Sophocles

The legends surrounding the royal house of Thebes inspired Sophocles (496-406 BC) to create a powerful trilogy about mankind's struggle against fate. King Oedipus tells of a man who brings pestilence to Thebes for crimes he does not realise he has committed and who then inflicts a brutal punishment upon himself. With profound insights into the human condition, it is...

The heroic Greek dramas that have moved theatre-goers and readers since the fifth century B.C. Towering over the rest of Greek tragedy, the three plays that tell the story of the fated Theban royal family—Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus—are among the most enduring and timeless dramas ever written. Robert Fagles's authoritative and acclaimed translation conveys all of...

A new translation by David Raeburn, with introduction and notes by Pat Easterling Sophocles' innovative plays transformed Greek myths into dramas featuring complex human characters, through which he explored profound moral issues. Electra portrays the grief of a young woman for her father Agamemnon, who has been killed by her mother's lover. Aeschylus and Euripides also dramatized this story, but...

Greek Tragedy brings together the masterpieces of classical tragedy in one volume, making it the ideal single-volume introduction for theatre-goers, actors, general readers, and students of Classics, English Literature, and Drama. Agememnon is the first part of Aeschylus's Orestian trilogy, where the leader of the Greek army returns from the Trojan War only to be murdered by his treacherous wife,...

The gods never move faster than when punishing men with the consequences of their own actions. Desperate to gain control over a city ravaged by civil war, Creon refuses to bury the body of Antigone's rebellious brother. Outraged, she defies his edict. Creon condemns the young woman, his niece, to be buried alive. The people dare not object, but the...

An updated stand-alone edition of Sophocles's Oedipus the King taken from Chicago's renowned translations of the Greek tragedies. Over the years, David Grene and Richmond Lattimore's Complete Greek Tragedies have been the preferred translations of millions of readers—for personal libraries, individual study, and classroom use. Drawn from the authoritative third edition of the University of Chicago Press's classic series, this...

A stand-alone edition of Sophocles's Antigone taken from Chicago's renowned translations of the Greek tragedies. Drawn from the authoritative third edition of the University of Chicago Press's Complete Greek Tragedies series, this stand-alone edition of Elizabeth Wyckoff's elegant rendition of Antigone reminds readers why it endures as one of the most widely read and admired of Sophocles's plays. Though the...

Sophocles II contains the plays Ajax, translated by John Moore; The Women of Trachis, translated by Michael Jameson; Electra, translated by David Grene; Philoctetes, translated by David Grene; and The Trackers, translated by Mark Griffith. Sixty years ago, the University of Chicago Press undertook a momentous project: a new translation of the Greek tragedies that would be the ultimate resource...

When her dead brother is decreed a traitor, his body left unburied beyond the city walls, Antigone refuses to accept this most severe of punishments. Defying her uncle who governs, she dares to say ‘No’. Forging ahead with a funeral alone, she places personal allegiance before politics, a tenacious act that will trigger a cycle of destruction. Renowned for the...

Available for the first time as an independent work, David Grene’s legendary translation of Oedipus the King renders Sophocles’ Greek into cogent, vivid, and poetic English for a new generation to savour. Over the years, Grene and Lattimore’s Complete Greek Tragedies have been the preferred choice of millions of readers—for personal libraries, individual study, and classroom use. This new, stand-alone...

Since it was first performed in Athens in the 420s BC, Oedipus the King has been widely regarded as Sophocles' greatest tragedy and one of the foundation stones of western drama. Taken as a model by Aristotle in his Poetics, it became a yardstick for future generations. Since the play's rediscovery in the Renaissance, audiences—including Sigmund Freud—have found new interpretations...

Thebes is under attack. In a bloody battle outside the city’s gates, the sons of Oedipus fight to the death. King Creon issues an edict: Eteocles, who nobly defended Thebes against his brother and the invading army, is to be buried a hero; the body of his treacherous brother must be left to rot. Antigone and her uncle are locked...

Sophocles (497/6–406 BCE), along 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. However, these characters...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: Sheila Murnaghan's celebrated new translation of Sophocles' famed Greek tragedy depicting the deadly conflict between Antigone—daughter of Oedipus—and her uncle Creon, the unyielding new ruler of Thebes. A full introduction exploring the themes and performance history of the play, a detailed note on the translation, and explanatory annotations by Sheila Murnaghan. In "Contexts," ancient sources...

Oedipus, the former ruler of Thebes, has died. Now, when his young daughter Antigone defies her uncle, Kreon, the new ruler, because he has prohibited the burial of her dead brother, she and he enact a primal conflict between young and old, woman and man, individual and ruler, family and state, courageous and self-sacrificing reverence for the gods of the...

Among the most celebrated plays of ancient Athens, Oedipus the King is one of seven surviving dramas by the great Greek playwright, Sophocles, now available from Harper Perennial in a vivid and dynamic new translation by award-winning poet Robert Bagg. Praised by Aristotle as the pinnacle of Greek drama, Oedipus the King is the ancient world's most shocking and memorable...

In this highly-acclaimed translation of the most famous of all Greek tragedies, Stephen Berg—a well-known poet—and Diskin Clay—a distinguished classicist—combine their talents to produce a powerful version of Sophocles' timeless work. The volume also contains a critical introduction, commentary on difficult passages, stage directions, and glossaries of mythical and geographical terms. When referencing the title, avoid putting it in quotes...

Award-winning poet and playwright Robert Bagg offers a set of exciting and authentic new translations of Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Kolonos, and Antigone—together known as The Oedipus Cycle. One of the unquestionable acmes of world literature, Sophocles's immortal series of plays centres upon the royal family of Thebes, whose struggles for nobility and greatness lead paradoxically to their own...

Chicago's renowned translations of the greatest surviving plays of ancient Greece, collected into a single volume. Drawn from the authoritative third editions of David Grene and Richmond Lattimore's collections of the complete Greek tragedies, expertly updated by Mark Griffith and Glenn W. Most, this collection brings together seventeen of the greatest surviving plays of ancient Greece. Combining accuracy, poetic immediacy,...

Based on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly recreate the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations series offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order to evoke the poetry of the originals. The series seeks to recover the entire extant...

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...

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary 'It's a dreadful thing to yield...but resist now? Lay my pride bare to the blows of ruin? That's dreadful too.'