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In Chapter Two he gives an overview students. Pages 109-118 are a treat for of the play’s plot providing literary and Classicists as Shaw argues how Cyclops character analyses including its setting may be an example of Euripides actually near Mount Etna, considering the satirising his own writing by have Cyclops BOOK limitations of the outdoor theatre of make reference to the earlier plays of the Dionysus. His analysis shows Euripides’ tetralogy (Helen, his lost Andromeda, use of Homer’s Odyssey, especially playing Iphigenia amongst the Taurians). REVIEWS with the theme of ′ανδρα from the Furthermore, he suggests how Sophocles’ proem (p.39), ′ουτις (p.41), lewd humour Philoctetes and Aristophanes’ (pp.42-43; pp.47-49), the reputation of Thesmophoriazusae in turn make gentle Helen (p.44), sophistic comments upon satiric reference to Cyclops which may have divinity (pp.51-52), issues of plot (e.g. that become a classic of Athenian drama. the Cyclops here does not block off the Food or maybe wine for thought for cave’s entrance (p.54)) and the more anyone who enjoys 5th Century Shaw (C.A.) civilised nature of Polyphemus (p.55). intertextuality. Euripides: Cyclops. A Satyr Play. This chapter would be of great help for a London and New York: Bloomsbury student writing a project upon this play, A.K.J. Carroll, Saint Olave’s Grammar Academic, 2018. £18.99. having read it in translation. School, Kent ISBN 978-1474245807 Chapters 3 and 4 are more advanced, accessible and fascinating. Shaw challenges the idea that drama was ‘nothing to do with Dionysus’ showing Finglass (P.J.) that this play is all about him. Indeed, he shows how Satyr drama was very self- Sophocles: Oedipus the King. conscious and metatheatrical: ‘Each year, (Cambridge Classical Texts and there were tragedies and comedies at the Commentaries 57). Cambridge: festival, but the choruses of these genres Cambridge University Press. 2018. continually changed. No matter what Cased. £135. ISBN 978-1-108-41951-2 myth was presented in a satyr play, though, there was (almost) always a chorus of satyrs’ (p.69). Thus, satyr drama is very self-referential, working under the aegis of ‘take myth, add satyrs, observe result’; therefore Cyclops gives us a way into understanding the Athenian understanding of Dionysiac religion. Pages 75-85 provide an interesting discussion of xenia, barbarians, philosophy and links the play with the Sicilian disaster. Sections of this would be good for students studying A-Level Classical Civilisation and Ancient History, Professor Shaw has produced an account if they wanted to add a novel ancient which is not only enjoyable to read, but source to their arsenal. Chapter 4 goes a also gives keen insights into Euripides’ step wider and discusses Alcestis’ and play and Greek theatre in general. His Cyclops’ links with the Decree of sections upon the Dionysia (pp.1-3) and Morychides (440-436), outlawing the satyrs (pp.3-20) are suitable for teachers direct and personal mocking attacks and sixth form students alike. In addition which were a vital feature of Old Comedy. to this his discussion of Cyclops’ position The discussion of this decree is brilliant In the newest version of Sophocles’ OT within the context of 5th Century for any A-Level teacher of Classical since Dawe’s 2006 revision of his Athenian culture and history provides comedy. Shaw concludes that Cyclops was Cambridge ‘green and yellow’ text, fascinating reading for any Classicist with meant to be the best satyr play of all time, Professor Finglass offers the first editio an interest for the period, especially being self-referential in the extreme. He maior in any language since Jebb’s in 1883. literary history. Throughout, black and continues to show how this is our earliest, Comprised of a new text and apparatus white images of vases are provided as contemporary commentary upon — the author counting 56 substantive useful evidence and the book itself is a Homer’s Cyclops myth (useful again for differences between his text and Lloyd- fine object, well-bound in hardback with a Classical Civilisation, pp.97-102) and the Jones and Wilson’s revised Oxford clear font, wide margins, nice paper; it Homeric Hymn to Dionysus (pp.102-104). Classical Text — this sizable volume looks good on the shelf. These would need careful distilling for offers nearly 100 pages of introduction The Journal of Classics Teaching 20 (39) p.117-133 © The Classical Association 2019. