General Resources
- H. Roisman (ed.), Encyclopedia of Greek Tragedy, 3 vols. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014) [Review by Coo in BMCR]
- R. Scodel, Introduction to Greek Tragedy (Cambridge, 2010) [Google Books preview] [Review by Perris in BMCR]
- good, brief: especially ch. 1 defining tragedy, vs. Aristotle; chapters on individual plays: Persians, Oresteia, Antigone, Medea, Hippolytus, Oedipus the King, Helen, Orestes
- E. Hall, Greek Tragedy: Suffering under the Sun (Oxford, 2010) [Google Books preview]
- includes brief interpretive accounts of individual plays, with bibliography
- N. S. Rabinowitz, Greek Tragedy (Blackwell, 2008) [Google Books preview] [Review by J. B. Lefkowitz in BMCR]
- more detailed attention to lit crit
- J. Gregory (ed.), A Companion to Greek Tragedy, Blackwell Companions (Malden, MA, 2005) [Google Books preview] [Review by Wright in BMCR]
- P. Easterling (ed.), Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy (Cambridge, 1997) [Google Books preview] [Review by Bers in BMCR]
- R. Rehm, Greek Tragic Theatre (London, 1992) [Google Books preview] [Review by Csapo in BMCR]; 2nd ed. [Understanding Greek Tragic Theatre] (New York, 2017) [Google Books preview] [Review by Giordano in BMCR]
- J. J. Winkler and F. Zeitlin (eds.), Nothing to Do with Dionysus? (Princeton, 1989) [Google Books preview] [Review by Blundell in BMCR]
- S. Goldhill, Reading Greek Tragedy (Cambridge, 1985) [Google Books preview]
- J. M. Walton, The Greek Sense of Theatre: Tragedy Reviewed (London, 1984); 2nd ed. (1996) [Google Books preview]; 3rd ed. [The Greek Sense of Theatre: Tragedy and Comedy Reviewed] (New York, 2015) [Google Books preview]
- E. Segal (ed.), Oxford Readings in Greek Tragedy (Oxford, 1983)
- O. Taplin, Greek Tragedy in Action (London, 1978); 2nd ed. (London, 2003) [Google Books preview] [recurring treatment of Aeschylus: Agamemnon, Choephoroi, Eumenides; Sophocles: Aias, Oidipous Tyrannos, Philoktetes; Euripides: Hippolytos, Ion, Bakchai]
- H. C. Baldry, The Greek Tragic Theatre (London, 1971)
- A. Lesky, Greek Tragedy, tr. H. A. Frankfort (London, 1965)
- H. D. F. Kitto, Greek Tragedy: A Literary Study, 2nd ed. (London, 1950); 3rd ed. (London, 1961) [Google Books preview]; Routledge Classics Edition with intro by E. Hall (2011) [Google Books preview]
Themes and Analysis
- P. J. Finglass and L. Coo (eds.), Female Characters in Fragmentary Greek Tragedy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020) [Review by Weiberg in BMCR]
- B. Doerries, The Theater of War: What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Teach Us Today (New York, 2016) [Google Books preview]
- L. Swift, Greek Tragedy: Themes and Contexts (London, 2016): genre [Google Books preview] [Review by Andújar in BMCR]
- E. Allen-Hornblower, From Agent to Spectator: Witnessing the Aftermath in Ancient Greek Epic and Tragedy (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016) [Google Books preview] [Review by Ormand in BMCR]
- F. Meinel, Pollution and Crisis in Greek Tragedy (Cambridge, 2015) [Google Books preview] [Review by Widzisz in BMCR]
