Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not worth the time to download.
The arguments of the plays are here, but not the plays. There are broken links, supposedly to play sections, but who knows since the plays themselves are not contained in this "trilogy"? I'm just glad it was free. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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No line breaks
Because the line breaks of the original verse have been lost, this edition is extremely hard to read. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Review of Grene's Translation of Sophocles
I cannot compare Grene's translation with the original, as I have never read it, but, as an independent entity, Grene's work is masterful. The prose, especially in Oedipus Rex, is well-paced and dramatic. Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone, perhaps appropriately, fawn in comparison, but are nevertheless well-wrought and engaging.

This book, as, I'm assuming, all works in the Lattimore-Greene collection, lacks the in text resources to carry the laymen along. One must have an acute knowledge of Greek mythology to catch all the references, as there are no helpful footnotes or endnotes. The introductions to this text are of lesser quality than Lattimore's introduction to the Orestia.

A Comment on Sophocles' Antigone
I generally do not review classics, because I find it impossible to adequately review a genuine classic with the necessary brevity.However, I plan on giving my opinion at some point on books with conflicting Amazon reviews, and it occured to me that readers ought to have a touchstone by which to assess my credibility.There are two types of books which a wide swath of readers may be presumed to have read and so may function as touchstones: popular bestsellers and classics.I made a choice from the latter category.

I note at the outset that, as my title indicates, this is *NOT* a review of Sophocles' Theban triology.It is not even a review of Antigone in its entirety.That review awaits someone with greater insight and eloquence than me to write it.I post this review on this page b/c this is the translation I used.

It is often said that the drama of Antigone consists in the conflict of divine law against human law, or, put in contemporary terms, of natural law against positive law.I believe that interpretation is mistaken.To hold to that interpretation is to see the dispute as Antigone sees it and not as Creon sees it.For various historical reasons, Creon's position no longer seems as plausible to us as it did to Sophocles' audience.It must suffice to mention only one reason here: the divine foundation of the city has lost its self-evidence for us."We must not lose sight of the fact that, among the ancients, what formed the bond of every society was a worship ... the city was the collective group of those who had the same protecting deities" (Fustel de Coulanges, The Ancient City).

Creon is not a positivist b/c he does not claim that the law is simply whatever he says it is; he is not Louis XIV.The first words we hear from him eulogize the gods as the guardians of the city (lines 179-81).His basic claim is that in proving traitor to his city Polyneices also proved traitor to the city's gods, and it is not proper that the enemy of the gods be granted burial rites (lines 217-29).When Creon learns that the corpse has been buried against his decree and the Chorus asks if this might be the work of the gods, Creon retorts that it is impossible that the gods could show such consideration for one of their enemies (lines 312-20).Creon, then, is not less pious than Antigone, but his piety is essentially political whereas Antigone's is not.Antigone, of course, sees herself as obeying divine law, and Creon's decree as violative of that law.But to understand the play Antigone, one must understand more than the character Antigone; one must understand the playwrite Sophocles.

Given the contemporary manner of highlighting the basic conflict of the play, I believe one gets closer to the heart of Antigone (the play) if one shifts the focus away from the conflict b/t Creon and Antigone, toward their shared agreement.They share a passionate concern to obey the gods' wills, i.e., divine law.Creon's arguments for the priority of the city anticipate Aristotle's beginning to the Politics: the whole is prior to the part and so the city is prior to both the household and each individual.They are both fighting to do what each perceives to be his or her duty; for both of them, their understanding of who they are is intimately bound up with their understanding of the divine prescriptions.In short, they both, in different ways of course, accept the judgment formulated by Aristotle: "For just as man is the best of the animals when completed, when separated from law and adjudication he is the worst of all."The problem of Antigone, if I had to state it in one sentence, then boils down to the question, What does the law require?

A GREAT greak dramatist but equal to the others
Sophocles is really one of the Greatest dramatists of all time, but equal to the others since he doesn't have the psychological penetration of Euripides

Translations
Researching translations is never an easy task, and in this case, where you'll have to search on Amazon for the title and the translator to find what you want, it's particularly difficult.

Here's what I've found by comparing several editions:

1.David Grene translation: Seems to be accurate, yet not unwieldy as such.My pick.Language is used precisely, but not to the point where it's barely in English.

2.Fitts/Fitzgerald translation: Excellent as well, though a little less smooth than the Grene one.Certainly not a bad pick.

3.Fagles translation: Beautiful.Not accurate.If you are looking for the smoothest English version, there's no doubt that this is it.That said, because he is looser with the translation, some ideas might be lost.For instance, in Antigone, in the beginning, Antigone discusses how law compels her to bury her brother despite Creon's edict.In Fagles, the "law" concept is lost in "military honors" when discussing the burial of Eteocles.This whole notion of obeying positive law or natural law is very important, but you wouldn't know it from Fagles.In Grene, for example, it is translated to "lawful rites."

4.Gibbons and Segal: Looks great, but right now the book has only Antigone (and not the rest of the trilogy) and costs almost 3x as much.I'll pass.But, from a cursory review, I'm impressed with their work.

5.MacDonald: This edition received some good write-ups, but I wasn't able to do a direct passage-to-passage comparison.

6.Woodruff: NO, NO, NO.Just NO.It's so colloquial it makes me gag.Very accessible, but the modernization of the language is just so extreme as to make it almost laughable.You don't get any sense of the power of language in the play.You just get the story.If you want this to be an easy read, then get Fagles, not this.

7.Kitto: Looks good, though not particularly compelling over either Grene or Fitzgerald (or Gibbons if I wanted to pay so much more).

8.Roche: Practically unreadable the English is so convoluted.Might be the most literal translation, but what's the point unless you are learning Greek and want such a direct translation.

9.Taylor: Way too wordy.Might be more literal, but again, why?

Hope this all helps.Translations can make or break the accessibility of literature.Pick wisely.

Unalterable Course
I read the story of Oedipus in high school and several times since.While I find the twists of the story, especially the riddle of the Sphinx fascinating.(A very original puzzle.) I also found it a litte disturbing.I've never cared for the idea that a person's destiny is fixed and unavoidable.
The fact that the steps Oedipus took to foil the prophecy, actually placed him on the direct path to fulfilling it was scary.It makes one wonder:Do we really have control over our lives, or are we, as Shakespear put it, actors in someone's grand play?
It is a very sad and tragic story. Oedipus was hopelessly caught in a terrible snare.Definitely NOT upbeat.However,in my opinion, any story that can create positive thought and conversation on the inner workings of life is worth reading. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (20)

As Described
The book arrived within the window of time expected; however, I would like to have received it sooner (but that was my own fault for not requesting a faster method of shipping and for optimistically thinking it would arrive on the earliest possible date in the window of time given).The cover required an immediate, quick tape job, as it was beginning to tear away from the book, but overall, the book was in the condition expected, based on the description given.It is clearly an older copy, but certainly usable.

The Oedipus Plays-Fagles Translation
As I've gotten older I've decided to add some culture into my life by reading some of the classics that I either read many years ago or haven't read at all.I had read Oedipus the King but neither of the other plays that are part of the "trilogy."

As a Christmas gift I actually received two different copies-The Grene translation and the Fagles translation.I ultimately chose the Fagles translation for a couple of reasons:

1. I liked the translation better.I've also read Fagles' Homer translations and thought they were excellent to read.I'm not a Greek scholar so I can't comment on how close the translation is to Sophocles' original (plus there are more than a few reviewers who have wonderful summaries comparing the various translations).I really liked how the text flowed and thought that Fagles kept to the spirit of the original.When there were issues with the original language (different interpretations of Greek words, for example), the endnotes in the back of the book explained why it was translated in that way.There was also a short note at the end of the book that gave a brief history of Sophocles' plays and how they came to us today-it was very interesting. Bottom line-I just preferred Fagles' translation over Grene's.

2. The introductions by Bernard Knox.Anyone who has read Fagles' Iliad and Odyssey know how wonderful the introductions by Knox are.There is an overall introduction that gives an overview of the three plays and then each play has it's own introduction as well.Now usually I agree with others that say don't read the introductions until after you read the plays, but in this case they were so interesting and gave so much insight to the historical background of the plays that I recommend reading them first.I actually found myself going back to them while I was reading the plays as well.The Grene translation was very lacking in this respect.

If you've never read the plays and don't know anything about the plot I will say that there are major spoilers in the introductions.Also, as has been pointed out by others, the plays are not in chronological order but in the order Sophocles wrote them. The chronological order is Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. Presenting it in written order shows how Sophocles' thoughts on the various themes evolved.

Also mentioned by others are the endnotes.Again, if you've read the Fagles' translations of Homer's works you'll know what to expect.If you liked the Homer endnotes you'll like these as well.I personally liked how he would have an endnote for the various Chorus parts that gave an overview of the Chorus' responses, including the rhyming meters in the original Greek.

So if you're interested in the plays and have never read them, you won't go wrong reading these translations.

Love this play!!!
This play has such vivid language, you can see whats going on in your mind.

Best Translation for Most
Though not a trilogy in the strict ancient Greek sense like Aeschylus' Oresteia and indeed written decades apart over a long life, Sophocles' three Theban plays are interrelated and ideally read together. They are immortal classics and essential for everyone; the real question is what translation to get. Robert Fagles' is undoubtedly the best for current readers. It is not that prior ones are inaccurate, but inevitable language changes have made them ever less readable; some may think them more stately, but they lack Fagles' flow and readability. All one need do is compare his renderings of the famous closing speeches in Oedipus the King and Antigone to prior ones; his are so much more immediate yet also more poetic. Dedicated Greekless readers will of course want several, but neophytes should start with Fagles, the only version most will ever need.

Oedipus the King has been an immortal world literature classic for nearly 2,500 years. Long considered the greatest Greek tragedy, it was hailed by Aristotle as the tragedy par excellence, and in the millennium plus since only Shakespeare's greatest work has even approached it. It remains a model of what tragedy should be; deftly plotted and perfectly executed, it has a sympathetic protagonist, a crushing climax, sublime poetry, and a wealth of meaningful themes. The play remains on the very short list of incomparably and undeniably great world literature masterpieces - one of the six or so best works ever.

Perhaps the aspect that has always spoken most strongly is the character of Oedipus. The archetypal tragic hero, He is one of literature's most thoroughly sympathetic personages. Whatever his faults, he is far more sinned against than sinning; his rise from humble background to king is matched only by his even more awe-inspiring fall. Arrogant, haughty, and somewhat impulsive, he has distinct flaws, but they only make him more human; we feel for him because we see his profound humanity. However ostensibly different from us, he has the indisputable human core necessary for a truly moving character. His downfall's pathos is near-unbearable; it is hard to see a man so truly broken and heavily suffering. The play is valuable for showing the nadir to which people can sink, bringing out life's inherent tragedy with incredible force and emotion.

The story itself is also key. The original audience knew the Oedipus story well, and it has continued to be so famous that most will know a lot before reading, but Sophocles portrays it with such skillful mastery that it affected Athenians with mesmerizing power and continues to do so. A tighter plot or more perfect execution could not be conceived; no one has ever made better use of foreshadowing or dramatic irony, and the breathtaking climax has rarely even been approached. The story is put together with almost mathematical precision, and the close is simply devastating. The totality of bitterly ironic events that comes down on Oedipus is so crushingly malevolent that it shows the absolute worst that can happen to a person. For this reason among many others, the play remains the consummate tragedy.

