"The Ancient Greeks brought democracy and tragedy into the world at the same moment, creating theatre as a maintenance system for a new form of shared governance. In this summit of his immense and distinguished life's work, Oliver Taplin takes us deftly into the heart of tragedy with light, air, grace and the possibility that the lessons of tragedy might actually deepen our fragile, endangered democratic practice." --Peter Sellars, theatre director " Tragedy is a thrilling provocation for classicists and theatre-makers alike, an invitation to revisit our most basic assumptions and to reanimate our current practices by understanding the radical 'revolution' that was Greek tragedy. As I followed Taplin's lively and compelling argument, I found myself engaging with these ancient plays as if for the first time. I'm sure I will never direct a Greek tragedy the same way again!" --Carey Perloff, theatre director, playwright, and book author "To this day, Greek tragedy remains fascinating to readers and theatregoers throughout the world. No other living scholar has done more than Oliver Taplin to deepen our understanding of these plays. His new book draws on a lifetime of experience to answer the most fundamental questions they pose for readers and audiences who are interested in the life of tragedies and the tragedies of life." --Glenn W.

Most, University of Chicago "Taplin expertly combines an introduction to early tragedy with a profound meditation on tragedy's purposes and effects. Above all, he overturns the established view that tragedy served male Athenian citizens as a vehicle of self-definition and self-celebration at the expense of the 'other.' On the contrary, he shows that tragedy nurtured fellow feeling for others, helping instill the moral breadth that made democratic coexistence possible." --Eric Csapo, University of Warwick "After a long career of interpreting, translating and analyzing Greek tragedy, Oliver Taplin turns in this new book to provocatively reexamining for a general audience the controversial evidence for its early performance and its developing relation to Athenian democracy." --Helene P. Foley, Columbia University.