Women of Trachis: Trachiniae | Literary Criticism & Book Review

Women of Trachis: Trachiniae Critical Overview

Centuries of critical neglect have left scholars unsure of the original reception of Women of Trachis. Sophocles was the preeminent dramatist of the period in which the play was likely written, however, so the play may have been received well in the Dionysia festival. It is possible that the play was salvaged because it deals with the popular hero Heracles. After the decline of Athens, there is little or no extant critical commentary on the play until it was rediscovered and translated during the humanist movement of the Renaissance period in Western Europe (approximately 1400-1600). Criticism in English did not abound until the eighteenth century, when the play had been printed in English. At this time, literary figures, including John Dryden and Joseph Addison, appraised Sophocles and compared him to contemporary English dramatists in the so-called battle between the ancients and the moderns. Women of Trachis was infrequently singled out...
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