ÉPUISÉ - Tragedy and Athenian Religion, 2002, 570 p., rel. -

Lectures, C. Sourvinou-Inwood's Tragedy and Athenian Religion sets out a radical reexamination of the relationship between Greek tragedy and religion. Based on a reconstruction of the context in which tragedy was generated as a ritual performance during the festival of the City Dionysia, the author shows that religious exploration had been crucial in the emergence of what developed into 5th-century Greek tragedy. A contextual analysis of the perceptions of 5th-century Athenians suggests that the ritual elements clustered in the tragedies of Euripides, Aeschylus, and Sophocles provided a framework for the exploration of religious issues, in a context perceived to be part of a polis ritual. This reassessment of Athenian tragedy is based both on a reconstruction of the Dionysia and the various stages of its development and on a deep textual analysis of fifth-century tragedians. By examining the relationship between 5th-century tragedies and performative context, this book presents a groundbreaking view of tragedy as a discourse that explored (among other topics) the problematic religious issues of the time and so ultimately strengthened Athenian religion even at a time of crisis in very complex ways - rather than, as some simpler modern readings argue, challenging and attacking religion and the gods.