Helene P. Foley
American classicist specializing in ancient Greek literature, religion, and gender; professor at Barnard College (Columbia University). Known for scholarship on Greek tragedy and works such as Female Acts in Greek Tragedy and her translation/commentary on the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.
Books
This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.
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1. Ritual Irony
Poetry and Sacrifice in Euripides
A study of Euripidean tragedy that explores how sacrificial ritual shapes plot, character, and theatrical effect, highlighting the ironic gaps between ritual ideals and dramatic outcomes. Through close readings of several plays, it shows how motifs of sacrifice—especially those involving women—interrogate civic religion, family bonds, and collective identity, transforming ritual language into poetic critique. Situating the dramas within Athenian ritual practice and contemporary anthropological thought, it argues that the stage reconfigures sacrifice to expose the tensions among piety, violence, and power.
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