Greek Tragedy and the Historian by Christopher Pelling

Tragedy was central to the experience of being a fifth-century Athenian citizen. Tragedy explored fundamental issues of religion, of ethics, of civic ideology, and we should expect it to be a central source for the reconstruction and analysis of the Athenian thought and world. This collection of eleven papers investigates the methods and pitfalls of using tragedy to illuminate fifth-century thought, culture, and society.