It's an ancient trope

[kelidong]

<-----Question has been given its own thread by moderator (Florentia52)----->

From "Interesting Facts," by Adam Johnson in Harper's Magazine:

Interesting fact: In the TV movies, a ghost mom's job is to help her husband find a suitable replacement. It's an ancient trope—see Herodotus, Euripides and Virgil. For recent examples, consult CBS's A Gifted Man, NBC's Awake, and Safe Haven, now in heavy rotation on TCM.

It's an ancient trope—see Herodotus, Euripides and Virgil. ——what does it sentence mean?

 

[velisarius]

"Trope" in this context means "plot device".

Here you can see a list of drama tropes -- plot devices that recur in TV series and plays:
Drama Tropes - TV Tropes

In the Harper's story, the narrator says that the theme of the dead mother who returns as a ghost, just to help her husband find a suitable replacement wife, is a very old theme. She says it's so old that it has even been used in antiquity by Herodotus, etc.

 

[Juhasz]

I agree entirely with velisarius. More explicitly, "see Herodotus, Euripides and Virgil" means consider the works of Herodotus, Euripides and Virgil for examples.