Greek drama, philosophy, and mythology in classical music

Two of my loves have been ancient Greek lore and classical music. I have noticed how many classical works were based on ancient Greek topics. At the behest of one of my Greek friends I wrote an article connecting the two areas. I have been very pleased with the article, since I don't think there are any works specifically discussing this topic. The following is the beginning of the article. I hope it will whet your appetitet to follow the hyperlink at the end, which contains the entire article, including paintings and opera excerpts.

GREEK DRAMA, PHILOSOPHY AND MYTHOLOGY IN CLASSICAL MUSIC

I: SUMMARY
It is a curious fact that, while the influence of ancient (or classical) Greek accomplishment has been dealt with in Philosophy, Science, Literature, Fine Arts, and Architecture, similar influence on Music has been much less acknowledged or discussed. This, despite the fact that with the exception of the Faust and Don Juan figure, most other art archetypes have been based on the ancient Greek models. This article has been written to redress this balance. It has a 2-fold purpose: a) to indicate why the re-creation of the ancient Greek drama, mythology and philosophical thought in musical form should be of interest to the reader, whether a musician, an artist of sorts, a historian, a politician, a teacher, and especially, a Greek American, and b) to describe some of the important works well enough to serve as a guide for those who, true to Greek form, will want to keep on learning.
This article will show that far from being dead, Greek thought is still relevant and serves as a creative fertilizer to artists and musicians. Furthermore, music is universal, and as such can serve to make the original works available to people not familiar with the original. Also, great art can shed new light to great art; great musicians can illuminate aspects of the original that may have been dormant in it.
To make the treatment more tractable, I divided the works in three categories.
1: Greek Drama in Music (Oresteia, for instance), 2: Works about Greeks (Socrates, Symposium, Heraclitus, etc.) 3: Works based on Mythology or Poetry(Hercules, Ariadne, etc.). I will also include a list of the most important works and some relevant facts in the Introduction Section. Works in the first two categories will be discussed in some detail, those in the third somewhat less so. I will steer a balance between historical, musicological, and musical comments.
If I had to pick a single opera to recommend about the surviving Greek dramas, it would be Harry Partch's Revelation in the Courthouse Park, a frighteningly original musical play, a modern American version of Euripides' The Bacchae. But why stay with a single recommendation? Enesco's Oedipe is for me the most successful over-all musical rendering of a Greek drama (actually two); Richard Strauss' Elektra is the most dramatic, brutal, deservedly best known; Stravinsky's opera-oratorio, Oedipus Rex in Latin (!), the most monumental; Taneyev's Oresteia, though in Russian, is probably most conventionally operatic, easy on the ear for those not overly adventurous, at least musically. And to hear a great singer like Maria Callas (as captured in records) in Cherubini's Medea, almost two hours of beautiful, dramatic music, showing Medea's love, rage, and anger is to be endlessly thrilled, experiencing that complex, tragic character anew.
These are some of the pleasures offered to those willing to re-experience their Greek lore in music.
II: INTRODUCTION
To introduce this article with a discussion of why the ancient Greek accomplishment is still of interest would be to preach to the choir. Besides, Hanson's and Heath's book, Who Killed Homer? has carried out that task most admirably. My task is a more difficult one, to indicate why the re-creation of the ancient Greek drama, and Greek figures and thought in musical form should be of interest to the reader, whether one is a musician, an artist of sorts, a historian, a politician, a teacher, and especially, a Greek American. This can best be done by demonstrating, as the article will indicate, that far from being dead, Greek thought is still relevant and serves as a creative fertilizer to artists and musicians. Furthermore, music is universal, and as such can serve to make the original works available to people not familiar with the original. Also, great art can shed new light to great art; great musicians can illuminate aspects of the original that may have been dormant in it. Finally, it is just great fun.
It is a curious fact that, while the influence of ancient (or classical) Greekaccomplishment has been dealt with in Philosophy, Science, Literature, and Architecture, similar influence on Fine Arts and Music has been much less acknowledged or discussed. This, despite the fact that with theexception of the Faust and Don Juan figure, most other art archetypes have beenbased on the ancient Greek models. When I started writing this article, I thought I might be able to cover most important works inspired by the Greek originals. To my surprise, I have found such a vast number of such works that an exhaustive treatment became clearly impossible. In hindsight, this is not surprising, since, along with the Bible, the Greek lore has been the main source of Western artistic subjects. Early operas by Monteverdi and Cavalli in Italy, Lully, Rameau, and Charpentier in France almost exclusively used Greek subjects. In fact, to give you even a small indication of the wealth of Greek-inspired classical music, I needed to restrict the present treatment to works still in the present repertoire, from approximately 1800.
To make the treatment more tractable, I divided the works in three categories.
1: Greek Drama in Music (Oresteia, for instance), 2: Works about Greeks (Socrates, Symposium, Heraclitus, etc.) 3: Works based on Mythology or Poetry(Hercules, Ariadne, etc.).
I plan to discuss the most important works in the body of the article. However, the table at the following website:

www.paulhoffman.com/Greek/grdrmpsound.htm

gives you and indication of the vastness of musical literature inspired by the Greek lore.