Euripidean Polemic: The Trojan Women and the Function of Tragedy

The book offers an interpretation of Euripides’ The Trojan Women that issues from the argument that the function of Greek tragedy was to educate. The author demonstrates that the play performs its function by examining Athenian ideology. By making the didactic function of tragedy the basis of his interpretation, N.T. Croally is able to offer a coherent view on a number of long-standing problems in Euripidean criticism, such as the relation of Euripides to the Sophists.