Theseus, Tragedy and the Athenian Empire

by Sophie Mills

This book traces the development of the Theseus myth and its importance for Athens. Mills examines all extant tragedies in which Theseus appear in order to assess the significance of his role as mythological representative of Athenian greatness. She argues that the Theseus of most Athenian tragedy is carefully drawn to exemplify the idealized image of the Athenian "national character" that was prevalent in the age of the empire.

Hardcover

First published February 12, 1998

About the author

Sophie Mills is Professor of Classics at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, where she has taught for 25 years. She was educated at Oxford University and arrived at UNC Asheville in 1994. Since then, she has written four books and many articles on Greek literature (though briefly deviated into children's literature with her article "Pig in the Middle") but also spends significant time in the classroom, teaching everything from beginners' Latin to Greek Prose Composition. A particular interest of hers could be called applied Ancient Greek: creating with her students performance translations of tragedies geared to non-specialist audiences. So far we have versions of the Oresteia (abridged, 2012), Philoctetes (2014), Bacchae (2016), Medea (2017) and Antigone (2020), all available on request from her. When not teaching or writing, she is a home-brewer, second alto, and cat and pig lover. She lives with her spouse Amy Joy Lanou in Asheville, NC and welcomes correspondence (smills@unca.edu).