The Chorus in Sophocles' Tragedies

This book examines Sophocles' handling of the chorus in his seven extant tragedies. This aspect of his art was chosen two reasons, first because in many of the most important books on Sophoclean drama his treatment of the chorus has not received the attention it deserves, and secondly because this traditional element in Greek Tragedy strikes modern taste as its strangest and least intelligible feature. A chapter is devoted to each play so that each chapter may be read separately in conjunction with the Greek text. Each chapter tries to define the personality and status of the chorus chosen by the dramatist, to consider their use both as singers and actors, and to trace the developments in his treatment of their role in so far as this is possible from the evidence of seven plays whose composition appears to have been spread over a period of some forty years.