In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • The Lost Plays of Greek Tragedy. Volume 1: Neglected Authors by Matthew Wright
  • Fayah Haussker
Matthew Wright. The Lost Plays of Greek Tragedy. Volume 1: Neglected Authors. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. Pp. xxix + 277. US $34.95. ISBN 9781472567758.

Matthew Wright’s study makes a distinctive contribution to the extensively researched field of Greek tragedy by providing a comprehensive diachronic analysis of a particular category: lost playwrights and their works. Of the hundreds of plays produced in Athens from the last third of the sixth century bc to the outset of the Hellenistic period, nothing remains but meagre fragments, most in the form of maxims, proverbial expressions, and gnomic pronouncements. This material has previously received limited scholarly attention, conspicuously focused on philological examination of individual fragments and playwrights and discussions on specific topics.

Throughout the volume, Wright meticulously and cautiously endeavours to examine the neglected material, primarily within its intellectual and literary contexts, offering compelling, multifaceted (and to a great extent innovative) perspectives and interpretations of the evidence. The study presents a thorough exposition of dozens of authors, from Thespis to Astydamas the Younger, who are conventionally categorized by scholars as “minor tragedians” or inferior authors (xiii with nn. 7–8), though many were esteemed by their contemporary audiences as successful writers. Thus, Wright’s aspiration “to see tragedy through the eyes of its original audiences” (xviii) generates a more complete and accurate picture of the dynamic and manifold tragic genre by uncovering fascinating literary activity beyond the canonical three (Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides), who have until now remained dominant even in the field of fragmentary research.

The book is readable and elegantly written, divided into six chapters, with a prologue and epilogue. These are followed by four useful appendices, an exhaustive bibliography, and an index. Appendix 1 (207–243) presents English translations of previously untranslated fragments, in an order corresponding to Snell’s TrGF I,1 thus making the material accessible to an audience wider than experts in ancient Greek. [End Page 520]

In an introductory prologue (ix–xxix) that provides an outline for the book, Wright classifies the evidence (mostly literary) from the classical to Byzantine periods, presents his methodological approach, and delineates no less than 10 precepts and postulations for reading fragmentary texts, stressing that “creativity and imagination” (xxv) are essential requirements for their interpretation.

The first chapter (“The Earliest Tragedies”) treats submerged plays performed before Aeschylus’ Persians (472 bc), illustrating the gap between what was and what now remains that characterizes the materials discussed in the volume. For example, Wright presents Thespis, the genre’s legendary originator, about whom nothing certain was known even in antiquity, as well as Choerilus, to whom Suda attributed 160 plays and 13 first prizes, of which only the title of one play survives (Alope TrGF 1.2 F1). A broader discussion considers Phrynichus (17–27), whose influence on later tragedians is principally demonstrated by the interrelationship between The Phoenician Women (TrGF 1.3 F8–F12, 476 bc) and Aeschylus’ Persians, revealing the intergenerational discourse that characterized the tragic genre already at the time of its inception.

The following chapter (“Some Fifth-Century Tragedians”) traces the lost plays of the contemporaries of the triad, including two particularly attractive authors. The first is Neophron (36–45), a prolific author, who seems to have been the first to incorporate lower-class characters in this genre. The thorough discussion devoted to his Medea (TrGF 1.15 F1–F3) suggests possible innovations in Neophron’s treatment of mythical subject matter and, as regarding Euripides’ Medea, pinpoints an early instance of intertextuality between two tragedians that convincingly refutes the typical scholarly discussion of the two plays “in terms of originality versus plagiarism” (43). The second, Critias (50–58), is known more as a politician (one of the “Thirty Tyrants”) than for his diversified literary activity. In this case Wright is less concerned than other scholars about determining the authorship of the tragedies attributed to Critias; rather, he investigates the content of those plays. He argues that the topic of human civilization and the invention of religion that appears in the Sisyphus fragment (TrGF 1.43 F19) could be interpreted as the fifth...

pdf

Share