Works Cited and Further Works Suggested
The bibliography on Greek tragedy, Euripides, and the Alcestis is vast. Items below are cited by name in this work and/or are particularly useful and accessible. An asterisk indicates that the work contains a treatment of Alcestis, if not already evident from the title. What follows should not be construed as anything more than a starting place for further exploration.
Greek Theater and Production
Csapo, E. and Slater, W., eds. The Context of Ancient Drama (Ann Arbor, Michigan 1995)
Gould, J. “Tragedy in Performance” in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, vol. 1 Greek Literature, eds. P. Easterling and B. Knox (Cambridge 1985) 263-8.
Mueller, M. Objects as Actors: Props and the Poetics of Performance in Greek Tragedy (Chicago 2016)
Pickard-Cambridge A. W. The Dramatic Festivals of Athens, 2nd ed., rev. by J. Gould and D. M. Lewis (Oxford 1968)
[comprehensive and scholarly treatment of the festivals at which the tragedies were performed]
Pickard-Cambridge, A. W. The Theater of Dionysus in Athens (Oxford 1946)
[scholarly, if at times dated, discussion of the physical theater]
Taplin, O. The Art of Aeschylus: Entrances and Exits in Greek Tragedy (Oxford 1977)
[the closest we have to a one-volume “grammar of dramatic technique” for Greek tragedy, not a narrow treatment, despite the title]
Taplin, O. Greek Tragedy in Action (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1978)
Wiles, D. Tragedy in Athens: Performance Space and Theatrical Meaning (Cambridge 1997)
Euripides and Tragedy (General)
Burnett, A. P. Catastrophe Survived: Euripides’ Plays of Mixed Reversal (Oxford 1971)*
Conacher, D. J. Euripidean Drama: Myth, Theme and Structure (Toronto 1967)*
Foley, H. P. Female Acts in Greek Tragedy (Princeton 2001)*
Gregory, J., ed. A Companion to Greek Tragedy (Wiley-Blackwell 2008)
[essays on varied aspects of Greek tragedy]
Halleran, M. R. Stagecraft in Euripides (London 1985)
Jones, J. Aristotle on Greek Tragedy (Oxford 1962)
Lefkowitz, M. The Lives of the Greek Poets (Baltimore 1981)
Lesky, A. Greek Tragic Poetry, trans. M. Dillon (New Haven 1983)
[thorough survey of the genre and the plays]
Markantonatos, A. Brill’s Companion to Euripides, 2 vols. (Leiden and Boston 2020)*
[articles on each play and diverse themes and topics]
Mastronarde, D. J. The Art of Euripides: Dramatic Technique and Social Context (Cambridge 2010)
[most comprehensive one-volume treatment of the playwright]
Michelini, A. Euripides and the Tragic Tradition (Madison, Wisconsin 1987)
Rehm, R. Marriage to Death: The Conflation of Wedding and Funeral Rituals in Greek Tragedy (Princeton 1994)*
Segal, C. P. Euripides and the Poetics of Sorrow: Art, Gender and Commemoration in Alcestis, Hippolytus and Hecuba (Durham, N. C. and London 1993)*
Wohl, V. Intimate Commerce: Exchange, Gender, and Subjectivity in Greek Tragedy (Austin, 1998)*
Alcestis (including texts and commentaries)
Burnett, A. P. “The Virtues of Admetus,” Classical Philology 60 (1965) 240-55.
Buxton, R. “Euripides’ Alkestis: Five Aspects of an Interpretation,” in his Myths and Tragedies in the Ancient Greek Contexts (Oxford 2013), 201-17.
Castellani, V. “Notes on the Structure of Euripides’ Alcestis,” American Journal of Philology 100 (1979) 487-96.
Dale, A. M. Euripides: Alcestis (Oxford 1954)
[based on the Greek text but with value also to those with no knowledge of Greek]
Diggle, J. Euripidis Fabulae, vol. 1 (Oxford 1984)
Dyson, M. “Alcestis’ Children and the Character of Admetus,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 108 (1988) 13-23.
Garner, R. “Death and Victory in Euripides’ Alcestis,” Classical Antiquity 7 (1988) 58-71.
Goldfarb, B. “The Conflict of Obligations in Euripides’ Alcestis,” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 33 (1992) 109-26.
Gregory, J. Euripides and the Instruction of the Athenians (Ann Arbor, Michigan 1997)*
Halleran, M. R. “Text and Ceremony at the Close of Euripides’ Alkestis,” Eranos 86 (1988) 123-9.
Marshall, C. “Alcestis and the Problem of Prosatryic Drama,” Classical Journal 95 (2000) 229-38.
Murnaghan, S. “The Survivors’ Song: The Drama of Mourning in Euripides’ “Alcestis”,” Illinois Classical Studies 24-5 (1999-2000) 107-16.
Padilla, M. “Gifts of Humiliation: Charis and the Tragic Experience in Alcestis,” American Journal of Philology 121 (2000) 179-211.
Parker, L. P. E. Euripides: Alcestis (Oxford 2007).
[thorough commentary based on the Greek text, but valuable also for those without knowledge of Greek]
Slater, N. Euripides: Alcestis (London and New York 2013).
[survey of the play and key themes; a useful introduction]
Wilson, John R., ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Euripides’ Alcestis (Englewood Cliffs, N. J. 1968)
[collected essays by various scholars]
