Ever since its 1905 premiere on the London stage, Bernard Shaw's controversial drama Major Barbara has proved puzzling to audiences and critics alike. More than a century later there is still wide critical disagreement about the play's meaning and the ideas it engenders. Sidney Albert's ground-breaking new book provides a daring and novel reading of this work. By tracing the extensive connections between Shaw's play and two canonical ancient Greek texts--Plato's Republic and Euripides's Bacchae--Albert reveals deeper dimensions of the work.