tolerant and nuanced understanding of ancient Greek religion: Euripides, like Homer, is making "a statement about the nature of the world and human life, terrible and dispassionate." That view of divinity was well known and understood in Euripides' own time. In spite of what has seemed to later critics his brutally realistic characterization of the gods, he was selected in virtually every year of his adult life to be one of the three poets allowed to put on a set of plays at the festival of Dionysus, and even after his death he remained the most popular and influential of the great playwrights in the Greek-speaking world. This would hardly have been the case if his portrayal of the gods appeared impious to the majority of his audiences.

Like most of the author's distinguished publications in this field, the book will discuss a number of important related topics, including religion, philosophy, the surviving works of Euripides' contemporaries, and the theater and its significance to Greek society. The result will be a compelling invitation to return to the dramatic masterpieces of Euripides with fresh eyes.

Euripides and the Gods

Mary Lefkowitz

Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture

Euripides and the Gods

Mary Lefkowitz

Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture

Author Information

Mary Lefkowitz, Professor Emerita of Classical Studies, Wellesley College

Mary Lefkowitz is Mellon Professor in the Humanities, emerita, at Wellesley College. She is the author of many books on classical culture, including Women in Greek Myth, Greek Gods, Human Lives, The Lives of the Greek Poets, and Not Out of Africa, and co-editor of Women's Life in Greece and Rome and Black Athena Revisited.

Euripides and the Gods

Mary Lefkowitz

Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture

Reviews and Awards

Shortlisted for the Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award

"Although presented-even by Lefkowitz herself-as a book for the nonspecialist, scholars will find a wealth of information and solid argumentation in this splendid volume." - Nickolas P. Roubekas, Religious Studies Review

"This is a book worth noting, and not just because its sober analysis of Euripides religious beliefs will be required reading for anyone interested in tragedy or Greek religion... Intriguingly, she diagnoses an anachronism as the cause of that traditions persistence: foreign to the plays ancient context is the monotheistic conception of Gods relationship to and interest in humanity... Even detractors will have to engage with her arguments." - C. Michael Sampson (University of Manitoba), Phoenix: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada.

"Aimed at the general reader, but useful for more advanced students and professional scholars, too, the book includes summaries of many of the plays, including quotations in literal English translation with some Greek terms transliterated. Accessible, readable, and thought-provoking, it deserves a place on the bookshelves of schools, colleges and universities as well as of anyone interested in Greek drama, culture and religion. Highly recommended." - David Stuttard, Classics for All

"Lefkowitz's main point here remains compelling, that the gods in Euripides' dramas are no different than in Homeric epic or the works of Aeschylus and Sophocles. ... Chapter 1, the strongest in the book, depicts in great detail the descent of Aristophanic commentary through the ages to twentieth-century critics who believe that the portrayal of the gods must be ironic. This chapter is the work of incisive scholarship, with years of study of ancient, medieval and modern texts brilliantly and clearly displayed." - Robin Mitchell-Boyask, IPolis, The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought