David Kovacs

David Kovacs (Ph.D. Harvard, 1976) holds the Hugh H. Obear Professorship of Classics at the University of Virginia. He is an authority on the plays of Euripides and has edited and translated all of them for the Loeb Classical Library (Harvard Press, six volumes). His book-length contributions to the interpretation of Euripidean tragedy are The Andromache of Euripides: An Interpretation (Scholars Press: Chico, CA, 1980) and The Heroic Muse: Studies in the Hippolytus and Hecuba of Euripides (Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, 1987). Important articles on Euripides are:

“Shame, Pleasure, and Honor in Phaedra’s Great Speech (Euripides, Hippolytus 375-87),” American Journal of Philology 101 (1980) 287-303.
“On the Alexandros of Euripides,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 88 (1984) 47-70.
“Castor in Euripides’ Electra,” Classical Quarterly 35 (1985) 306-14.
“On Medea’s Great Monologue (Eur. Medea 1021-1080),” Classical Quarterly 36 (1986) 343-52.
“Where is Aegisthus’ Head?” Classical Philology 37 (1987) 139-41.
“Zeus in Euripides Medea,” American Journal of Philology 114 (1993) 45-70.
“A Cautionary Tale,” Transactions of the American Philological Assocation 123 (1993) 405-10.
“Gods and Men in Euripides’ Trojan Trilogy,” Colby Quarterly 33.2 (1997) 162-76.
“Towards a Reconstruction of Iphigenia Aulidensis,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 123 (2003) 77-103.
“And Baby Makes Three: Aegeus’ Wife as Mother-to-be of Theseus in Euripides’ Medea,” Classical Philology 103 (2008) 298-304.

He has written on the constitution of the text of Euripides: three volumes, entitled Euripidea, Euripidea Altera, and Euripidea Tertia (E. J. Brill: Leiden, 1994, 1996, 2004), are devoted to discussion of textual problems. The first of these also provides Greek or Latin texts, with English translations, of the major ancient notices about the life and literary career of Euripides.

Professor Kovacs has also written on (among others) Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Horace, Vergil, and Seneca.