- P. Meineck and D. Konstan (eds.), Combat Trauma and the Ancient Greeks (New York, 2014) [Google Books preview] [Review by Steinbock in BMCR]
- P. Kyriakou, The Past in Aeschylus and Sophocles, Trends in Classics, suppl. vol. 11 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2011) [Google Books preview] [Review by Gregory in BMCR]
- N. J. Sewell-Rutter, Guilt by Descent: Moral Inheritance and Decision Making in Greek Tragedy, Oxford classical monographs (Oxford, 2007) [Google Books preview] [Review by Medda in BMCR]
- H. P. Foley, Female Acts in Greek Tragedy (Princeton, 2001) [Google Books preview] [Review by Schenker in BMCR]
- C. Rocco, Tragedy and Enlightenment: Athenian Political Thought and the Dilemmas of Modernity (Berkeley, 1997) [repr. 2021] [Google Books preview]
- N. Loraux, Tragic Ways of Killing a Woman, tr. A. Forster (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987) [Google Books preview]
- R. Lattimore, Story Patterns in Greek Tragedy (Ann Arbor, 1964)
Mask, Performance, Art
- D. Raeburn, Greek Tragedies as Plays for Performance (Wiley, 2016) [Google Books preview]
- M. Powers, Athenian Tragedy in Performance: A Guide to Contemporary Studies and Historical Debates (Iowa City, 2014) [Google Books preview] [Review by Paillard in BMCR]
- O. Taplin and R. Wyles (eds.), The Pronomos Vase and Its Context (Oxford, 2010) [Google Books preview] [Review by Seaman in BMCR]
- D. Wiles, Mask and Performance in Greek Tragedy (Cambridge, 2007) [Google Books preview]
- D. Wiles, Tragedy in Athens: Performance Space and Theatrical Meaning (Cambridge, 1997) [Google Books preview]
- T. B. L. Webster, Monuments Illustrating Tragedy and Satyr Play, 2nd ed. (London, 1967)
Treatments of Individual Plays
- Greek texts with introduction and commentary: See especially standard series published by Oxford, Cambridge, and Aris & Phillips
- Companions to Greek & Roman Tragedy [originally Duckworth, now Bloomsbury]: mostly recent, up-to-date discussion of individual plays—highly recommended
Fragments / Lost Plays
- Wright, The Lost Plays of Greek Tragedy, vol. 1: Neglected Authors (London, 2016) [Google Books preview]; vol. 2: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (London, 2018) [Google Books preview] [Review by Brown in BMCR]
- F. McHardy and J. Robson, Lost Dramas of Classical Athens: Greek Tragic Fragments (Exeter, 2005) [Review by Cropp in BMCR]
Translations
Generally, beware of the most easily available translations online. These tend to be either out of copyright, and thus very old and not recommendable for a first acquaintance, or idiosyncratic productions for private purposes. Also, beware of repackaged / reprinted / e-book versions that do not acknowledge the translator and / or date of translation — these are likely to be out of copyright and therefore very old.
[Note a particularly useful essay by Rebecca Bushnell, reviewing some of the translations frequently used in the mid-1980s and continuing to be used for a long time thereafter and having the reputation of established classics in English (the Chicago series; Kitto; Oxford’s GTNT series; Fagles; and the Fitts-Fitzgerald Oedipus Cycle): “Translations of Greek Tragedy,” Modern Language Studies 14.4 (1984): 76-81.]
