Why did Aeschylus characterize differently from Sophocles? Why did Sophocles introduce the third actor? Why did Euripides not make better plots? So asks H.D.F Kitto in his acclaimed study of Greek tragedy, available for the first time in Routledge Classics.

Kitto argues that in spite of dealing with big moral and intellectual questions, the Greek dramatist is above all an artist and the key to understanding classical Greek drama is to try and understand the tragic conception of each play. In Kittos words We shall ask what the dramatist is striving to say, not what in fact he does say about this or that. Through a brilliant analysis of Aeschyluss Oresteia, the plays of Sophocles including Antigone and Oedipus Tyrannus; and Euripidess Medea and Hecuba, Kitto skilfully conveys the enduring artistic and literary brilliance of the Greek dramatists.