Trachiniae - Tapa dura

'The discussion of individual passages is often excellent ... Davies's impressive grasp of bibliography makes this book a valuable reference work. No reader of the Trachiniae ... will leave this work without gratitude for its broad reading and deep scholarship.'E. Christian Kopff, University of Colorado, Boulder, American Journal of Philology 114 (1993)

'a thorough, rigorous piece of hard-headed philology ... To read even a few pages of Davies is an excellent sharpening of one's senses on the details of Sophocles' Greek ... Davies' thoroughness, incisiveness, and well-arranged learning make his commentary indispensable for serious research on the play and a real education in poetic Greek. And readers who follow another commentary should consult Davies now and then if they think they know it all.'Philip Holt, University of Wyoming, The Classical Outlook, Summer 1993

'Davies' documentary offers valuable scholarly resource to those working on the Trachiniae ... The commentary also offers many valuable observations on grammatical, stylistic, and rhetorical issues, with much useful citation of relevant bibliography.Thomas K. Hubbard, University of Texas, Classical World

Davies' commentary is an important work of scholarship, whose genesis in a series of Oxford textual criticism seminars has given iti its particular savour...There is an impressive display of scholarly acuity in this book...its tsrngth is the high degree of nuance it brings to the discussion of textual prblems (The Journal of Hellenic Studies 113)

Sophocles' Trachiniae (`Women of Trachis') is named after the chorus of this tragedy which is concerned with the innocent and ill-fated attempt of Deianeira to win back her husband Heracles after he has sacked the city of Oechalia and fallen in love with the daughter of the defeated king.

Over the years, the play has suffered sustained criticism because of the difficulties it presents of reconciling the plot, language, and characterization with Sophocles' other works. Recently, however, much work has been done to achieve a better understanding of the play in isolation and to increase modern regard for it.

In a thought-provoking introduction, Dr Davies discusses the merits of the play, the question of its unity, its treatment of the hero Heracles, the story's pre-sophoclean tradition, and the evidence of contemporary art. In the commentary itself he discusses textual problems that arise from a frequently corrupt and uncertain text, as well as wider issues of interpretation. the text which is reproduced and presupposed in the commentary is the recently established Oxford Classical Text of Lloyd-Jones and Wilson