Complete or Extensive Collections
- M. Lefkowitz and J. Romm (eds.), The Greek Plays: Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, Modern Library (NY, 2016) [Aeschylus: Persians, Oresteia (Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides), Prometheus Bound; Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Antigone, Electra, Oedipus at Colonus; Euripides: Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus, Electra, Trojan Women, Helen, Bacchae] [Google Books preview]
- Complete Greek Tragedies series, multiple editions and revisions, current being from 2013 (Chicago)
- Loeb Classical Library [original-language text with facing-page translation; originally a print publication, but now accessible in full online with subscription; older versions of tragedy not usually recommended but also accessible through Loebolus, Perseus, and theoi.com; newer ones are often quite good, and also include fragmentary plays]
- Greek Tragedy in New Translations (Oxford), collected and republished as The Complete Aeschylus / Sophocles / Euripides
- Cambridge Translations from Greek Drama: Aeschylus, Agamemnon; Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus, Philoctetes, Electra, Ajax; Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis, Bacchae, Hecuba, Medea, Hippolytus
- Penn Greek Drama Series
- Oxford World’s Classics
- Penguin Classics
- Methuen (Classical Greek Dramatists)
- Random House (Complete Greek Drama [older translations])
- Carl Mueller (tr.), complete plays of Aeschylus / Sophocles / Euripides [idiosyncratic]
- Ian Johnston [Johnstonia]: http://johnstoi.web.viu.ca/ [generally sound, if somewhat plain; note this review of Johnston’s translations from Homer: http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2010/2010-02-11.html ]
Smaller Collections (Multiple Playwrights)
Scholarly Study of Translations
- M. Walton, Found in Translation: Greek Drama in English (Cambridge, 2006) [includes appendix with catalogue of translations] [Google Books preview]
- Woodruff, “Justice in Translation: Rendering Ancient Greek Tragedy,” in Gregory (ed.), A Companion to Greek Tragedy [see above]
- J. Morwood, “Gilbert Murray’s Translations of Greek Tragedy,” in Gilbert Murray Reassessed: Hellenism, Theatre, and International Politics, ed. by C. Stray (Oxford, 2007) [Google Books preview]
Modern Performance and Adaptation
- S. N. Dorf, Performing Antiquity: Ancient Greek Music and Dance from Paris to Delphi, 1890-1930 (Oxford, 2019) [Google Books preview] [Review by Perrot in BMCR]
- O. Kekis, Hypertheatre: Contemporary Radical Adaptation of Greek Tragedy (Routledge, 2019) [Google Books preview]
- M. Powers, Diversifying Greek Tragedy on the Contemporary US Stage, Classical Presences (Oxford, 2018) [Google Books preview] [Review by Weiberg in BMCR]
- E. Fischer-Lichte, Tragedy’s Endurance: Performances of Greek Tragedies and Cultural Identity in Germany since 1800, Classical Presences (Oxford, 2017) [Google Books preview] [Review by Billings in BMCR]
- K. Bosher et al. (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Greek Drama in the Americas (Oxford, 2015) [Google Books preview]
- H. P. Foley, Re-Imagining Greek Tragedy on the American Stage (Berkeley, 2012) [Google Books preview] [Review by Gamel in BMCR]
Reception
- N. Worman, Virginia Woolf’s Greek Tragedy: Classical Receptions in Twentieth-Century Writing (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018) [Google Books preview] [Review by Ranger in BMCR]
- R. Garland, Surviving Greek Tragedy (London, 2004) [Review by Torrance in Classics Ireland] — on textual transmission and history of production
Nietzsche
- A. Lecznar, Dionysus after Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy in Twentieth-Century Literature and Thought, Classics after Antiquity (Cambridge, 2020) [Google Books preview] [Review by Ranger in BMCR]
Broader Perspectives on Tragedy
- R. W. Bushnell (ed.), A Companion to Tragedy, Blackwell Companions (Malden, MA, 2005) [Review by Tyrrell in BMCR]
- A. Poole, Tragedy: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2005) [Google Books preview]
Recent Scholarship
- B. Martin, Harmful Interactions between the Living and the Dead in Greek Tragedy (Liverpool, 2020) [Review by Halleran in BMCR]
- Craig Jendza, Paracomedy: Appropriations of Comedy in Greek Tragedy (Oxford, 2020) [Review by Lewis in BMCR]
- R. Seaford, Tragedy, Ritual, and Money in Ancient Greece: Selected Essays (Cambridge, 2018) [Review by Brown in BMCR]
- A. Markantonatos and E. Volonaki (eds.), Poet and Orator: A Symbiotic Relationship in Democratic Athens (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019) [Review by Bers in BMCR]
- M. Telò and M. Mueller (eds.), The Materialities of Greek Tragedy: Objects and Affect in Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (London: Bloomsbury, 2018) [Review by Nooter in BMCR]
- R, Andújar, T. R. P. Coward, and T. A. Hadjimichael (eds.), Paths of Song: The Lyric Dimension of Greek Tragedy (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018) [Review by Scodel in BMCR]
- V. Kampourelli, Space in Greek Tragedy (London, 2016)