The work's lasting value may be due primarily to its extraordinary dramatization of numerous weighty themes. All Greek tragedies were broadly philosophical in a way later plays - to say nothing of current ones - rarely are, but this is again the top example. It most famously deals with fate and has indeed never been matched for showing fatalism's dark possibility and potentially fatal consequences. However, this has also been exaggerated, because a close reading clearly shows that Oedipus himself inadvertently caused his downfall; this is what makes him a tragic hero. Denying the conventional depiction may seem strange, but it after all makes him more relatable. As far as we know, we are not victims of venomous fate but are fragile beings suffering from limitations we are unable to overcome. The play in any case has other important themes:the creation and enforcement of taboos, questions of political succession and family relations, pride vs. humility, etc. That Sophocles was able to do all this in a work of less than two thousand lines - not even half of Hamlet - is a testament both to his genius and to ancient Greek art's essential concision.

As in Oedipus the King, the character of Oedipus is perhaps the most immediate strength. He is one of literature's most thoroughly sympathetic personages, and the truly pathetic depiction of him here as a broken old man near death - blind, seemingly at least partly senile, and dependent on his daughters for even the simplest tasks - may be even more moving than his downfall in Oedipus the King, powerful as that was. Here he is reduced to the most abject misery possible to humanity - a state so pitiful that even reading of it is nearly unbearable. Though he had clear faults even in his prime and caused his own decline, it is virtually impossible not to sympathize with him; he is truly more sinned against than sinning. He has flaws even here; his impulsiveness has increased, his temper has shortened, and he lashes out at people - including his own sons - with little provocation. Yet he remains sympathetic; such things if anything make him even more human; we feel for him because we see his profound humanity. His state is indeed so low that he is forgiven by Zeus and allowed to die not only with dignity but with some satisfaction at a return of his importance after decades of pained exile. On top of everything else, the play is a thoroughly moving depiction of true compassion and noble forgiveness. Despite many dark moments, it is uncharacteristically optimistic for ancient Greek drama - indeed no tragedy at all, though ostensibly styled one. It suggests that there is always a possibility of at least partial redemption and underscores the profound significance of empathy and mercy. Sophocles' nearing death may have brought on such thoughts, but their universality makes them timeless; the play continues to speak at least as powerfully as the tragedies to those willing to listen, and its greater palatability makes it potentially more relatable.

Unlike the prior two Theban plays and Greek drama generally, Colonus has very little action. It is essentially an emotional drama that works via dialogue, but there is also substantial philosophical dramatization. The grand themes and monumental speculation of Oedipus the King and Antigone are mostly gone, but it does handle important issues like the responsibility of parents toward children and vice versa, questions of political succession, society's treatment of outsiders, the significance of ritual, etc. Those who value the first two plays for taking on weighty issues more grandly and overtly may be somewhat disappointed, but this still has a good amount of weighty themes, and its elegiac aura is in its way even more emotional. Unlike them, it does not stand well on its own, but this edition thankfully makes the point moot; it comes off much better in context, adding considerably to the book's worth.

As in Oedipus the King, the title character may be the most stirring aspect. Though not a tragic hero in Oedipus' strict sense, Antigone has fundamentally human thoughts and feelings that make her supremely relatable; we feel with and for her because we see ourselves in her. She may be extremely high strung, and her actions and emotions may be highly wrought, but she is an extreme case of what the dark, often contradictory emotions at humanity's heart can lead to if followed to the logical conclusion. Whatever her faults, she does not deserve her dark end, and the depiction of her doomed love and tragic end are profoundly moving; few portrayals are more pathos-drenched. However superficially different from us, she has the indisputable human core necessary for a truly moving character. Whether or not we agree with her, we sympathize strongly, and her determination and resilience are truly admirable.

We must not overlook the significance of a female protagonist in an ancient Greek work. Greek society was truly a man's world; women were oppressed to an extent that has long been unthinkable in the Western world. They were not considered unequal so much as hardly thought of at all; indeed, they seem not to have been allowed at dramatic performances - a true irony here. Antigone has thus unsurprisingly been the focus of much feminist criticism. Calling it proto-feminist would be too much, but having a female protagonist - much less a sympathetic one - was indeed notable. Though lacking Greek male heroes' attributes, she is a far cry from the wily but essentially frivolous goddesses and women in Homer and elsewhere, to say nothing of helpless damsels like Helen. The play vividly showed that, however insignificant women were, their wishes could not simply be ignored - and that tragic consequences may result if they are. It was not until far later - perhaps the mid or late Victorian era - that literature had another heroine of comparable strength.

Yet she is not the only interesting character; indeed, strictly speaking, Creon is the true tragic hero. Much like Oedipus, he has tragic flaws - arrogance, narrow-mindedness, impulsiveness - that lead to his downfall. It is hard not to hate him at first, especially considering the story's background, but at least as hard not to be moved by the truly pathetic picture of the broken man he is at the end. He may have deserved punishment, but few would say he deserved the catastrophe he got, which is one of the most vivid and deeply stirring illustrations of how a rash act done quickly with little thought can lead to fatal conclusions. As important as Antigone is to the play's core emotion and thought-provoking aspect, Creon is also essential.

The story itself is a fundamental part of the play's greatness also; only Oedipus the King even rivals it for plot tightness and perfect execution. Superb handling of grand themes are also again important, including family relations, questions of political succession, private vs. public loyalty, pride vs. humility, etc. Perhaps all that need be said, though, is that this is nearly as great as Oedipus the King.

One can of course purchase these plays separately, but they are ideally read together, and getting all three Fagles translations at once is too good of a bargain to pass up. Anyone wanting to read them for the first time or searching for a new edition need look no further.

The Best of Both Worlds
To anyone who cares for classic theatre, the Theban plays by Sophocles are among the best to be found.And to anyone who reads the classics of Greece or Rome -- regardless of genre -- the translations of Robert Fagles are the absolute best.Here we have the best plays by the best translator.The introduction by Bernard Knox should be of special value for those not terribly familiar with the trilogy, and his notes should be useful for all readers. ... Read more

Product Description
To make this quintessential Greek drama more accessible to the modern reader, this Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition™ includes a glossary of difficult terms, a list of vocabulary words, and convenient sidebar notes. By providing these, it is our intention that readers will more fully enjoy the beauty, wisdom, and intent of the play.The curse placed on Oedipus lingers and haunts a younger generation in this new and brilliant translation of Sophocles’ classic drama. The daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, Antigone is an unconventional heroine who pits her beliefs against the King of Thebes in a bloody test of wills that leaves few unharmed. Emotions fly as she challenges the king for the right to bury her own brother. Determined but doomed, Antigone shows her inner strength throughout the play.Antigone raises issues of law and morality that are just as relevant today as they were more than two thousand years ago. Whether this is your first reading or your twentieth, Antigone will move you as few pieces of literature can. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Immortal Play, Perhaps Not Best Translation
The third of Sophocles' Theban plays chronologically and the first written, Antigone is his second greatest world literature contribution, second only to Oedipus the King itself. Like that work, its greatness has reigned for nearly 2,500 years, and it is still a model of what tragedy should be; deftly plotted and perfectly executed, it has a sympathetic protagonist, a crushing climax, sublime poetry, and a wealth of meaningful themes. Though less famous than Oedipus the King and not quite as great, it is so tantalizingly close that it remains an immortal masterpiece. It is essential for everyone.

As in Oedipus the King, the title character may be the aspect that has always spoken most strongly. Though not a tragic hero in Oedipus' strict sense, Antigone has fundamentally human thoughts and feelings that make her supremely relatable; we feel with and for her because we see ourselves in her. She may be extremely high strung, and her actions and emotions may be highly wrought, but she is an extreme case of what the dark, often contradictory emotions at humanity's heart can lead to if followed to the logical conclusion. Whatever her faults, she is far more sinned against than sinning, and the depiction of her doomed love and tragic end are profoundly moving; few portrayals are more pathos-drenched. However ostensibly different from us, she has the indisputable human core necessary for a truly moving character. Whether or not we agree with her, we sympathize strongly, and her determination and resilience are truly admirable.

We must not overlook the significance of a female protagonist in an ancient Greek work. Greek society was truly a man's world; women were oppressed to an extent that has long been unthinkable in the Western world. They were not considered unequal so much as hardly thought of at all; indeed, they seem not to have been allowed at dramatic performances - a true irony here. Antigone has thus unsurprisingly been the focus of much feminist criticism. Calling it proto-feminist would be too much, but having a female protagonist - much less a sympathetic one - was indeed notable. Though lacking Greek male heroes' attributes, she is a far cry from the wily but essentially frivolous goddesses and women in Homer and elsewhere, to say nothing of helpless damsels like Helen. The play vividly showed that, however insignificant women were, their wishes could not simply be ignored - and that tragic consequences may result if they are. It was not until far later - perhaps the mid or late Victorian era - that literature had another heroine of comparable strength.

Yet she is not the only interesting character; indeed, strictly speaking, Creon is the true tragic hero. Much like Oedipus, he has tragic flaws - arrogance, narrow-mindedness, impulsiveness - that lead to his downfall. It is hard not to hate him at first, especially considering the story's background, but at least as hard not to be moved by the truly pathetic picture of the broken man he is at the end. He may have deserved punishment, but few would say he deserved the catastrophe he got, which is one of the most vivid and deeply stirring illustrations of how a rash act done quickly with little thought can lead to fatal conclusions. As important as Antigone is to the play's core emotion and thought-provoking aspect, Creon is also essential.

The story itself is key as well. The original audience knew the background well, and it has continued to be so famous that most will know a lot before reading, but Sophocles portrays it with such skillful mastery that it affected Athenians with mesmerizing power and continues to do so. Only Oedipus the King even rivals it for plot tightness and perfect execution; no one has ever made better use of foreshadowing or dramatic irony, and the breathtaking climaxes have rarely even been approached. The story is put together with almost mathematical precision, and the close is simply devastating. The totality of bitterly ironic events is so crushingly malevolent that it shows the absolute worst that can happen to people. For this reason among many others, the play remains a consummate tragedy.

The work's lasting value may be due primarily to its extraordinary dramatization of numerous weighty themes. All Greek tragedies were broadly philosophical in a way later plays - to say nothing of current ones - rarely are, but this is a prime example. Women's issues aside, it deals with important subjects like family relations, questions of political succession, private vs. public loyalty, pride vs. humility, etc. That Sophocles was able to do all this in a work of less than fifteen hundred lines - about one third of Hamlet - is a testament both to his genius and to ancient Greek art's essential concision.

There are few works for which reviews are more superfluous; the real question is what translation to get. Robert Fagles' is undoubtedly the best for current readers. It is not that prior ones are inaccurate, but inevitable language changes have made them ever less readable; some may think them more stately, but they lack Fagles' flow and readability. All one need do is compare his rendering of the famous closing speech to prior ones; his is so much more immediate yet also more poetic. Dedicated Greekless readers will of course want several, but neophytes should start with Fagles, the only version most will ever need.

Translation aside, the question of what edition to get is also important. The play is well worth reading on its own, but many versions pair it with Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles' other two Theban plays. The former is even greater than Antigone, and the latter has substantial merit, meaning the trilogy is ideally bought complete. Standalones are hard to justify unless one wants a deluxe edition with Greek text, extensive criticism, or some other bonus, but the important thing is of course to read the play in some form.

