Why does Aeschylus characterize his characters differently than Sophocles did? Why does Sophocles introduce the third actor? Why doesn't Euripides build better plots? So asks H.D.F, Kitto in his acclaimed study of Greek tragedy.
Kitto argues that, despite facing great moral and intellectual questions, the Greek playwright is above all an artist, and the key to understanding classical Greek drama is to try to decipher the tragic conception of each work. In Kitto's words, "We will ask ourselves what the playwright is trying to say, not what he actually says about this or that." Through a brilliant analysis of Aeschylus' The Orestiada, the works of Sophocles—including Antigone and Oedipus the King—and Euripides' Medea and Hecuba, Kitto deftly conveys the enduring artistic and literary splendor of Greek playwrights. In the words of fellow classicist Oliver Taplin: "Kitto was the first to approach Greek drama through its internal virtuosity and thematic form."
Edith Hall says in her Preface: "To begin with, Kitto was a talented musician and an enthusiastic cellist and his passion for music and rhythm shines through throughout his appreciation of ancient works as what would now be called 'multimedia' scores for sung and danced performances. In this he was completely ahead of his time. [Also] he was passionate about cinema, and an amateur filmmaker. But, and perhaps most importantly, Kitto always thought of ancient Greek drama in comparison and as a counterpoint to the other types of drama, rather than the Homeric epic, or Socratic philosophy, or the lyric poetry of Sappho and Anacreon. This conviction that drama deserves to be studied on its own terms meant that Kitto read not only Greek drama and the academic production around it (even though in fact he had read and assimilated everything important that had been written on the subject), but all Western drama: the medieval mysteries, Calderón and Lope de Vega, as well as Shakespeare, Corneille, Racine, Ibsen and Shaw."