Throughout his career the Austrian dramatist Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929) turned repeatedly to Greek myth for his material. This book sets out to uncover his reasons for doing so. The results provide not only new insights into his work but a case-study in the reception of the Classics in fin-de-siecle Vienna. Ranging widely over Hofmannsthal’s achievements in drama, opera and the dance, this study is the first to provide a solid context for his ‘Greek’ works, both in the intellectual debates of his time - on such issues as psychoanalysis, feminism and the ‘crisis of language’ - and in contemporary performance practice.