"Sophocles and the Language of Tragedy" by Simon Goldhill, Oxford University Press 2012

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Ancient Greek tragedy recreated throughout the modern world has captured audiences repeatedly. Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides works survived intact to be studied by a multitude of scholars over the years. Sophocles was one of the great Ancient Greek Tragedians who has been examined by scholars. Simon Goldhill’s Sophocles and the Language of Tragedy does not just add to the abundance of monographs written about Sophocles, it stands in the upper echelon of scholarly work on tragedy by one of the foremost experts.

Simon Goldhill is part of the Classics department at Cambridge University, where he is the Director of Studies in Classics at Kings College. Dr. Goldhill’s work is part of Oxford University Press’ Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture. The Onassis Foundation sponsors the Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture by  Oxford University Press. The Onassis Foundation helps spread knowledge through the United States and Canada about Hellenic culture.

Dr. Goldhill’s work is a must read for any interested party yearning to learn about Ancient Greek Tragedy or anyone interested in classical literature criticism. Sophocles and the Language of Tragedy divides its contents into two distinct sections, Tragic Language and The Language of Tragedy. In the first section, the author dissects the different aspects of Greek Tragedy including irony and chorus. Dr. Goldhill explores Sophocles’ works by illustrating each different aspect he covers with specific examples, albeit it difficult to understand his examples, at times, without the actual text of Sophocles at hand. The author creates small examples from each work he cites making the complex tragedy ideas easier to understand for the non-classical studies expert marginalizes the aforementioned difficulty to a degree. Section one of Sophocles and the Language of Tragedy bring understanding of the characteristics in Greek Tragedy, which leads into Goldhill’s second Section Language of Tragedy.

At first, the section titled Language of Tragedy looks to be a section dissecting the actual language of tragedy, but this section is actually, much more than just an analysis of language used in Sophocles’ work. Goldhill’s uses this section to analyze the language of tragedians while shedding light on contemporary presentations of Sopchocles. This section makes Goldhill’s monograph not only an interesting in-depth look at Sophocles, but also a present day illustration of contemporary presentations of Greek Tragedy.

Though Goldhill’s work can be dense at times, the overall presentation of the work helps bring Greek Tragedy alive. One problem with this work is that the general reader whom opens the book will not know Greek Tragedy, which is why one should keep a copy of Sophocles work handy while exploring the book. Having the primary source readily available will help illuminate and clearly understand the more complex ideas Goldhill examines in his monograph.  At fewer than three hundred pages, Sophocles and the Language of Tragedy illustrates the beauty of Greek Tragedy, from a foremost expert, in a non-daunting tome. Sophocles and the Language of Tragedy is a necessary read for anyone interested in Ancient Greek Literature, Classical Studies or Literary Criticism.

Grade B+