The Language of Sophocles

Book excerpt: This book is a wide-ranging study of the language of the tragedian Sophocles. From a detailed analysis of sentence-structure in the first chapter, it moves on to discuss how language shapes the perception of characters, of myths, of gods and of choruses. All chapters are united by a shared concern: how does Sophoclean language engage readers and spectators? Although the book focuses on the original Greek, translations make it accessible to anybody interested in Greek tragedy.