Cambridge University Press, 1993. Hardcover. Gray cloth covered hardcover with gilt lettering to spine in a like new dust jacket. 8vo. (6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches) Clean text free of marks or underlining. Includes a list of abbreviations, bibliography and an index. 328 pp.

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ISBN: 9780521440127

This book places the plays of Aristophanes in their contemporary context and tries to answer the question: What aspects of Greek, and especially Athenian, culture did the comedies of Aristophanes bring into play for their original audiences? It makes particular use of the structural analysis of Greek rituals and myths to demonstrate how their meanings and functions can be used to interpret the plays which are themselves shown to be constructed according to similar patterns. This information is then used to suggest ways in which twentieth-century audiences may read the plays in terms of contemporary literary theories and concerns: modern interpretation is thus grounded in ancient ways of thinking. This is the first book to apply the techniques of structural anthropology systematically to all the comedies. It differs from earlier studies in that it does not impose a single interpretative structure on the plays, either individually or as a group, but argues that each play operates with a range of different structures, and that groups of plays use similar structures in different ways.

Students and scholars of Aristophanes and of ancient Athenian society and its myths and rituals will find this work valuable to them. The plays are quoted in translation and the book is written to be accessible to readers from a variety of disciplines.

Price: $64.95