Revenge in Attic and Later Tragedy

Modern readings of ancient Athenian drama tend to view it as a presentation of social or moral problems, as if ancient drama showed the same realism seen on the present-day stage. Such views are belied by the plays themselves, in which supremely violent actions occur in a legendary time and place distinct both from reality and from the ethics of ordinary life. Offering readings of Attic tragedy, Anne Pippin Burnett urges readers to peel away 20th-century attitudes toward vengeance and reconsider the revenge tragedies of ancient Athens in their own context. After a consideration of how our view of Elizabethan drama has obscured an accurate view of the ancient tragedies, this text reviews early Greek notions of vengeance as expressed in the “Odyssey”, Heracles’ tales, Pindar’s odes, Attic judicial processes, and the legend of Harmodius and Aristogeiton.

Author Biography

Anne Pippin Burnett is Professor of Classics, Emerita, University of Chicago. Her previous books include Catastrophe Survived: Euripides’ Plays of Mixed Reversal, Three Archaic Poets: Archilochus, Alcaeus, Sappho, and The Art of Bacchylides.