Great Teaching Tool
I bought this book for my 10th grade English students to read. The language is understandable, but offers some challenging words to use for vocabulary purposes. The sidebar information is informative and helpful. The introductory information about the play itself, Greek mythology and Greek tragedy gives the students good background information. The book explains what a "classic" is and why classics are important. Finally, it gives the students what themes and conflicts to look for.

As a teacher, I would recommend this book.

Good transaction, not so good translation.
I ordered this book for an English class. It was disappointing to me to find it a very different translation than everyone else. While reading the book, The text seemed oversimplified.
The transaction was smooth and the book arrived without flaw.

Concise, graceful translation
This play asks timeless moral questions.We had a 2 hour discussion on it, and left wanting to say more. This translation was much clearer and less wordy than some of the others the group had with them.

A play for our times from 2500 years ago
Antigone is part of the Thebes trilogy by Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. While written some 2500 years ago these Greek tragedies have meaning for us today, especially Antigone.The basic story is clear:The king of Thebes, Creon, orders the body of Antigone's brother, Polyneices, to be left unburied to be eaten by animals because he rebelled against the king.Cleon then decrees a law that anyone who seeks to bury Polyneices will be put to death. Antigone defies this law with tragic results for all.

The message here, that there is a higher duty than civil law, is onethat Americans could well pay attention to today. Throughout the history of the country the United States has enacted laws and engaged in immoral practices ranging from stealing the land from the natives, enslaving people from Africa and later passing segregation laws to restrict their freedom and engaging in wars of dubious moral validity--with Mexico, Spain, Vietnam and now Iraq and Afghanistan. Unlike Antigone, Americans have, for the most part, gone along with these actions, A few, Henry David Thoreau in On Civil Disobedience for example, have stood with Sophocles in arguing for a higher moral order.

Just as in Antigone, America is facing a tragic crisis as economic failure follows on economic failure. Some lessons can only be learned the hard way.

This short play demonstrates in vivid, dramatic form, how immoral laws and actions of governments can disrupt and destroy a society.


... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

Sophocles!
This is the first edition of Sophocles in translation that I have read (in the old Modern Library edition). The three translators certainly do justice to Sophocles, though I take issue with the common practice of translators of Greek verse, as a whole, to render Greek metre in a misfit pastiche of faltering iambic hexametre and alexandrines and odd short lines, which one cannot half the time comfortably read as metre as all. Either write consistently good, readable verse (the better option), or, if you cannot write good verse, then render it as prose, which will be much more readable. But then, if you cannot write verse, you have no business translating it, which leaves me wondering just what these translators are up to. That aside, their rendering of Sophocles is usually strong and convincing, though sometimes a plague of contractions and like colloquialisms detracts from the mood of what should be rather more formal and ceremonial scenes. Striving to use 'modern' language (even for the 1950s) in a play two thousand five hundred years old may make it more accessible, but at the cost of rhetorical power, solemnity, and a sense of place and time.

Review of the Lattimore/Grene Sophocles II
The translations in this volume are as livid and realisitic as those in the preceding (I'm reading the series Aeschylus->Sophocles->Euripides). I found 'Ajax' and 'Philoctetes' to be the most memorable. They capture the lively spirit of social conflict between individual characters that sets Sophocles apart from his predecessor.

One complaint is that the introduction in this volume were often more narrowly-focused than those in the early Aeschlyus volume. They are more brief, and seem to expect great knowledge by the reader of the play they are introducing. I reread them after reading the play, and only then were they interesting.

Great!!! :)
When I entered college, I was surprised to hear that there were so few Greek tragedies extent in the world today.I was also surprised that Sophocles actually had more plays than the Oedipus cycle.After debating whether to buy this translation of the texts (I am trying to collect all the Greek tragedies in this series), I finally checked it out of the library.Personally, I think that these plays are better than Oedipus, possibly because I think that Oedipus is rather overdone by high schools and colleges all over.

Ajax: It was good.I was kind of annoyed that the translator decided to mark each choral ode by its parts, which wasn't necessary.This play is about Ajax, one of the heroes of the Trojan War; this tale goes past the Trojan War portrayed in the Iliad, however.In the Odyssey, Odysseus meets Ajax in the underworld who is upset because Odysseus won the contest against him for Achilles armor.This play expands on the outcome of this contest.Ajax, disgraced, desperately turns himself against the Greek warriors, especially Odysseus.At the end, he kills himself because of his loss of honor.

The Women of Trachis: Definately climbing near Medea for my favorite Greek tragedy.This play is about Deianeira, a wife of Heracles.When Heracles returns from a city with a new mistress, Deianeira decides to take action against the man he loves.She uses a potion that was given to her by a Centaur, whom Heracles killed when the Centaur attempted to rape her.The Centaur gave her some of his blood and told her it is a love potion to give to Heracles, so if his attention ever wanders, she could bring it back to her.When Heracles brings home the new woman, Deianeira decides to use it.What Deianeira didn't realize, though, is that the Centaur wanted revenge upon Heracles, and the blood was actually poison.

Electra: Unlike the Electra in Aechyllus' Oresteia, this Electra is focused on a bit more.She resembles the Electra of Euripides.Same story: Orestes returns to avenge his father Agamemnon's murder by his mother, Clytaemnestra, and Aegisthus, Agamemnon's cousin and Clytaemnestra's consort.Electra has been living with Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus, and she was the person who saved Orestes from Clytaemnestra's rage.(Why did she murder Agamemnon?She could have just been an evil wife, but Agamemnon did sacrifice their daughter Iphigenia when he sailed for Troy.)This play is about Electra's pain and desperate hope that Orestes will return.

Philoctetes: When the Greeks sailed for Troy, one of the Greeks was bitten by a venomous snake, and the Greek soldiers abandoned him on an island before reaching Troy.After the events of the Iliad, and after Achilles death, the Greeks capture a son of Priam who prophesized that the Greeks would not be able to take Troy without Philoctetes' bow and arrows.This bow was given to Philoctetes by Heracles.This play is about Odysseus and Neoptolemus' conspiracy to steel the bow. Neoptolemus is to pretend that his is bitter towards Agamemnon, Menelaus and Odysseus because of the contest of Achilles' armor (Neoptolemus is Achilles son).Neoptolemus befriends Philoctetes and no longer wants to deceive him, plus he realizes that the prophesy not only demands the bow and arrows, but Philoctetes himself.(These bow and arrows are fated to kills Paris, the "cause" of the Trojan War for abducting Helen.)

I definately recommend this collection of plays, especially if you are an Ancient Greek nut like me!:)

The four non-Theban plays of Sophocles.
"Ajax" is probably the earliest extant play of Sophocles. Sophocles is the earliest known playwright to use painted scenery. He also decreased the importance of the chorus, added a third actor, and abandonedthe trilogy format (each play is complete by itself). Ajax is the classicalGreek tragedy about the downfall of a man who is sinned against and has atragic flaw; in this case, insolence and pride. Ajax becomes enraged whenAchilles' armor is awarded to Odysseus instead of to him. Agamemnon andMenelaus also exhibit insolence when they refuse to bury Ajax after hissuicide. But, Odysseus changes their minds. This play is probably theearliest known example of a play containing a scene of violence on thestage instead of offstage. In "The Women of Trachis," consideredmy many critics to be the poorest of the seven extant plays of Sophocles,the wife of Heracles, Deianira, unknowingly sends a poisoned robe to herhusband who has finally completed his labors. She is also concerned thatshe has allowed a rival for the affections of her husband to enter herhousehold. Hercules has sent the captive Iole to Deianira. As Hercules liesdying, he orders his son Hyllus to marry Iole. Does Hercules truly loveIole? Even when dying, he is concerned for her future. In"Electra," the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra awaits thereturn of her brother Orestes so that he can avenge the murder of theirfather. I think that many scholars have tended to misread this play. It isa play about Electra, not about Orestes or Clytemnestra or Aegisthus. And,it is a tragedy. Should one allow hatred to rule their own lives to such anextent as seen in Electra, even when one is in the right? Finally,"Philoctetes,"a member of a group of plays that won first prizein Athens, is concerned with a man who has been left marooned on an islandseveral years earlier (because of his disease) under orders of Agamemnonand Menelaus. But, the two kings later discover that Troy cannot beconquered without Philoctetes and his bow, a bow given to him by Heracles.Odysseus and Neoptolemus (the son of the late Achilles) arrive at theisland to persuade or trick Philoctetes to return with them. Neoptolemuswants to be noble in his actions; yet, his commander, Odysseus, wants touse guile. At the end, a deus-ex-machina device is used to resolve theconflict. All four plays should be required reading for any educatedperson.

The four non-Theban plays of Sophocles.
"Ajax" is probably the earliest extant play of Sophocles. Sophocles is the earliest known playwright to use painted scenery. He also decreased the importance of the chorus, added a third actor, and abandonedthe trilogy format (each play is complete by itself). Ajax is the classicalGreek tragedy about the downfall of a man who is sinned against and has atragic flaw; in this case, insolence and pride. Ajax becomes enraged whenAchilles' armor is awarded to Odysseus instead of to him. Agamemnon andMenelaus also exhibit insolence when they refuse to bury Ajax after hissuicide. But, Odysseus changes their minds. This play is probably theearliest known example of a play containing a scene of violence on thestage instead of offstage. In "The Women of Trachis," consideredmy many critics to be the poorest of the seven extant plays of Sophocles,the wife of Heracles, Deianira, unknowingly sends a poisoned robe to herhusband who has finally completed his labors. She is also concerned thatshe has allowed a rival for the affections of her husband to enter herhousehold. Hercules has sent the captive Iole to Deianira. As Hercules liesdying, he orders his son Hyllus to marry Iole. Does Hercules truly loveIole? Even when dying, he is concerned for her future. In"Electra," the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra awaits thereturn of her brother Orestes so that he can avenge the murder of theirfather. I think that many scholars have tended to misread this play. It isa play about Electra, not about Orestes or Clytemnestra or Aegisthus. And,it is a tragedy. Should one allow hatred to rule their own lives to such anextent as seen in Electra, even when one is in the right? Finally,"Philoctetes,"a member of a group of plays that won first prizein Athens, is concerned with a man who has been left marooned on an islandseveral years earlier (because of his disease) under orders of Agamemnonand Menelaus. But, the two kings later discover that Troy cannot beconquered without Philoctetes and his bow, a bow given to him by Heracles.Odysseus and Neoptolemus (the son of the late Achilles) arrive at theisland to persuade or trick Philoctetes to return with them. Neoptolemuswants to be noble in his actions; yet, his commander, Odysseus, wants touse guile. At the end, a deus-ex-machina device is used to resolve theconflict. All four plays should be required reading for any educatedperson. ... Read more

Product Description
The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, written by legendary author Sophocles, is widely considered to be among the greatest classic texts of all time. These great classics will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone are required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, these gems by Sophocles are highly recommended. Published by Classic Books International and beautifully produced, The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Sin and Redemption
The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles / 0-451-62847-0

Roche's superb translation of the three dramas of Sophocles are a wonderful introduction to the phenomena of Greek drama.

So much of the Greek spirit is delved into here. The problem of pre-destination is dealt with here, as in many plays, in the form of a question: Would Oedipus really have killed his parents if they hadn't tried to thwart the Oracle's prediction by abandoning him? And yet, if they just accepted their fate and raised him as their own (instead of making themselves strangers to him), would the Oracle's prediction have failed? Or did the Oracle *know* that the question would be asked and responded to in a certain way, and merely predicted the final outcome of this cycle? Yet does that mean that the Oracle actively determines future rather than merely passively observing it? And around we go.

