Folio Society Complete Greek Tragedies

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You are bidding on the complete Greek Tragedies from the Folio Society - The books are new, unfortunately the slipcase was damaged during shipping. So the set is sold as is. All defects are noted in the photos. The slipcase looks fine on a shelf. The books are great - Gorgeous set. Buyer is to pay the exact book rate shipping to their destination. Once I know where that is I will take them to my post office to determine the exact book rate to ship them - then that exact amount will be added to the final bid. Here is the description from the folio society ; The CompleteGreek Tragedies TheComplete Greek Tragedies In a small city-state in southern Greece 2,500 years ago, asinger called Thespis first stood on stage in the guise of a fictionalcharacter. The Greeks not only invented drama, specifically tragedy: they alsodeveloped it into a form so accomplished and powerful that it remains one ofthe most important artistic achievements of all time. This Folio Societyedition brings together all the surviving Greek tragedies by Aeschylus,Sophocles and Euripides, in the acclaimed University of Chicago translations, illustratedwith masterpieces of world art and with newly commissioned prefaces. Acornerstone of Western culture From the beginning, the Greek tragedies showed human beingsin conflict with the gods: they also dramatised conflicts between families, menand women, and individuals. It was the first time such events had been shown onstage: a momentous development. Yet there is nothing rudimentary or crude aboutthese plays: they were born, as theatre director Sir Peter Hall puts it, at ‘anextraordinary pitch of sophistication and maturity’. They have shaped theentire concept of Western tragedy as well as influencing philosophy andpsychology, art, music and literature. They are an essential part of ourcultural inheritance. Aeschylus,Sophocles and Euripides – the trinity of great tragedians Aeschylus (525–456 BC) was the first of the great Atheniantragedians. Little is known of his life except that he fought at the Battle ofMarathon, where his brother was killed. His play The Persians is the world’searliest recorded tragedy. Its subject is the defeat of the Persians in theBattle of Salamis, which had taken place less than a decade before and at whichAeschylus probably fought, but there is no triumphalism here. The Greekplaywright tells the story from the point of view of the Persians. In itsdramatic climax, the ghost of King Darius is told by his wife that his sonXerxes has led the Persian army to defeat and the audience is invited to sharehis grief and disappointment. With this play, and with works like themagnificent Oresteia, Aeschylus became the foremost playwright of Athens. ‘The gods meant nothing except to makelife hard for me,and of all cities they chose Troy to hate. In vainwe sacrificed. And yet had not the very handof God gripped and crushed this city deep in the ground,we should have disappeared in darkness, and not givena theme for music, and the songs of men to come.’ Euripides,The Trojan Women, 1240‒45 ‘I pity you, children. You have comefull of longing,but I have known the story before you told itonly too well.’ Sophocles,Oedipus the King, 57-59 According to Plutarch, in 468 BC Aeschylus was beaten tofirst place in the Dionysia tragedy competition by a newcomer, Sophocles(c.496‒406 BC), previously a soldier, politician and associate of the famousorator and statesman Pericles. Sophocles used myths that were familiar to hisaudiences, such as the stories of Electra and Antigone. This allowed him tointroduce tragic irony, a dramatic effect in which the spectators are aware ofthe truth while the characters are not – as seen in Oedipus the King,considered by Aristotle to be the ideal tragedy. Notwithstanding Sophocles’reputation for purity and perfection of form, he was also a great experimenter.His greatest hero, Ajax, dies halfway through the eponymous play; in The Wome... read more

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