Looking at Persians

Introduction : Persians in context /David Stuttard --Persians on stage /Paul Cartledge --Athens and Persia, 472 BCE /Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones --Persians' first audience /Robert Garland --Imperial stirrings in Aeschylus' Persians /Sophie Mills --Homeric echoes on the battlefield of Persians /Laura Swift --Individual and collective in Persians /Michael Carroll --Land, sea and freedom : the force of nature in Aeschylus' Persians /Rush Rehm --The Persians love their children, too : common humanity in Persians /Alan H. Sommerstein --Atossa /Hanna Roisman --Theatrical ghosts in Persians and elsewhere /Anna Uhlig --Words and pictures /Carmel McCallum Barry --National Theatre Wales : The Persians (2010) /Mike Pearson --Persians /Aeschylus ; translated by David Stuttard.

"Aeschylus' Persians is unique in being the only extant Greek tragedy on an historical subject: Greece's victory in 480 BC over the great Persian King, Xerxes, eight years before the play was written and first performed in 472 BC. Looking at Persians examines how Aeschylus responded to such a turning point in Athenian history and how his audience may have reacted to his play. As well as considering the play's relationship with earlier lost tragedies and discussing its central themes, including war, nature and the value of human life, the volume considers how Persians may have been staged in 5th-century Athens and how it has been performed today. The 12 essays presented here are written by prominent international academics and offer insightful analyses of the play from the perspectives of performance, history and society. Intended for readers ranging from school students and undergraduates to teachers and those interested in drama (including practitioners), this volume also includes an accurate, accessible, and performance-friendly English translation of Persians by David Stuttard"

Includes bibliographical references and index.