Helping Friends and Harming Enemies: A Study in Sophocles and Greek Ethics

This book is the first detailed study of the plays of Sophocles through examination of a single ethical principle. Sophocles has traditionally been considered the least philosophical of the three great Greek tragedians, but Professor Whitlock Blundell offers an important new examination of the ethical content of the plays by focusing primarily on the traditional Greek popular moral code of ‘helping friends and harming enemies’. Five of the extant plays are discussed in detail both from a dramatic and an ethical standpoint, and the author concludes that ethical themes are not only integral to each drama, but are subjected to an implicit critique through the tragical consequences to which they give rise. Greek scholars and students of Greek drama and Greek thought will welcome this book, which is presented in such a way as to be accessible to specialists and non-specialists alike. No knowledge of Greek is required.

• Frequently recommended to students, who have to queue for the library copy • Oliver Taplin in The Times Literary Supplement said: ‘ … all who take Sophocles seriously will have to take this book on board’ • The investigation of Greek literature and ethics is a popular subject at the moment - cf. Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness

Preface; Glossary of Greek words; 1. Introduction; 2. Helping friends and harming enemies; 3. Ajax; 4. Antigone; 5. Electra; 6. Philoctetes; 7. Oedipus at Colonus; 8. Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.