These plays deal deeply with unforgivable sin and forgiveness. Oedipus himself mistakenly kills the father he never knew and marries the mother he never met. No matter how innocently done, the crime is still there, clinging to him. His sons fail to govern responsibly and fairly and take arms against each other. They both fall in battle, but the one favored by the people is lionized, while the one out of favor is demonized. Against the laws of Zeus, he is denied burial rites and entrance into the afterlife, but own brave sister defies these laws and gives her life to secure afterlife for both her brothers. Sophocles asks us, Is there any fault so grievous that forgiveness cannot be offered?

Essential reading for a classical education
I read Sophocles Antigone for graduate Humanities class.It is an essential reading to understand Greek Tragedy.It is also a foundation stone of literature in studying Western Civilization.

Antigone, daughter of Oedipus in 3-cycle play, faces capital punishment for burying her brother who rebelled against Thebes.Obeying instincts of loyalty of love and the divine law, she defies Creon, the King and her uncle.Creon says laws of states outweigh all other laws, and family loyalty, when he finally relents it's too late.

Over the centuries there has been a great deal made about the conflicts played out in the play, law of state vs. law of goods, personal vs. state duties.Loves knowledge vs. state knowledge.Greek understanding of tragedy- Aristotle lays down understanding of Greek tragedy.He based it on Sophocles.Tragedy- most important thing for tragedy is plot, it is all essential. Tragedy defined as- is imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude in language embellished with incidents arousing pity and fear ant to the audience it accomplishes catharsis of such emotions.Every tragedy must have six parts that determine its quality.1. plot2.character 3.diction 4.fault 5.spectacle and 6.melody.

According to Aristotle, tragedy is higher and more philosophical than history or poetry; it is one of the highest expressive forms because it dramatizes what may happen.History is a narrative that tells you what has happened tragedy shows what is possible.History deals with particulars, tragedy deals with the universal.Tragedy creates a cause and effect chain and shows how the world operates.It frames human experience in universal discourse, tragedy is central in this effort.Tragedy arouses pity and fear in audience because we can envision ourselves caught in this cause and effect chain.Plot most important feature, the arrangement of incidents, the way incidents, and action is structured.Tragedies outcome depends on the outcome of these cause and effect changes not on being character driven.Plot must be whole, beginning middle and end.Beginning must have a motivation that starts the cause and effect chain of events must be a center or climax that is caused by earlier incidents.There must be an end some kind of closure caused by earlier events in tragedy.This is all part of the complication of the tragedy all must be connected.You can't have a dues ex machnia in a superior tragedy.

In tragedy, the hero or heroine walks knowingly towards the fate that is written and can't be changed.Unity of action plot must be structurally self-contained, each action leading invariably to the next without outside intervention.The worst kinds of plots are episodic, like a Jerry Seinfeld sitcom, can't be something about nothing, must have unity of action.Magnitude, quantatively meaning length, and quality of action, it must be serious.Must be of universal significance, depth, and richness.Character- most important feature is the fatal flaw.Motivations of characters are important but character is there to support the plot.Character must be a prosperous renowned personage.Change of fortune from good to bad will really matter and bring fear and pity to the audience.In ideal tragedy, the hero will mistakenly bring about his own downfall.Because they make a mistake, because knowledge of our selves is always partial, we can't have complete knowledge of ourselves.Hall quotes Descartes in the article, "The limited error prone perspective of the individual.Subject is always imperfect and human and these limitations include our ability to know in any reliable way ourselves."The fact that we as subjects, as agents can never fully know ourselves means that we are always prone to error, error is the essence of the tragic hero, tragedy is the essential drama of human subjectivity.

What is Hegel's understanding of concept of tragedy?He revises Aristotelian principals and logic.Immensely influential German philosopher, he writes about; tragedy in the Aesthete 1820-29, he proposes, "the suffering of the tragic hero are merely the means of reconciling the opposing moral clients."According to Hegel's account of Greek tragedy, the conflict isn't between good and evil, but between competing goods, all is good.Between two entirely ethical worlds that clash and can't come together.Both characters have an ethical vision or belief that they have to follow it is there one-sidedness of their vision that clashes with the one-sidedness of the other character.Both sides of contradiction are justified.Conflict of irreconcilable justifiable ethical worlds, ethical visions.Just as his dialectic must lead to an ultimate synthesis, so to must tragedy lead to a synthesis.This is dramatized in the death of the tragic actor, which becomes the synthesis.Hegel says; "the characters are too good to live."They are too good to live in this world.What is interesting is that Hegel so wants to correct moral imbalances his emphasis is on moral balances.

Greek tragedy is great reading for people interested in aesthetics, history, psychology, and philosophy.

Oedipus at Colonus
Oedipus at Colonus was a fairly good sequel to Oedipus the King. In this book Oedipus and one of his daughters go to Colonus the Gods sent sickness because he killed his father and then married his mother.

This book was a lot easier to read than I was expecting.Usually I have a tough time reading these old kind of plays but this one was written in such a way that I was able to understand it which was a plus.The whole plot is really good; Oedipus's sons are fighting over who gets to be king.If you read any of the previous stories of Oedipus you should know about the oracle.This is a wonderful element to these stories. When you hear the oracle's prediction you know that you should believe it because of what happen in the first story.Recomended for ages 15 and older.

Between Meaning and Music
Most English translations of, say, the Greek New Testament are shepherded by a conviction that the original words had divine inspiration and so are best rendered verbatim wherever possible.At the same time, there generally is a concession (for good or ill) to the reality that if what results is not sufficiently lofty and reverential in tone, the faithful are unlikely to accept it.Attempts at classical Greek drama and poetry tend to be guided by rather different considerations:The translator's audience may consist of fellow scholars, reluctant undergraduate students, or an adventurous minority of the general public; and each of these groups will have particular demands.Too often work thus emerges which is precise but lifeless, or loosely interpreted to conform to the structures of 19th-century-style Anglo-American poetry, or so liberally seasoned with present-day colloquialisms as to jar the reader repeatedly out of the proper period and setting.

For the most part, Paul Roche navigates skilfully through these hazards in trying his hand at Sophocles's Oedipus trilogy, and has produced a rendition that is readable, yet preserves classical distinctiveness.Once or twice in the first play a turn of phrase does feel awkwardly modern, but such flashes are rare and soon either disappear or blend into the overall arc of the stories.That Roche is himself a poet clearly enriched the labour, and his reflections, in the Introduction, on the essence of poetry and the challenge of its transmission across lines of language, era, and culture border on the profound.'... Poetry lies somewhere between meaning and music, sense and sound ...,' he writes; and in this region he attempts to set Sophocles's work.He echoes the meter of the original without imitating it exactly, and preserves more of the Greek dramatic structure (complete with `strophes' and `antistrophes') than do many other translations available.Yet Roche remains mindful that this is also a PLAY, and manages the formalized dialogue with an eye (or ear) to the possibility of his version itself turning up on stage.He also provides an afterword outlining principles to guide such performance.

The reader of this translation whose only prior encounter with the Oedipus legend was some now-vaguely-remembered lesson in school, or perhaps Edith Hamilton's summary, may be surprised at how effectively one is drawn in.Roche, like Sophocles before him, succeeds in bringing the remote and legendary close enough to touch, while allowing it to remain sufficiently mysterious to stir the imagination.

A good compromise between authenticity and accessibility
Roche has worked very hard at reproducing the feel of the original text by Sophocles, and by all accounts he has succeeded admirably. In his introduction, Roche goes on at length to explain why a strictly literal translation is not always the best course; he has done what he can to capture the essence of the original poetry, sometimes sacrificing a more literal translation.

That being said, this trilogy of tragedy remains inaccessible to the casual reader, with the verse, antiquated phrases, and lengthy unnatural monologues and speeches combining to obscure the beautiful and tragic story from the mind and heart of what might otherwise be an appreciative audience.

So where does this leave us? Did Roche waste his time by coming up with a version of the play that is neither authentic nor accessible? In my opinion, he did not. This book is an invaluable asset for intermediary scholars who are not ready (and may never be ready) to apply themselves to the actual text or a literal translation, and yet are willing to devote themselves to overcoming the obstacles that the non-traditional (by modern standards) format presents.

An english student, or an armchair literary enthusiast, will find this an excellent way to experience the power of Sophocles writing in english. The translation is beautiful, and powerful, and does indeed bring one of the most tragic and deeply resonating of stories to life; you just have to work a little to get there.
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Product Description
Though I don't care for most criticism, I've been looking for a copy of Freud's review of this one and Hamlet. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not worth the time to download.
The arguments of the plays are here, but not the plays. There are broken links, supposedly to play sections, but who knows since the plays themselves are not contained in this "trilogy"? I'm just glad it was free. ... Read more

Product Description
Sophocles, The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, written by legendary author Sophocles, is widely considered to be among the greatest classic texts of all time. These great classics will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, Sophocles, The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, these gems by Sophocles are highly recommended. Published by Classic Books International and beautifully produced, Sophocles, The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Very Pleased!
The book is in beautiful shape.This particular translation is very easy to understand.Best of all, it was shipped to me promptly.

Smoothly-flowing presentation.
These translations of the Oedipus cycle of Sophocles definitely are very readable and clearly understandable. They quite adequately convey the greatness of the works.

The commentaries, however, are rather sparse, and a good deal of their content is taken up with Fitzgerald's defense of some of his practices in trying to deliver a rendition true to the actual meaning of the drama; without, as he says, sending a literate reader running to a library, and without clogging up the dialog.

By comparison, the David Grene-Richmond Lattimore version of Sophocles' 'Antigone', which I had just previously read, provided a good deal of supplementary material which preceded the text of the play. Therein was given a detailed account of the historical and legendary context of the play, as well as identification and explanation of many of the mythological allusions to be found in the dialog. Speaking for myself, I think this would have been a useful addition to the Fitzgerald book. Perhaps Fitzgerald thought this was unnecessary for that "literate reader" he was thinking of. To be fair, he does explain that he tries to massage the text to make those allusions more self-explanatory.

There is, however, a very interesting, though brief commentary by the translator on 'Oedipus at Colonus'. In this trenchant analysis, Fitzgerald advances his views on the ultimate vision of truth for which the aged playwright was reaching in this, his last play. But, in general, Fitzgerald seems more concerned with achieving a consistency of style and comprehensibility than with delving into the psychological aspects of the plays.

This edition will no doubt satisfy most people wishing to gain a knowledge and appreciation of these firmly established world classics.

good
my girls had to read this book as part of their summer homework and they enjoyed it.

A true classic
Rereading - and teaching - "Oedipus Rex" as an adult was an interesting experience. While I am always a bit wary of translations, the text itself (as translated by Robert Fitzgerald) is rich with literary devices, and the use of foreshadowing is especially poignant. Sophocles adeptly leads his audience through a series of emotions, guiding responses and perceptions with ease. One characteristic of the play that I found most thought-provoking was the removal of violence. While I'm sure this was done in part to accommodate the logistics of the ancient Greek stage (how would you show someone hanging, for example), I can't help but feel it was also done in order to allow the audience to focus on the emotionally-charged consequences as opposed to the gore that is Oedipus' fate. A wonderful work.

