Читать книгу Greek Tragedy in the Light of Vase Paintings онлайн

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My thanks are due to Professor Otto Kern for help and encouragement while he was still at the University of Berlin. Professor Carl Robert has lent me valuable assistance, and I scarcely know whether I am more indebted to his suggestive replies to my numerous inquiries or to his writings, which latter have been a constant inspiration to me. Professor A. Furtwängler, whose profound knowledge in the field of Greek ceramics, as well as in every department of classical archaeology, is well known, has aided me by his counsel and has spared some of his valuable time to go over all the manuscript. I wish to express my indebtedness to all these eminent scholars as well as to Mr. Charles B. Newcomer, M.A., who has been kind enough to read the proof, and has favoured me with many valuable suggestions. Mrs. Huddilston, who more than any one else has followed all the work, deserves special mention; there is scarcely a page that does not bear evidence of her sound judgement.

I indulge the hope that this little book may, with all its defects (and I am well aware they are many), present much that is helpful in a field in which there is little addressed to the student of classical literature; and this brings me to remark that I have long wondered why the editions of the Greek tragedies are not enlivened more with reproductions of works of art pertaining to the myth involved. There is no reason why the student who is set to read the Choephoroi, Eumenides, Medeia, or Iphigeneia in Tauris, not to mention other plays, should look only at the literary and philological sides of the author. Is it considered unscholarly to illustrate books of this sort, or are the scholars who edit them ignorant of the archaeological apparatus? The time is coming, I firmly believe, when these two departments of classical studies will not be so divorced as they are at present, and when the monuments based upon a myth will be included in our text-books and examined quite as closely as is the text of the poet. When Greek art is thus made to supplement the study of the poetry, the latter will be invested with a still greater charm than it now possesses. More of the spirit is required and less of the letter, and this is bound to be brought about when Greek art is introduced more extensively into the instruction in Greek studies. I trust that these pages will be considered a contribution towards this manner of studying Greek tragedy, and that the plays which come in question will be read with renewed interest by all students, and reviewed with pleasure and profit by those who are instructors in classics; and again by those who in the various walks of life still have time and inclination to turn occasionally to the masterpieces of Greek letters—works that will always remain substantial parts of the world’s literary ballast.