A while ago, I blogged on the importance of recognising the political aspects of Greek tragedy, of not just viewing the plays as family melodramas but understanding the specific political circumstances each play addresses. I gave a few examples of how our understanding of individual Greek plays can be enriched by making connections between the text and contemporary political events. Well, I've just stumbled across another excellent example of this, an example I particularly like (not least because...

It can be tempting to view the Greek tragedies as simply domestic melodramas, ancient "soap operas" dealing with wives who hate their husbands and children who murder their parents. This is certainly one aspect of Athenian tragic drama (Aristotle recommended that tragedies should deal with family relationships, since they are the closest and therefore the most potentially 'tragic' relationships we experience), but it is often overlooked that these plays were public, civic performances,...