Among the Great Cycles
Fitts and Fitzgerald produce dazzling, straight-to-the-heart renditions of Sophocles' masterpieces! The swiftness and momentum they create is astounding.

The only things to be aware of are a few very-minor-cuts and a sparseness in the rendering of the lines in each play. (The sparseness is typical and reminiscent of Fitzgerald's Homer.It works perfectly for Sophocles, but not at all for his Homer).The shortened aspects of the lines makes for continuous action in the drama and gives subtle joy while reading each play.

After searching long and hard for a secondary version of the Theban Plays, (I also have Meineck's and Woodruff's beautiful collaboration on Hackett as my main version) I thankfully came across this one which satisfied every wish I had about them...the most important for me of them being: readability, the capturing of poetics, the quickness & intensity and the print layout.

These guys work great together and do an incredible job with these plays!You can be sure that this edition of the Oedipus Cycle is among the Best translations available of them. ... Read more

Product Description
With new translations and a new afterword

The full texts of the seven extant plays of Sophocles with Paul Roche's revised and updated translations of the Oedipus cycle, and all-new translations of the remaining plays. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

a solid but not an extraordinary translation
any time an undergraduate finds himself repeatedly correcting the work of a scholar, something is suspect. Roche is a prolific translator and he is, for the most part, a competent one. But there were a number of mistakes that would be inexcusable coming from a student, as they should be. The glossary in the back is the worst of it, with drastic errors including an inaccurate account of the iliad, a jumbling of two different diomedes into one, and a number of other careless mistakes. I would hope these are not the result of Roche's own misinformation. i dont see how they could be, i would assume instead that these are typos that were never corrected, perhaps due to a sub-par editor. The magnitude of Roche's undertaking certainly bears well in excusing him, as he has translated a very large volume of work here. And his translation is, for the most part, solid. I'm not sure how actable it is, and it lacks a degree of poeticism, but it is straight forward and accessible, as well as unpretentious. Good for beginners, but don't trust the glossary.

Sophoclean epic
I'am not a scholar, so I would not seek to make comments on Translation. However, no matter what the Translation the beauty of Sophocles shines through. Not all the stories are Inovative or particuarly exciting,but the language is decandent and beautiful and it has proper perspective. Tragedy is not only about story but very much so about perspective. The beauty of the greek tregedians is that the plays always have a powerful moral point. The word of wisdom is usually endowned by a chorus in the last verses. Consider the end of Antigone: "where wisdom is, happiness will crown A pietythat nothing will corode. But high and mighty words and ways are flogged to humbleness,till age,Beaten to its neees,at last is wise" If it is not beautiful it is not worth reading and because it is beautiful it deserves to be a classic

The Master of the Greek Tragedy
Sophocles was the greatest of the three great tragic playwrights of ancient Greece. He wrote over 100 plays of which only seven survive. Paul Roche has done a superb job in translating the extant plays in the same book. They include "Ajax", "Electra", "Philoctetes", "The Women of Trachis", and the three Oedipus plays: "Oedipus the King", "Oedipus at Colonus", and "Antigone."

Sophocles was a master at understanding human nature and the consequences one faces when we don't act in a virtuous manner. In "Ajax" the hero at Troy becomes a raging terror when he is not awarded Achille's armor. He seeks a murderous revenge but a trick of Athena causes him to confuse sheep with men. His friends and family can only stand by while Ajax creates the ultimate revenge on himself.

In "Electra" the daughter of the murdered Agamemnon seeks her revenge on her mother and paramour with her brother's help. It leads to tragic consequences when people can't learn to forgive. The murderous revenge was in response to the same murderous revenge her mother felt when Agamemnon sacrificed their infant daughter to gain a favorable wind to get to Troy.

"Philoctetes" is a study in what happens when care, friendship, and trust disappears. Philoctetes was abandoned by his shipmates years earlier because he was bitten on the heel by a poisonous snake. The moaning and stench from the festering wound caused his shipmates to abandon him on a deserted island. His only protection was a magic bow from Heracles that never misses its target. Years later Odysseus and Achilles' son, Neoptolemus returned to the island to get Philoctetes' bow. Neoptolemus tricks him by pretending to help him and then steals his bow. A change of heart and Heracles' intervention saved the day.

In "The Women of Trachis" a jealous wife's remedy for her philandering husband has tragic consequences. When Deianeira found that her husband, Heracles, had sent a bedmate home to the palace it was the last straw. She gave him a cloak soaked with a potion that was supposed to make Heracles fall madly in love with her. What she didn't know was that the potion was designed to kill him.

"Oedipus the King" was clearly the play Sophocles was most famous for. This is the tragic story of a man fated to kill his father and marry his mother. His denial of this truth would have ruinous consequences that would span through the next generation. Oedipus would become a ruined man who would only find salvation at the end of his life in "Oedipus at Colonus", but tragedy would spread to those of his children in "Antigone". Death would take the lives of the two sons of Oedipus as they fought over the throne and when Creon, the new king, dishonors the dead the gods mete out justice.

Agony, despair, suffering, misery...It's all good.
If tragedy is, as Aristotle described, the imitation (that is, representation) of great people whose downfall induces a sense of pity and fear in the audience, Sophocles's plays are exemplary illustrations of the genre.The Sophoclean hero suffers, agonizes, despairs because of cruel fate or, more likely, some mistake he or she has made as a result of a character flaw such as pride or anger.Thus the tragedy of "Ajax" is not only that the title character kills himself in shame over having lost out to Odysseus on being awarded Achilles's armor, the ownership of which would have been proof of his heroic deeds in battle, but that his shame might have been alleviated had he known that Odysseus greatly respected his heroism.Similarly, in "Antigone," Creon, king of Thebes, suffers the loss of his wife and son over his stubborn insistence to enforce a law founded on his pride.

Sophocles portrays "noble" sufferers too.In "Electra," the title heroine plots to kill her mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, but she has a good reason -- revenge for killing her father Agamemnon and bounding her to a life of slavish submission.The title hero of "Philoctetes" is marooned on an island through no fault of his own, and furthermore becomes the target of trickery when Odysseus and Neoptolemus, Achilles's son, show up with the intent to obtain a magic bow in his possession which they need to win the Trojan War.Heracles's wife Deianeira, in "The Women in Trachis," catches her husband in the act of intended infidelity; her reaction is to send him a cloak she thinks is a talisman to keep him faithful to her, when in reality it is poisoned.That Electra's plans are fulfilled, Philoctetes receives sympathy, and Deianeira kills herself in grief shows the range of emotions that lead to the end of a Sophoclean tragedy.

The most masterful of these plays is "Oedipus the King," which seeks to maximize pity and fear in the audience by portraying some of the most tragic circumstances imaginable -- a hero who unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother as was prophesied, and then, to his horror, discovers their identities.Does Oedipus, like Deianeira, kill himself in grief?No, that would be too merciful.Instead, he gouges out his eyes in self-punishment and lives to continue suffering, as an abject vagrant in "Oedipus at Colonus."

In this Signet Classics edition, Paul Roche translates these plays in verse rather than prose, which preserves their poeticality, improves their clarity, and significantly increases the enjoyability of reading them.This is the perfect edition for getting acquainted with one of the great Greek dramatists.

A little too much like the modern Bible
I enjoyed this translation, and I recommend it to anyone unfamiliar with the plays.Its strength is that it is very easy to read in large part because Roche structured the lines as he felt they would have been spoken.He includes some interesting appendices on production, etc, and he has just the right number of footnotes to help us keep up, but not be slowed down.

My beef is that comparing it to other translations I have read is like comparing the clunky dumbed down modern translations of the Bible to the King James Version.Still, the language and the wisdom do sometimes soar together. ... Read more

Product Description
Four seminal tragedies by the master Greek dramatist, in sparkling new translations

Of the more than one hundred plays Sophocles wrote over the course of his long life, only seven survive. This volume collects four of them, all newly translated. Electra portrays the grief of a young woman for her father, Agamemnon, who has been killed by her mother’s lover. Ajax depicts the enigma of power and weakness vis-àvis the fall of the great hero. Women of Trachis dramatizes the tragic love and error of Heracles’s deserted wife, Deianeira; Philoctetes examines the conflict between physical force and moral strength. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Everyman for himself
Sophocles shows dramatically his vision on man and religion in these four plays (Ajax, Electra, Women of Trachis, Philoctetes). The tragedies are also a `human' documentary on ancient Greece and its population.
The overall theme is `war': In 'Ajax', the warriors are fighting among themselves; Electra and Orestes in `Electra' revenge the sacrifice of his daughter by Agamemnon to win a war; in `Women of Trachis', Heracles conquered a new concubine in a war, and in `Philoctetes' the Greeks need a bow to win a war.
The consequences of this relentless fighting are death, destruction and enslavement: `battle and lust of blood move onward step by step to the inevitable end'. `Where is now the spear of victory?' `War never picks the worst men for victories, but always the best.' `sad sight, the poor unhappy exiles, homeless, fatherless, waifs in a strange land, daughters of free-born families now condemned to slavery.'
For Sophocles, man is a ballgame for the gods. `The future is hidden'. `The gods delight to turn away all deep-dyed villains from the door of death and hale in all good men.'
But Sophocles' vision on religion is extremely ambivalent. He sees around him `the malevolence of the unforgiving gods'. `God is an awful hand of death, new shapes of woe, uncontrolled sufferings.' Eros is destruction: `her beauty has been her ruin; she has brought her country down to slavery and destruction.'
So, `why then praise we gods, when we find them evil?' And ultimately, who is responsible? `Say that it was the while of heaven; but your hand did it.' Is it not `Everyman for himself': in Ajax, Teucer forces a human burial for his half-brother.

Of the four tragedies, the `Women of Trachis' are more a long meditation, `Philoctetes' ends with a deus ex machina, `Ajax' is the most lively, but `Electra' shines through the intensity of the head-on confrontations.
These formidable texts, written some 2500 years ago, are a must read for all those interested in highlights of world literature.

Greeks with issues
In the USA there's a social category of people known as "airheads" for whom anything that happened before the year 2000 is "like, major antiquity, guy".What can we say, then, about plays that were written over 2,400 years ago ?For most of my life, the mention of Greek plays was on a par with cod liver oil.Probably good for me, but best avoided if possible.I admit, it was the airhead-lite approach.Recently, I finally buckled down and decided it was now or never.I'm not sorry I did.

