Contents -- Preface -- A Note about References -- Part I: Toward Interpretation -- Chapter 1: A History of Euripidean Interpretation -- I. Euripides Dethroned and Rehabilitated: The First Stage -- A. Classicism and the Nineteenth-Century View of Euripides -- B. The First Scholarly Criticism -- II. The Beginnings of Modern Euripidean Criticism: New Trends and Old Methods -- A. Structural Studies and the Traditional View of Euripides -- B. English-Speaking Scholars: Kitto and After -- C. The Historicist School -- III. The More Recent Work -- A. Structural Criticism -- B. New Perspectives -- C. Euripides Rehabilitated -- D. The Last Decade: A Step Forward and a Step Back -- E. Conclusions -- Chapter 2: Euripides and His Tradition -- Chapter 3: Euripides and His Audience: The Tactics of Shock -- Chapter 4: Formalism in the Style of Euripidean Drama -- Part II: Four Plays -- Chapter 6: Hekabe: The Aesthetic of the Aischron -- I. Structure -- II. Nature and Nurture -- III. Rhetoric and Persuasion -- IV. Polyxene's Death Scene -- V. Revenge and Complementarity -- VI. Some Central Themes -- Chapter 7: Elektra: The "Low" Style -- I. Anti-traditional Aspects -- A. Realism and Comic Tone -- B. The Elektra of Sophokles -- C. The Personality of the Euripidean Elektra -- D. The Role of Elektra's Husband -- E. The Tokens -- II. Elektra and Orestes -- A. The Meeting -- B. Moral Ambiguity -- C. Aigisthos -- D. Klytaimestra -- E. The Exodos -- F. Male and Female -- Chapter 8: Herakles: Tragedy in Paradox -- I. Some Critical Problems -- II. The Design of the First Half -- A. Archaizing Style in Dialogue and Lyric -- B. Plot Structure -- III. Herakles as Modern Hero -- A. Herakles the Bowman -- B. Masculine Focus and the Role of Megara -- C. Domestic Drama -- IV. Human Strength and Human Weakness -- A. Herakles' Dual Parentage -- B. Theseus as Comforter.

C. Heroism in Paradox -- V. The Gods -- A. The Problem of Divine Agency -- B. The Fiction Erases Itself -- Chapter 9: Hippolytos: An Exceptional Play -- I. Tragic Morality -- A. The Manipulation of "Dramatic Effect" -- I. Tragic Morality -- A. The Manipulation of "Dramatic Effect" -- B. The Spoudaion and Human Feeling (To Philanthropon) -- II. The Second Hippolytos -- A. Revision -- B. Êthos -- III. Socratic Ideology -- A. Phaidra's Speech -- B. Hippolytos as Socratic Hero -- IV. The Spoudaion in Hippolytos -- A. Aristocratic Norms -- B. The Role of the Gods: Hippolytos and Other Plays -- Appendix A: Melodrama -- Appendix B: Albin Lesky and Alkestis -- Appendix C: Lyrics in Hekabe -- Appendix D: Dating, Influence, and Literary Analysis -- Reference List -- Index.