Sophocles

Paul Woodruff

''I would call the register 'restrained colloquial'. The language ranges between the straightforward and the genuinely poetic, its dominant characteristic being freshness. This is not the usual dull translationese, which reads as if the original were not in a language people once spoke and wrote and created art with... One of the most effective styles I have seen in a translation.'' -- Reader's report. Paul Woodruff is Professor of Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin.

Antigone

Edipo Rey

First Ancient Greek play. It's remarkable how a text that was written so long ago can still resonate with people today.

I'm a bit sad that I knew the story and couln't experience it first through the text. But I'll read more Greek plays right away.

Eduardo Sorribas

First Ancient Greek play. It's remarkable how a text that was written so long ago can still resonate with people today.

I'm a bit sad that I knew the story and couln't experience it first through the text. But I'll read more Greek plays right away.

The tragedy of Oedipus' daughter - a wise, fearless heroine who shuns society's laws - from the master Greek dramatist.

roksi

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 for teachers, students, and readers. They succeeded. Under the expert management of eminent classicists David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, those translations combined accuracy, poetic immediacy, and clarity of presentation to render the surviving masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in an English so lively and compelling that they remain the standard translations. Today, Chicago is taking pains to ensure that our Greek tragedies remain the leading English-language versions throughout the twenty-first century. In this highly anticipated third edition, Mark Griffith and Glenn W. Most have carefully updated the translations to bring them even closer to the ancient Greek while retaining the vibrancy for which our English versions are famous. This edition also includes brand-new translations of Euripides’ Medea, The Children of Heracles, Andromache, and Iphigenia among the Taurians, fragments of lost plays by Aeschylus, and the surviving portion of Sophocles’s satyr-drama The Trackers. New introductions for each play offer essential information about its first production, plot, and reception in antiquity and beyond. In addition, each volume includes an introduction to the life and work of its tragedian, as well as notes addressing textual uncertainties and a glossary of names and places mentioned in the plays. In addition to the new content, the volumes have been reorganized both within and between volumes to reflect the most up-to-date scholarship on the order in which the plays were originally written. The result is a set of handsome paperbacks destined to introduce new generations of readers to these foundational works of Western drama, art, and life.

Ajax, The Women of Trachis, Electra, Philoctetes, The Trackers

Sophocles II

i read ajax and philoctetes and i don't think i'll read the others anytime soon, so i’m still marking this as finished. i had a blast reading these plays. ajax reminded me so much of kendall roy from succession and naoya zenin from jujutsu kaisen. lots of 'i am the eldest boy!' vibes from this guy. philoctetes made me way more emotional than i expected.. his exchange with neoptolemus was so sweet. except i hated the ending... not a fan of the 'listen to the gods and stick to the status quo' thing but i guess that's the point of these works, more or less. it made me feel like pholoctetes didn’t really get a good end to this story… but i am not really familiar with the myth beyond what’s in these plays so who knows. maybe i'll read the rest of this over the summer? i do really love these greek plays...

weenie ♡

Iris Adi

Oedipus Rex - Literary Touchstone Edition

Meagan Fischer 

I didn't actually read this translation but rather one by Ian Johnston. It was OK. Still trying to make sense of it in historical context.

Contains three of Sophocles' most famous tragedies. Includes introduction, textual note, chronology, and explanatory notes.

Antigone ; Oedipus the King ; Electra

Rohan Uddin

Haven't read Electra from this collection,I think there is Anne Carson's version, which I will read. Even after thousands of years, the stories are still great, and appropriately bleak.

Not my favourite translation but very easy to read

Florence

Ivy X

Play is very easy to follow and has a lot of recurring themes. Interesting take on the idea of obsession because it is the obsession of the truth rather than in a romantic sense. 
Enjoyed the idea of double meanings from the characters to what occurs. 
Very interesting play and entertaining

Disclaimer: I read the Graphic Novel Antigone by Olivia Vieweg based on the work of Sophokles