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction Downloaded infrom any https://www.cambridge.org/core medium, provided the original. IP work address: is properly 170.106.202.8 cited., on 25 Sep 2021 at 22:58:31, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at 117 https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2058631019000242 and some 450 pages of commentary. weary eyes: where Jebb experimented paperback — or perhaps, to take Jebb’s Time will be the best judge of Professor with various layouts in his editions of tradition further still, an abridged edition Finglass’ emendation of a corrupt Sophocles, with notes (in English) for schools? manuscript tradition (if not Finglass beneath his Greek text and a Loeb-style himself: his predecessors Lloyd-Jones and translation opposite, F. opts for a Peter Olive, Royal Holloway, Wilson have revised their OCT once, and compromise that will keep purists happy University of London, Westminster Dawe edited the text five times); this without forgetting those of us grateful for Tutors, London SW7 review will focus on the didactic qualities a little help: leaving only an apparatus and accessibility of what may well be a beneath an unadorned Greek text, landmark edition. Professor Finglass fully reprints and Murnaghan (S.) (ed., trans.) Following his editions of Electra translates all Greek lemmata in the (2007) and Ajax (2013) Professor Finglass commentary, enabling less confident Medea New York; London: W. W. treads carefully in the footsteps of Hellenists — or even, feasibly, those with Norton & Company 2018. £7.95. Richard Claverhouse Jebb, who published no Greek at all — to make the most of ISBN: 9780-393265-453. editions of these plays in the same this edition. This simple measure enables sequence. Published between 1883-96, the reader to savour the commentary, Jebb’s editions of Sophocles are among uninterrupted by the flicking back and few works of 19th century scholarship forth required by Cambridge ‘green and that retain currency in the 21st. In the yellows’ and Bristol Classical texts. I path of such a grandee, it is not only commend the book in particular for its Finglass’ phenomenal knowledge of the remarkably thorough indices (of Greek play’s exegetic tradition that will ensure words, and of subjects). this edition’s legacy, but his consideration F. has come under fire from for the varied requirements of today’s reviewers in the past for not dwelling readership. more on reception — albeit hardly the From the introduction, Finglass’ primary task of an editor of Sophocles’ spare and lucid prose is a treat to read, Greek — and for those interested in and there is much to appeal to teachers of performance, he points readers in the Classical Civilisation, instructors in Greek direction of Macintosh’s brilliant Oedipus language and the dramaturgically Tyrannus (2009). For those whose inclined — as well, of course, as those definition of reception includes the whose interest in Greek is primarily history of scholarship however, F. comes philological. In an impressively thorough into his own, opening up an intellectual introduction, F. takes us on a guided tour history that can often feel impenetrable. of the Oedipus myth’s transformations in As Steiner observed in his Antigones (1984, antiquity (13-40), pauses to situate OT 216) commentary can be ‘latent with amid subgenres of tragedy (40-82), and unendingness. The breeding of exegesis poses pertinent questions arising from out of previous exegesis is menacing in so very recent discourse, such as Edith Hall’s far as it occludes the primary text.’ Far This book is a part of the series Norton blog post about OT and vase painting from adding to the exegetic pileup, Critical Editions which aims to present (85). There are some thoughtful Professor Finglass’ selective approach students with some of the ‘great’ works inclusions about the play in performance, does much to demystify and declutter a of literature from across the canon. It such as a table of role division (11) and vast canon of critical heritage. The seeks to be a translation based on current great attention is paid to entrances, exits omission of the Paris school from the scholarship while giving some wider and other matters of production bibliography will disappoint fans of context to the play. Murnaghan has a throughout. structuralism, but such matters of good pedigree as Professor of Greek at Like Jebb, F. has kept the use of Latin preference aside, generations to come will the University of Pennsylvania and indeed to a minimum; textual abbreviations and no doubt be grateful for such a concise, is currently working on a ‘Green and sigla are generally confined to the inclusive, thoughtfully written Yellow’ edition of Sophocles’ Ajax. But apparatus, enabling the reader of the commentary. what can another translation into English commentary to concentrate on the Greek The only less fortunate similarity to bring? itself. Matters of textual criticism are Jebb’s editions of Sophocles — whose Murnaghan’s translation itself is explained with remarkably little jargon in cost A.E. Housman once lamented — based on Mastronarde’s text in the ‘Green the commentary, which is neatly divided is the price-tag: not yet available in and Yellow’ series.