The four plays by Sophocles in this collection deal with Iliad spinoffs---events connected to that ancient epic with some of the Trojan War characters already known to the Greeks of the author's time---with legends of the gods (Hercules or Heracles, as they write it) or with both at once.Each play uses a chorus to reflect inner thinking or thinking by "other people", whoever they may be.The translation in this volume brings a modicum of modern English to the plays, rendering them very understandable.Purists might not appreciate that, but I, for one, found myself better able to follow the deeper meanings of the plays because I didn't have to wade through archaic English.(Remember how we struggled through Shakespeare?)AJAX, ELECTRA, WOMEN OF TRACHIS, and PHILOCTETES jolted me out of my neo-airhead tendencies and amazed me by their modernity.Their form may be ancient, stilted to modern eyes, and lacking much action, but the themes reveal human nature as if these plays all were written yesterday.The same dilemmas pose themselves, the same contrasts in human character---the straight and the crooked, the mean and the noble, the forgiving and the vengeful.Actions well meant turn out to have disastrous consequences.Greed and jealousy run rampant.AJAX, the earliest work here, is a little less dramatic than the other three, but does deal with "temporary insanity".I don't have the silver tongue and deconstruction abilities of a literary expert, but if these plays don't knock your socks off---just because of their relevance to 2003 if for no other reason---then I don't know what will. Don't wait 40 years. Delicious cod liver oil, no lie.

very good translation
This version of Sophocles plays Electra, Ajax, Philoctetes and Women of Trachis is one of the best I"ve found. I was basicly looking for an acting version, and Waitings verse is both telling, beautiful and flowing.It tells the story without plodding or stumbling. Very good. By the way,the cover says Penguin Classic. ... Read more

Product Description
To make Oedipus more accessible for the modern reader, our Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition™ includes a glossary of the more difficult words, as well as convenient sidebar notes to enlighten the reader on aspects that may be confusing or overlooked. We hope that the reader may, through this edition, more fully enjoy the beauty of the verse, the wisdom of the insights, and the impact of the drama. Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex has never been surpassed for the raw and terrible power with which its hero struggles to answer the eternal question, "Who am I?" The play, a story of a king who—acting entirely in ignorance—kills his father and marries his mother, unfolds with shattering power; we are helplessly carried along with Oedipus towards the final, horrific truth. This vibrant, new translation invites its readers to lose themselves in the unfolding of this tragic tale—as suspenseful as a detective mystery, yet with an outcome long ago determined by Fate. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Immortal Play, Perhaps Not the Best Edition
Oedipus Rex has been an immortal world literature classic for nearly 2,500 years. Long considered the greatest Greek tragedy, it was hailed by Aristotle as the tragedy par excellence, and in the millennium plus since only Shakespeare's greatest work has even approached it. It remains a model of what tragedy should be; deftly plotted and perfectly executed, it has a sympathetic protagonist, a crushing climax, sublime poetry, and a wealth of meaningful themes. The play remains on the very short list of incomparably and undeniably great world literature masterpieces - one of the six or so best works ever. It is essential reading for everyone.

Perhaps the aspect that has always spoken most strongly is the character of Oedipus. The archetypal tragic hero, He is one of literature's most thoroughly sympathetic personages. Whatever his faults, he is far more sinned against than sinning; his rise from humble background to king is matched only by his even more awe-inspiring fall. Arrogant, haughty, and somewhat impulsive, he has distinct flaws, but they only make him more human; we feel for him because we see his profound humanity. However ostensibly different from us, he has the indisputable human core necessary for a truly moving character. His downfall's pathos is near-unbearable; it is hard to see a man so truly broken and heavily suffering. The play is valuable for showing the nadir to which people can sink, bringing out life's inherent tragedy with incredible force and emotion.

The story itself is also key. The original audience knew the Oedipus story well, and it has continued to be so famous that most will know a lot before reading, but Sophocles portrays it with such skillful mastery that it affected Athenians with mesmerizing power and continues to do so. A tighter plot or more perfect execution could not be conceived; no one has ever made better use of foreshadowing or dramatic irony, and the breathtaking climax has rarely even been approached. The story is put together with almost mathematical precision, and the close is simply devastating. The totality of bitterly ironic events that comes down on Oedipus is so crushingly malevolent that it shows the absolute worst that can happen to a person. For this reason among many others, the play remains the consummate tragedy.

The work's lasting value may be due primarily to its extraordinary dramatization of numerous weighty themes. All Greek tragedies were broadly philosophical in a way later plays - to say nothing of current ones - rarely are, but this is again the top example. It most famously deals with fate and has indeed never been matched for showing fatalism's dark possibility and potentially fatal consequences. However, this has also been exaggerated, because a close reading clearly shows that Oedipus himself inadvertently caused his downfall; this is what makes him a tragic hero. Denying the conventional depiction may seem strange, but it after all makes him more relatable. As far as we know, we are not victims of venomous fate but are fragile beings suffering from limitations we are unable to overcome. The play in any case has other important themes:the creation and enforcement of taboos, questions of political succession and family relations, pride vs. humility, etc. That Sophocles was able to do all this in a work of less than two thousand lines - not even half of Hamlet - is a testament both to his genius and to ancient Greek art's essential concision.

There are few works for which reviews are more superfluous; the real question is what translation to get. Robert Fagles' is undoubtedly the best for current readers. It is not that prior ones are inaccurate, but inevitable language changes have made them ever less readable; some may think them more stately, but they lack Fagles' flow and readability. All one need do is compare his rendering of the famous closing speech to prior ones; his is so much more immediate yet also more poetic. Dedicated Greekless readers will of course want several, but neophytes should start with Fagles, the only version most will ever need.

Translation aside, the question of what edition to get is also important. The play is well worth reading on its own, but many versions pair it with Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles' other two Theban plays. The former is nearly as great as Oedipus Rex, and the latter has great merit, meaning the trilogy is ideally bought complete. Standalones are hard to justify unless one wants a deluxe edition with Greek text, extensive criticism, or some other bonus, but the important thing is of course to read the play in some form.

Stark Tragedy, Nice Annotations
Sophocles ancient classic engrips and horrifies the reader with a tragic tale of fate and horror.Young Oedipus is destined to murder his father and marry his mother.So it is written.Eager to avoid the fickle hand of fate, his parents send young Oedipus away at early age to evade the inevitable, which of course, proves unavoidable.In addition to tragedy, this stunning classic from Ancient Greece asks that age-old question, "who am I?"This version provides useful annotations for readers.It gives away the ending, but how many first-timers don't already know it?We read this play freshman year in high school and struggled with certain parts, although naturally we grasped the ideas of fate, tragedy, and incest.A classic perhaps not for the faint-of-heart.

interesting read
This is an old and famous play and I have to say, it is interesting, suspenseful and with an unconventional plot. I am not a native English speaker but as far as the language interpretation goes, this edition was easy to follow and the side notes were very helpful. I am not the most patient reader but this book was easy to navigate and to understand. My 13 years old didn't have trouble with reading it either.

Let's give away the ending on the back of the book!
I found this version of the play to be too cumbersome in its language.I had previously read Robert Fitzgerald's translation, which was marvelous and easy to understand.The argument between Oedipus and Teirisias, for example, clearly shows the anger, frustration, and weariness felt by the characters.In this Literary Touchstone edition, the emotion is drained from the argument, and each character ends up sounding like a lawyer.

Although I did find the annotations on the sides of the page helpful when explaining the references to the Greek gods, I found them frustrating when they would reference things that would not happen for another twenty or thirty pages.It seems that the editors wrote the annotaions assuming the reader was already familiar with the play.

The deal-breaker for me, however, was the fact that the play is not only summarized on the back cover, but specific details to the plot are revealed, robbing the story of any surprise at all for the first-time reader.

For those thinking of purchasing this book, I would urge you to take a look at the Fitzgerald version.Amazon lets you browse the pages of both, and I think you'll find the translation of the Fitzgerald more easy to understand, and more suspenseful in its delivery: http://www.amazon.com/Sophocles-Oedipus-Cycle-Colonus-Antigone/dp/015602764X/ref=pd_cp_b_3

Great story, great edition
Okay, this is probably one of the most disturbing stories ever written. Maybe that is why I love it so much--it's a horrible, disturbing story that has managed to keep society hooked for eons with its steady of the omnipotience of fate.

Because, yes, despite all the glorious incest that all the high schoolers obsess over, this is about fate, a man who is doomed to a horrific life from the moment he is born.

On top of this is the basic human emotions and attachments, the attempt of the human will to fight fate.

It's a hard battle, but it certainly is a good one to read. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume contains three masterpieces by the Greek playwright Sophocles, widely regarded since antiquity as the greatest of all the tragic poets. The vivid translations, which combine elegance and modernity, are remarkable for their lucidity and accuracy, and are equally suitable for reading for pleasure, study, or theatrical performance. The selection of Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Electra not only offers the reader the most influential and famous of Sophocles' works, it also presents in one volume the two plays dominated by a female heroic figure, and the experience of the two great dynasties featured in Greek tragedy--the houses of Oedipus and Agamemnon. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

This bookstore is horrible
This bookstore made sure that the book arrived at the latest possible date. I tryed to contact the owner the only way possible, e-mail, 3 times and never got any responses with regaurds to my order. I will NEVER order from this place again nor would I ever recommend them. I sincerely request no one else takes the chance, unless you don't mind waiting 3 weeks for an in-country order, ordering from this store. I was EXTREMELY displeased with the lack of professionalism.

Great Book, for school and stuff
Basically i bought this book for my english class, and comparing this book to other books the school uses it is much better, might as well buy something worth more of an educational value, than use the books text book.My friends have another class and got the same book(But i mean title wise) and because it is greek translated, theirs was more simple. So if you want a book that explains more of what is going on in the story, rather than something very simple and explains everything for you already.I recommend this book because it makes you think( since it is more complex ) which is helps you learn.

Translations
Researching translations is never an easy task, and in this case, where you'll have to search on Amazon for the title and the translator to find what you want, it's particularly difficult.

Here's what I've found by comparing several editions:

1.David Grene translation: Seems to be accurate, yet not unwieldy as such.My pick.Language is used precisely, but not to the point where it's barely in English.

2.Fitts/Fitzgerald translation: Excellent as well, though a little less smooth than the Grene one.Certainly not a bad pick.

3.Fagles translation: Beautiful.Not accurate.If you are looking for the smoothest English version, there's no doubt that this is it.That said, because he is looser with the translation, some ideas might be lost.For instance, in Antigone, in the beginning, Antigone discusses how law compels her to bury her brother despite Creon's edict.In Fagles, the "law" concept is lost in "military honors" when discussing the burial of Eteocles.This whole notion of obeying positive law or natural law is very important, but you wouldn't know it from Fagles.In Grene, for example, it is translated to "lawful rites."

4.Gibbons and Segal: Looks great, but right now the book has only Antigone (and not the rest of the trilogy) and costs almost 3x as much.I'll pass.But, from a cursory review, I'm impressed with their work.

5.MacDonald: This edition received some good write-ups, but I wasn't able to do a direct passage-to-passage comparison.

6.Woodruff: NO, NO, NO.Just NO.It's so colloquial it makes me gag.Very accessible, but the modernization of the language is just so extreme as to make it almost laughable.You don't get any sense of the power of language in the play.You just get the story.If you want this to be an easy read, then get Fagles, not this.

7.Kitto: Looks good, though not particularly compelling over either Grene or Fitzgerald (or Gibbons if I wanted to pay so much more).

8.Roche: Practically unreadable the English is so convoluted.Might be the most literal translation, but what's the point unless you are learning Greek and want such a direct translation.

9.Taylor: Way too wordy.Might be more literal, but again, why?

Hope this all helps.Translations can make or break the accessibility of literature.Pick wisely.

great translation
As a Classics major, I've had to read these plays countless times.Last semester, I picked up this book while writing a paper on Electra, and I fell in love with it.The text that I had previously admired for its ideas I now respected as a work of art.Kitto's words bring a life and humanity to the text that other translations lack.It was like reading the plays again for the first time.

Strong Translation
H.D.F. Kitto was a distinguished interpreter of Greek tragedy.These translations, which were written for performance, are at once accurate, clear, and very elegant.Hall provides precisely as much information in the notes as the typical intelligent undergraduate requires.She also points out the few places in which Kitto has made minor departures from the Greek.I have found that undergraduates respond better to these translations than to those available in the Greene and Lattimore series published by the University of Chicago Press--though they too are good. ... Read more

Product Description
One of the greatest of the classic Greek tragedies and a masterpiece of dramatic construction. Catastrophe ensues when King Oedipus discovers he has inadvertently killed his father and married his mother. Masterly use of dramatic irony greatly intensifies impact of agonizing events. Sophocles’ finest play, Oedipus Rex ranks as a towering landmark of Western drama. Explanatory footnotes.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (83)

New
Ordered as new and that is exactly what I received. The text will be used by my son for his ancient literature class. Excellent source.

