Heraclidae

"Heraclidae" is one of Euripides' "alphabetical" plays, preserved exclusively in a Laurentian manuscript, and therefore not selected in antiquity.

Neither in modern times, despite commentaries of Elmsley (1821) and Pearson (1907), and articles by Wilamowitz, has the play been given the prominence it deserves.

This edition interprets the play in a wide cultural setting, considering unorthodox aspects of the structure of the drama, but placing particular emphasis on the cults and myths of Heracles in Attica, on his apotheosis and marriage, on his association with the young, and most of all, on the two most striking rituals in the play - the voluntary self-sacrifice of the daughter of Heracles, and the conversion of Eurystheus from an enemy of Athens to a hero whose dead body will protect the city-state.

The book comprises the Greek text (matching that of the Oxford classical text by James Diggle, 1984), together with an introduction and commentary.