Under the Sign of the Shield

Semiotics and Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes

Under the Sign of the Shield cover

Under the Sign of the Shield

Semiotics and Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes

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Description

Described as "a powerful, brilliant, and original study" when first published, this second edition of Froma Zeitlin's experiment in decoding the Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes in the light of contemporary theory now updates her explorations of the tragic struggle between Eteocles and Polyneices, the doomed sons of Oedipus, with a new preface, a new afterword, and the addition of the relevant Greek texts. The mutual self-destruction of the enemy brothers in this last act of the cursed family is preceded (and determined) by one of Aeschylus' most daring innovations through the pairing of the shields of attackers and defenders in the central scene of the play as an extended dialogue explicitly concerned with visual and verbal symbols. In a preliminary consideration of the relations between language and kinship and between city and family, between self and society, as determining forces in fifth-century drama, the heart of the book is a detailed investigation of this tour de force of semiotic energy. Zeitlin's decipherment of this provocative text yields a heightened appreciation of Aeschylus' compositional artistry and the complexity of his worldview. At the same time, this study points the way to Zeitlin's larger engagement with the special ideological role that the city of Thebes comes to play on the tragic stage as the negative counterpart to the self-representation of Athens.

Table of Contents

Chapter 0 Foreword by Greg Nagy
Chapter 2 Preface to the First Edition
Chapter 3 Preface to the Second Edition
Part 4 I Language, Structure, and the Son of Oedipus
Chapter 5 1 Trilogy: Narrative, Time, and Repetitive Form
Chapter 6 2 Genos: System of Finality/System of Language
Chapter 7 3 Mythos-Polis/Genos: Autochthony/Incest
Chapter 8 4 Hero: Structure, Sign, and Identity
Chapter 9 5 Reading the Signs by the Rules of the Game
Part 10 II The Shield Scene
Chapter 11 6 Tydeus-Melanippos: 375-416
Chapter 12 7 Kapaneus-Polyphontes: 422-451
Chapter 13 8 Eteoklos-Megareus: 457-480
Chapter 14 9 Hippomedon-Hyperbios: 486-520
Chapter 15 10 Parthenopaios-Aktor: 526-562
Chapter 16 11 Amphiaraos-Lasthenes: 568-626
Chapter 17 12 Polyneikes-Eteokles: 631-685
Chapter 18 13 Aftermath
Chapter 19 Appendix to Part II: The Opfertod Theory
Part 20 III System and Representation
Chapter 21 14 The Shield Scene as System: Relations and Patterns
Chapter 22 15 The Shield Scene as Representation: the Mise en Scene
Chapter 23 16 The Shield Scene as System: the Development of the Self
Chapter 24 Postscript: Tragic Thebes on the Athenian Stage

Product details

Published Apr 16 2009
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 198
ISBN 9780739125892
Imprint Lexington Books
Dimensions 240 x 162 mm
Series Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

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