Myths and Tragedies in their Ancient Greek Contexts

Review\n"Each of Buxton's articles deserves wide readership, but so does the book. Each of the chapters can be read alone. Each will inform, challenge, and promote fruitful reflection. ... Buxton's compilation benefits from being read as a whole. As one might, expect the book begs as many questions as it answers, but it certainly helps us to frame our responses and gives us the opportunity to think productively about myth, literature and society and our responses to them." -- Simon Tremewan, Classics for All\nThis work brings together eleven of Richard Buxton's studies of Greek mythology and Greek tragedy, focusing especially on the interrelationship between the two, and their importance to the Greeks themselves.\nSituating and contextualizing topics and themes, such as mountains, (were)wolves, mythological names, movement/stillness, blindness, and feminization, within the world of ancient Greece - its landscapes, social and moral priorities, and mental structures - he traces the intricate variations and retellings which they underwent in Greek antiquity. Although each chapter has appeared in print in some form before, each has been thoroughly revised for the present book, taking into account recent research. The introduction sets out the principles and objectives which underlie Buxton's approach to Greek myths, and how he sees his own method in relation to those of his predecessors and contemporaries.