Interesting Epic
This Epic was referred by my professor. Although some parts of the epic confused me I really enjoyed it. Very interesting.

Reviewing Oedipus Rex
This was an excellent play, entertaining and easy to read. You understand how Oedipus came to power in the manner in which he did, and what became of his kin.I would recommend it to anyone who has been a bit intimidated by the "old classics."I can hardly wait to see a play about Oedipus Rex!

Oedipus Rex
Although it wasn't exactly what I needed(my fault) it was in excellent condition and shipped promtly

Has lasted 1000s of years for a reason...
This was a great book. I never liked reading plays before I read Oedipus Rex. It's a really interesting plot with a really cool (disgusting) ending. Read this book. You won't regret it. ... Read more

Product Description
Meineck and Woodruff's new annotated translations of Sophocles' Ajax, Women of Trachis, Electra, and Philoctetes combine the same standards of accuracy, concision, clarity, and powerful speech that have so often made their Theban Plays a source of epiphany in the classroom and of understanding in the theatre. Woodruff's Introduction offers a brisk and stimulating discussion of central themes in Sophoclean drama, the life of the playwright, staging issues, and each of the four featured plays. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Superior translation in all ways!
There are not too many good translations of Sophocles's other 4 miscellaneous plays.The 2 other main versions are by Lattimore, and by Watling.

I find the Lattimore too stiff and archaic, and the Watling stuffy and congested :(

This one translated by great stage director Peter Meineck (on the excellent Hackett label) re-defines the art of translation in this edition!He blows the many other translations out of the water by his lucid, powerful, believable and beautiful version.I love his lines, the words he chooses, and the way he puts them all together.

I actually can see it happening before me, whereas in other versions, it's more like history and a "good read".

Perfect for the acting student, stage director and lover of ancient wisdom! ... Read more

Product Description
Based on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly re-create the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order to evoke the poetry of the originals.

The volume brings together four major works by one of the greatest classical dramarists: Electra, translated by Anne Carson and Michael Shaw, a gripping story of revenge, manipulation, and the often tense conflict of the human spirit; Aias, translated by Herbert Golder and Richard Pevear, an account of the heroic suicide of the Trojan war hero better known as Ajax; Philoctetes, translated by Carl Phillips and Diskin Clay, a morally complex and penetrating play about the conflict between personal integrity and public duty; and The Women of Trachis, translated by C.K. Williams and Gregory W. Dickerson, an urgent tale of mutability in a universe of precipitous change. These four tragedies were originally available as single volumes. This new volume retains the informative introductions and explanatory notes of the original editions and adds a single combined glossary and Greek line numbers. ... Read more

Product Description

Sophocles (497/6–406 BCE), with Aeschylus and Euripides, was one of the three great tragic poets of Athens, and is considered one of the world's greatest poets. The subjects of his plays were drawn from mythology and legend. Each play contains at least one heroic figure, a character whose strength, courage, or intelligence exceeds the human norm—but who also has more than ordinary pride and self-assurance. These qualities combine to lead to a tragic end.

Hugh Lloyd-Jones gives us, in two volumes, a new translation of the seven surviving plays. Volume I contains Oedipus Tyrannus (which tells the famous Oedipus story), Ajax (a heroic tragedy of wounded self-esteem), and Electra (the story of siblings who seek revenge on their mother and her lover for killing their father). Volume II contains Oedipus at Colonus (the climax of the fallen hero's life), Antigone (a conflict between public authority and an individual woman's conscience), The Women of Trachis (a fatal attempt by Heracles' wife to regain her husband's love), and Philoctetes (Odysseus's intrigue to bring an unwilling hero to the Trojan War).

Of his other plays, only fragments remain; but from these much can be learned about Sophocles' language and dramatic art. The major fragments—ranging in length from two lines to a very substantial portion of the satyr play The Searchers—are collected in Volume III of this edition. In prefatory notes Lloyd-Jones provides frameworks for the fragments of known plays.

Customer Reviews (3)

Worth the investment.
If you haven't read anything by Sophocles and want to read him for fun, I'd suggest getting the Fagles translations of the Theban plays, followed by the Sophocles II volume published by University of Chicago. That will get you every complete play we have by him and is a good way to start.

However, if you've read one (or even all) of the plays in this volume, know some Greek, and want to go a bit deeper, this is the book you're looking for. The translations in this volume are extremely, almost unusually, literal. While the two most prominent translations (Fagles and Greene) waver from the text at times for poetic value, Lloyd-Jones does nothing of the sort. For the most part, what you see on the left side is as close as it gets in English to the Greek on the right side. This is really helpful for those who know enough Greek to be curious about what Sophocles is up to but not enough to actually read the text in the Greek without a lexicon.

I generally see Loeb books as investments, due to their high costs. This is one investment that has paid off for me. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Oedipus the King, Ajax, or Electra (although let's be honest: you probably want this more for Oedipus the King than for the other two plays).

oedipus tyrannus
This play is a fantastic view at what some ancient people in Athens thought about their leader Pericles. I love this play, and can only justify Loeb Classics as the best text. I challenge anyone to read this play and not feel a strange need to wickedly laugh out loud as the story unfolds.

Reading for Enjoyment
I honestly enjoyed reading these plays.Especially the first and third.The translation is easy to read and flows really well.I picked these up to supplement some lines of study that I'm pursuing but ended up enjoying them in their own right and for the purposes natural to them.These are not dusty old dry plays - exactly the opposite - these are vibrant introductions to the ancient greek world. I highly recommend you read these - and I recommend this edition and most especially the wonderful translation. ... Read more

Product Description
Cambridge Translations from Greek Drama aims to eliminate the boundary between Classics students and drama students. Sophocles: Antigone is the fifth title in the series, and is aimed at A-level students in the UK and college students in North America.Features of the book include a full commentary running alongside the translation with questions to encourage discussion, notes on pronunciation and a plot synopsis. Background information to the story is also provided. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Essential reading for a classical education
I read Sophocles Antigone for graduate Humanities class.It is an essential reading to understand Greek Tragedy.It is also a foundation stone of literature in studying Western Civilization.

Antigone, daughter of Oedipus in 3-cycle play, faces capital punishment for burying her brother who rebelled against Thebes.Obeying instincts of loyalty of love and the divine law, she defies Creon, the King and her uncle.Creon says laws of states outweigh all other laws, and family loyalty, when he finally relents it's too late.

Over the centuries there has been a great deal made about the conflicts played out in the play, law of state vs. law of goods, personal vs. state duties.Loves knowledge vs. state knowledge.Greek understanding of tragedy- Aristotle lays down understanding of Greek tragedy.He based it on Sophocles.Tragedy- most important thing for tragedy is plot, it is all essential. Tragedy defined as- is imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude in language embellished with incidents arousing pity and fear ant to the audience it accomplishes catharsis of such emotions.Every tragedy must have six parts that determine its quality.1. plot2.character 3.diction 4.fault 5.spectacle and 6.melody.

According to Aristotle, tragedy is higher and more philosophical than history or poetry; it is one of the highest expressive forms because it dramatizes what may happen.History is a narrative that tells you what has happened tragedy shows what is possible.History deals with particulars, tragedy deals with the universal.Tragedy creates a cause and effect chain and shows how the world operates.It frames human experience in universal discourse, tragedy is central in this effort.Tragedy arouses pity and fear in audience because we can envision ourselves caught in this cause and effect chain.Plot most important feature, the arrangement of incidents, the way incidents, and action is structured.Tragedies outcome depends on the outcome of these cause and effect changes not on being character driven.Plot must be whole, beginning middle and end.Beginning must have a motivation that starts the cause and effect chain of events must be a center or climax that is caused by earlier incidents.There must be an end some kind of closure caused by earlier events in tragedy.This is all part of the complication of the tragedy all must be connected.You can't have a dues ex machnia in a superior tragedy.

In tragedy, the hero or heroine walks knowingly towards the fate that is written and can't be changed.Unity of action plot must be structurally self-contained, each action leading invariably to the next without outside intervention.The worst kinds of plots are episodic, like a Jerry Seinfeld sitcom, can't be something about nothing, must have unity of action.Magnitude, quantatively meaning length, and quality of action, it must be serious.Must be of universal significance, depth, and richness.Character- most important feature is the fatal flaw.Motivations of characters are important but character is there to support the plot.Character must be a prosperous renowned personage.Change of fortune from good to bad will really matter and bring fear and pity to the audience.In ideal tragedy, the hero will mistakenly bring about his own downfall.Because they make a mistake, because knowledge of our selves is always partial, we can't have complete knowledge of ourselves.Hall quotes Descartes in the article, "The limited error prone perspective of the individual.Subject is always imperfect and human and these limitations include our ability to know in any reliable way ourselves."The fact that we as subjects, as agents can never fully know ourselves means that we are always prone to error, error is the essence of the tragic hero, tragedy is the essential drama of human subjectivity.

What is Hegel's understanding of concept of tragedy?He revises Aristotelian principals and logic.Immensely influential German philosopher, he writes about; tragedy in the Aesthete 1820-29, he proposes, "the suffering of the tragic hero are merely the means of reconciling the opposing moral clients."According to Hegel's account of Greek tragedy, the conflict isn't between good and evil, but between competing goods, all is good.Between two entirely ethical worlds that clash and can't come together.Both characters have an ethical vision or belief that they have to follow it is there one-sidedness of their vision that clashes with the one-sidedness of the other character.Both sides of contradiction are justified.Conflict of irreconcilable justifiable ethical worlds, ethical visions.Just as his dialectic must lead to an ultimate synthesis, so to must tragedy lead to a synthesis.This is dramatized in the death of the tragic actor, which becomes the synthesis.Hegel says; "the characters are too good to live."They are too good to live in this world.What is interesting is that Hegel so wants to correct moral imbalances his emphasis is on moral balances.

Greek tragedy is great reading for people interested in aesthetics, history, psychology, and philosophy.

A retelling of "Antigone" where she is the main character
Following the ending of "Oedipus the King," Oedipus was exiled from Thebes, blind and a beggar. We learn from "Oedipus at Colonus" that his sons, Eteocles and Polyneices engaged in a civil war for the throne of Thebes (covered in "Seven Against Thebes" by Aeschylus). The two brothers kill each other and Creon, brother of Jocasta, becomes king. He orders that Eteocles, who nobly defended his city, shall receive an honorable burial, but that Polyneices, for leading the Argive invaders, shall be left unburied. This leads Antigone, sister to both of the slain brothers, to have to choose between obeying the rule of the state, the dictates of familial binds, and the will of the gods. This, of course, is the matter at the heart of this classic tragedy by Sophocles.

But I have always been pleased to discover that many students, when reading "Antigone," quickly come to the conclusion that it is Creon who is the main character in the tragedy (the same way Clytemnestra is the main character in Aeschylus's "Agamemnon"). In this volume, Gita Wolf and Sirish Rao retell the story so that the title character is indeed the main character (I suspect they are borrowing more than a few ideas from Anoulih's retelling of the play in 1944 while France was occupied by the Nazis).