Neele Knolle

Sophocles I contains the plays “Antigone,” translated by Elizabeth Wyckoff; “Oedipus the King,” translated by David Grene; and “Oedipus at Colonus,” translated by Robert Fitzgerald. 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 for teachers, students, and readers. They succeeded. Under the expert management of eminent classicists David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, those translations combined accuracy, poetic immediacy, and clarity of presentation to render the surviving masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in an English so lively and compelling that they remain the standard translations. Today, Chicago is taking pains to ensure that our Greek tragedies remain the leading English-language versions throughout the twenty-first century. In this highly anticipated third edition, Mark Griffith and Glenn W. Most have carefully updated the translations to bring them even closer to the ancient Greek while retaining the vibrancy for which our English versions are famous. This edition also includes brand-new translations of Euripides’ Medea, The Children of Heracles, Andromache, and Iphigenia among the Taurians, fragments of lost plays by Aeschylus, and the surviving portion of Sophocles’s satyr-drama The Trackers. New introductions for each play offer essential information about its first production, plot, and reception in antiquity and beyond. In addition, each volume includes an introduction to the life and work of its tragedian, as well as notes addressing textual uncertainties and a glossary of names and places mentioned in the plays. In addition to the new content, the volumes have been reorganized both within and between volumes to reflect the most up-to-date scholarship on the order in which the plays were originally written. The result is a set of handsome paperbacks destined to introduce new generations of readers to these foundational works of Western drama, art, and life.

Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus

Sophocles I

Deyana

Read for a philosophy class in college my first year--a useful and affordable collection.

linda

Really interesting to think about what it means to speak truth to power, divine vs human law, role of women in Greek society

Melina Resbani

don't judge i had to read this for my literature class but it's is SO GOOD i loved it

Bertolt Brecht

Jean Anouilh

variazioni sul mito

mighty dragon 

i think this is my first time reading a greek play and doesn't get headache because of the language. it was hilarious and still very sad. honestly i don't know much about the play but antigone *chef's kiss* might check the other plays and other translated works of anne carson and other translations of the play later.

Noah Warner

** spoiler alert **
           I read this book for school, and enjoyed it a lot more than I thought i would, I actually felt pretty confident on my essay about it too! I’d add that here but it was written…

dana

i, too, think my life is going great only to get everything fucking destroyed in like 5 secs

creon does know that the play is called “antigone” and not “creon”... right?

E. A. Sophocles

To Laius, King of Thebes, an oracle foretold that the child born to him by his queen Jocasta would slay his father and wed his mother. So when in time a son was born the infant's feet were riveted together and he was left to die on Mount Cithaeron. But a shepherd found the babe and tended him, and delivered him to another shepherd who took him to his master, the King of Corinth. Polybus being childless adopted the boy, 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 them 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 blinded by his own act and praying for death or exile.

Oedipus the King ( Oedipus Rex )

Of course, it may be the Greco-Roman mythology geek in me speaking, or perhaps the Latin student, but...I actually really liked this play! It came as a pleasant surprise, too; I thought it was going to be another play where I would have to grind my teeth and look past paragraphs upon paragraphs of angsty repartee while hating the main character(s).

Sophocles is brilliant. Loved this one, and I look forward to reading the other two. I'd already read plenty of versions (watered-down) of the Oedipus tragedy, but the ending makes me go "wtfWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTF" every time. Plot stuff aside, I also like the way Sophocles takes time to question basic human instinct.

But kudos to Sophocles for taking a really, really fucked up Greek myth and making it into something stomachable while keeping the whole "live-action play" theme in mind.

madina

????????? i have no words i am just. my thoughts are summed up in this set of comparison and why it's so effective in making me just wanna weep.

ANTIGONE:
But leave me to my own absurdity, leave me
to suffer this—dreadful thing. I will suffer
nothing as great as death without glory.

/

TIRESIAS (to CREON):
...Stubbornness
brands you for stupidity—pride is a crime.
No, yield to the dead!
Never stab the fighter when he's down.
Where's the glory, killing the dead twice over?

p.s. haemon is bae and i'm so sad that he died. rip to the most decent guy in this play

Rei Édipo

Ricardo Santos

A Tragédia. Segundo Sófocles, Aristóteles, Shakespeare, e Freud.

Bailey Lagarde

** spoiler alert **
           It was a great read, but some aspects about it were a bit disturbing.

Tamara

the ending....was devastating
It is not called tragedy for nothing.
Creon got what he deserved though, we know who is the real hero of the story.

Hanna Roisman

English translation of Sophocles' tragedy of Electra, and the vengeance that she and her brother Orestes take on their mother and stepfather for the murder of their father. Focus Classical Library provides close translations with notes and essays.

Sophocles Electra

Olivera Mitić

Dramatizes the story of Oedipus, who killed his father and married his mother.

Oedipus the King

Destiny J Tamayo

******3.5******** overall I really liked the play but I'm still very uncomfortable about the incest between mother and son. And I also felt like the ending was pretty rushed. I was able to sympathize with Oedipus. It was alright for required reading.

Brianna Best

This was HILARIOUS at times. Just a tad bit dramatic but hey, that's what drama is for I guess. -badum-ch-

Antigone

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