It is too easy to see the issues of this play, first performed in the 5th century B.C., as being reflected in a host of more contemporary concerns, where the conscience of the individual conflicts with the dictates of the state. However, it has always seemed to me that the conflict in "Antigone" is not so clear-cut as we would suppose. After all, Creon has the right to punish a traitor and to expect loyal citizens to obey. Ismene, Antigone's sister, chooses to obey, but Antigone takes a different path. The fact that the "burial" of her brother consists of the token gesture of throwing dirt upon his face, only serves to underscore the ambiguity of the situation Sophocles was developing.

The chief virtue of this retelling, in addition to the excellent illustrations by Indrapramit Roy, is that young readers will better be able to put themselves in the place of Antigone as the tragedy plays out.Consequently, this is a much more personal version of the tale than the original play by Sophocles.

A splendidly presented retelling of the tragic story
Superbly illustrated by eight of Indrapramit Roy's two-color silk-screened illustrations, Sophocles' Antigone is a splendidly presented retelling of the tragic story told by the blind prophet Teiresias of a Greek princess who discovers that her brother (a rebel against the rule of their uncle Creon) has been murdered and his body left unburied. Torn between her fealty to her uncle and her familial love for her brother, as well as deference to the gods, Antigone is a story of the tragic conflicts between love and duty, honor and the law. A physically beautiful publication, Sophocles' Antigone is a welcome and much appreciated work that will totally engage the attention and appreciation of contemporary readers. ... Read more

Product Description
The story of Oedipus the King (or Oedipus Rex), is a Theban play written by Sophocles, one of the three ancient Greek Tragedians whose work as survived. In the story of Oedipus Rex, Laius, King of Thebes, finds an oracle foretelling that the child born to him by his queen Jocasta would slay his father and wed his mother. So when in time a son (Oedipus) was born the infant's feet were riveted together and he was left to die on Mount Cithaeron. But a shepherd found Oedipus and tended him, and delivered him to another shepherd who took him to his master, the King of Corinth. Polybus being childless adopted Oedipus, who grew up believing that he was indeed the King's son. Afterwards doubting his parentage he inquired of the Delphic god and heard himself the word declared before to Laius. Wherefore he fled from what he deemed his father's house and in his flight he encountered and unwillingly slew his father Laius. Arriving at Thebes he answered the riddle of the Sphinx and the grateful Thebans made their deliverer king. So he reigned in the room of Laius, and espoused the widowed queen. Children were born to Oedipus and Thebes prospered under his rule, but again a grievous plague fell upon the city. Again the oracle was consulted and it bade them purge themselves of blood-guiltiness. Oedipus denounces the crime of which he is unaware, and undertakes to track out the criminal. Step by step it is brought home to him that he is the man. The closing scene reveals Jocasta slain by her own hand and Oedipus, King of Thebes, blinded by his own act and praying for death or exile. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Immortal Play, Questionable Edition
Oedipus the King has been an immortal world literature classic for nearly 2,500 years. Long considered the greatest Greek tragedy, it was hailed by Aristotle as the tragedy par excellence, and in the millennium plus since only Shakespeare's greatest work has even approached it. It remains a model of what tragedy should be; deftly plotted and perfectly executed, it has a sympathetic protagonist, a crushing climax, sublime poetry, and a wealth of meaningful themes. The play remains on the very short list of incomparably and undeniably great world literature masterpieces - one of the six or so best works ever. It is essential reading for everyone.

Perhaps the aspect that has always spoken most strongly is the character of Oedipus. The archetypal tragic hero, He is one of literature's most thoroughly sympathetic personages. Whatever his faults, he is far more sinned against than sinning; his rise from humble background to king is matched only by his even more awe-inspiring fall. Arrogant, haughty, and somewhat impulsive, he has distinct flaws, but they only make him more human; we feel for him because we see his profound humanity. However ostensibly different from us, he has the indisputable human core necessary for a truly moving character. His downfall's pathos is near-unbearable; it is hard to see a man so truly broken and heavily suffering. The play is valuable for showing the nadir to which people can sink, bringing out life's inherent tragedy with incredible force and emotion.

The story itself is also key. The original audience knew the Oedipus story well, and it has continued to be so famous that most will know a lot before reading, but Sophocles portrays it with such skillful mastery that it affected Athenians with mesmerizing power and continues to do so. A tighter plot or more perfect execution could not be conceived; no one has ever made better use of foreshadowing or dramatic irony, and the breathtaking climax has rarely even been approached. The story is put together with almost mathematical precision, and the close is simply devastating. The totality of bitterly ironic events that comes down on Oedipus is so crushingly malevolent that it shows the absolute worst that can happen to a person. For this reason among many others, the play remains the consummate tragedy.

The work's lasting value may be due primarily to its extraordinary dramatization of numerous weighty themes. All Greek tragedies were broadly philosophical in a way later plays - to say nothing of current ones - rarely are, but this is again the top example. It most famously deals with fate and has indeed never been matched for showing fatalism's dark possibility and potentially fatal consequences. However, this has also been exaggerated, because a close reading clearly shows that Oedipus himself inadvertently caused his downfall; this is what makes him a tragic hero. Denying the conventional depiction may seem strange, but it after all makes him more relatable. As far as we know, we are not victims of venomous fate but are fragile beings suffering from limitations we are unable to overcome. The play in any case has other important themes:the creation and enforcement of taboos, questions of political succession and family relations, pride vs. humility, etc. That Sophocles was able to do all this in a work of less than two thousand lines - not even half of Hamlet - is a testament both to his genius and to ancient Greek art's essential concision.

There are few works for which reviews are more superfluous; the real question is what translation to get. Robert Fagles' is undoubtedly the best for current readers. It is not that prior ones are inaccurate, but inevitable language changes have made them ever less readable; some may think them more stately, but they lack Fagles' flow and readability. All one need do is compare his rendering of the famous closing speech to prior ones; his is so much more immediate yet also more poetic. Dedicated Greekless readers will of course want several, but neophytes should start with Fagles, the only version most will ever need.

Translation aside, the question of what edition to get is also important. The play is well worth reading on its own, but many versions pair it with Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles' other two Theban plays. The former is nearly as great as Oedipus the King, and the latter has great merit, meaning the trilogy is ideally bought complete. Standalones are hard to justify unless one wants a deluxe edition with Greek text, extensive criticism, or some other bonus, but the important thing is of course to read the play in some form.

High Quality, Low Price
I purchased this title because the cost of the book was low and I have read it before. Although I didn't notice the other reviews of this book, saying there were errors, I got this book and it it didn't have any missing pages or paragraphs. I would recommend this title because of the high quality and low price.

Do Not Order This Version
I had already ordered a copy of this before I saw the other reviewer's comments, and hoped that maybe that person had just gotten a bad copy.Unfortunately, that wasn't the case and as they said, this book is incomplete.Someone really should contact the publisher about this and get this book off the "shelves."

missing text
This version is missing at least 14 pages to the end.It cuts off mid-sentence, in the middle of a word!I bought it for my son's English summer reading, and he got one from the library to compare. If he had not read this before, he would not have realized that at least an entire scene was missing. I will have to order a different version as well. ... Read more

Product Description
One of the most famous poets from classical antiquity, Sophocles was one of three important ancient Greek tragedians, the others being Aeschylus and Euripides. Writing during the 5th century BC, Sophocles created some one hundred and twenty three plays during his lifetime, of which only seven have survived in their entirety. Included in this edition are those seven complete plays, as translated by Lewis Campbell and include the following: Antigone, Aias (Ajax), Oedipus the King, Electra, The Trachinian Maidens (The Trachiniae), Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. These classic tragedies are essential reading and their influence on modern literature and drama is a profound one. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good Humor Enlightens Thoughtful Men on Serious Topics: If Only The Ancient Athenians Would Have Listened
The late Mortimer Adler once wrote that the tyrant does not fear the well written treatise criticizing tyranny. However, the tyrant fears the well timed joke told the by the town drunk. Aristophanes (c.447 BC-c. 375 BC)who could be described as an Athenian conservative was not the Athenian town drunk. But his comedies could alarm any tyrant.

In contemporary United States phony sensitivity and political correctness have made reason, logic, and clear thinking endangered species. Poliitical correct nonsense and false sensitivity have condemned good humor whereby such is dangerous.

Yet Aristophanes demonstrated that parody and good humor can be used to condemn tyranny, useless war (most wars are useless indeed)feigned seriousness, and politically correct nonsense. A brief precis of some of his plays are amusing and yet serious.

The comedy titled THE ACHARNIANS was written AND produced c. 425 BC hen the Athenians discovered that they were in for a long, protracted war against the Spartans and their allies. Aristophanes uses the character named Dicaeopolis as the hero in this play. Dicaeopolis sees the uselessness of the Peloponesian War and makes his own peace treaty with Spartans with whom he has no personal quarrel. In an episode with the Acharnian charcoal burners, Dicaeopolis is attacked until he convinces half of them that he is right. During debates, an Athenian commander named Lamachus is alerted to combat against Spartans. After repeated campaings against the Spartan, Lamachus is painfully wounded and returnes. Dicaeopolis is summer to a dinner party where he is the champion wine inbiber. He returns with dancing girls holding him and preventing his falling. Lamachus is not eager to return to battle and pain. On the other hand, Diocaepolis is eager for the next party and wine, women, and song.

Another anti-war play written by Aristophanes was titled LYSISTRATA who is an Athenian wife and mother. She would agree with the Greek history Herodotus (485 BC-427 BC)who wrote that normally children bury the parents. But when is afoot, the parents have the tragedy of buring their children. Lysistrata sees the useless tragedy of the Peloponesian War and makes a bold, unusal decision to do something. She organizes the Athenian and Spartan women to go on a sex strike agains their husbands. She reasons that the Peloponesian War has deprived both Athenian and Spartan women of their husbands and sons. What is the use of having sex when sons are going to be devoured by war? The Athenian and Spartan men beg, threaten, and plead with their wives to no avail. The lesson is clear to any reasonable reader.

Aristophanes had harsh words for attorneys in his play title THE WASPS. He used the analogy of the lawyers flocking to any incident with feigned interest for the injured party. Aristophanes used good parody and exaggeration to make fools out of attornies in his parody of the legal profession.

Readers should note that no one was safe from Aristophanes' sharp pen. THE CLOUDS is a humorous parody and characature of the Athenian philosopher Socrates (c. 470 BC-399 BC). Aristophanes had Socrates pestering the Athenians about how they lived, what they believed, etc. Socrates is viewed as a nuisance in spite of his moral crusades. Aristophanes presented Socrates as having his head in the clouds while his children were constantly in trouble, and his wife was constantly nagging Socrates for his absent mindedness and inability to be aware of his domestic situation. As an aside, Socrates supposedly laughed the hardest when the characters were presented to the audience.

Those who have a decent sense of homor(there are a surprisingly few number of women and men who do)will enjoy these comedies. Aristophanes' comedies are valuable because of their social and political commentary. His plays are even more valuable now in an age of religious lunacy, blantent hypocrisy, political correct idiocy, and mindless conformity.

What Bad Thing Could One Say About The Greatest Tragedian?
This is a most accessible tome of the seven extant plays of the Sophocles .
The editor's comments also illumine the reader. If you've never read Sophocles, this inexpensive paperback is all you need to enter the realm of ancient Greece.
... Read more