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The Complete Greek Tragedies, Volume 2: Sophocles

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This is Volume II of a four volume set "The Complete Greek Tragedies" (Volume I is Aeschylus, Volumes III and IV are Euripides). Like the other volumes, _Sophocles_ is a handsomely bound hardcover with stylized Greekish images interspersed throughout and one on the cover (in this case, a golden hoplite).

_Sophocles_ is light on interpretative materials -- no footnotes and only a brief essay introducing each play (a slightly longer essay introduces the Theban plays as a trilogy). However, since the tragedians are much simpler to translate than, say, Aristophanes (who throws in lots of puns and current event references and untranslateable jokes and therefore really requires some explanation), the lack of critical apparatus is not a problem.

Sophocles, of course, is a must-read. In his writings, drama has taken a step away from the choral Aeschylus and a step toward us by adding more actors and diminishing the role of the Chorus, so he is in some sense easier to read than Aeschylus. Sophocles is also more "tragic" than Aeschylus, less upbeat -- Sophocles's heroes are in some sense transformed and earn the respect of the gods by their subborn loyalty to their own natures, but from a human perspective they always destroy themselves. (A great introduction to Sophocles, while I'm at it, is Bernard Knox's book _The Heroic Temper_.) And, of course, you simply have to read the "Theban plays" ("Oedipus at Colonus" and "Antigone", but especially "Oedipus the King", sometimes also called "Oedipus Tyrannos" or "Oedipus Rex").

Sophocles is a beautiful, insightful writer, and an important part of the Western canon. This edition is a lovely and complete collection of his surviving plays.

The life of the great poet-playwright Sophocles coincided with the greatness of Athenian democracy, which he served as artist, general and priest. The seven-and-a-half plays that survive are all that exist out of a body of work which included 123 tragedies and satyr plays, numerous poems and a book on theater entitled "On The Chorus." What we are left with testifies to a thinker who, like Shakespeare, looked at the world around him and re-thought and re-conceptualized what he saw. Almost all of the currently existing English language translations of Sophocles leave much to be desired but this edition is the best, complete single-volume one there is. Included is "Oedipus the King," an architectonic exploration of the many gray areas between knowing and not-knowing. Cursed by the sin of the father Laius, King Oedipus investigates the truth behind a crime responsible for the plague that is destroying his city, Thebes. Under the severest personal and social crisis Oedipus, Jocasta, Creon, Teiresias and the Chorus of Elders react by repressing, projecting, displacing and denying knowledge, with the Chorus finally scapegoating and condemning Oedipus in the hopes that the gods will destroy him and only him.

"Antigone," a play of great truth and beauty, concerns Oedipus' daughter's insistence on burying her brother's corpse, which has been condemned by King Creon to be left for wild animals to tear apart as an exemplary punishment for his aggression and treason. Throughout the play Antigone gives three reasons for her defiance: 1. self-conviction and the importance of family bonds ("yes, yes, to me I say! He cannot keep me from what is mine"), 2. obedience to the gods ("these commands are unlawful to the Gods"), and finally 3) a disturbing and confused rejection of any moral or social values behind her act ("I would have let my child or husband rot"). Death, Love, and the curse of the House of Oedipus are themes prominently raised by the play and which finally come together in this final, controversial speech. Even in the original Greek this passage is difficult to untangle but I think what the passage ultimately hints at is the incestuous and self-destructive nature of the family curse. Antigone is indeed in love with death, courting it with her 'double burial' of her brother and ultimately redefining the rights of family until it refers solely to one like her father's. As "Antigone" may be even more Creon's play than it is Antigone's, the "Ode on Man" may be the central passage in the play (unfortunately the Grene translations fails to capture the necessary word-symbolism). Order has created civilization but too much order is compared to the catastrophe of pulling too tightly on the reins on a team of horses and losing control. Attempting to retain command and authority one ends up denigrating natural and familial values and destroys the polis.

The third masterpiece, in my opinion, is "The Women of Trachis," which suffers most of all in translation, I'm afraid. It concerns the contrasting lives of Deianira, the wife of Heracles and mother of Hyllus, and that of Heracles, son of Zeus and father of Hyllus. Line 260 of Mr. Jameson's translation does not allow for the ambiguity of the original in which the herald Lichas informs his audience that Heracles held King Eurytus, alone of mortals - "in part" - responsible for his punishment and enslavement to the barbarian Queen Omphale. This little moment of ambiguity is necessary in order to see Heracles' sacking of Euboea and the great sacrifice afterwards as acts of defiance against not only Eurytus but also against Zeus's "concern" and punishment of his son. The theme of this play is the power of sexuality and the relationship between men and women. "Ajax," "Electra" and "Philoctetes" are also great works of a great master. "Oedipus of Colonus" is a haunting conclusion and good-bye by a great artist to his dying city. This volume - even taking into consideration the imperfections of translation - is one which will keep on giving and enriching the reader every single time she or he revisits it.

Please remove the review that misattributes the Antigone to Euripides and misspells his name - nothing against the reviewer, but it's best not to continue to display such a misspelling. As for the Chicago translations, they are the most even and readable translations of Greek tragedy, albeit with lower highs than the Oxford translations and higher lows than the Penn translations.

I wrote the review of Aescylus below, which is a mistake. I was reviewing another part of the complete greek plays by L and G.

Greens translation and editing of Sophocles is as good as Lattimores Aesychlus(which is the best in the world of classical literature). It is often mistaken that these three plays are of the same trilogy. Actually they are parts of three unique trilogies. So don't be disturbed if you find some minor contradiction in the story lines each triology was ment to be played only once and never seen agains so the author often would be willing to use the same characters to convey different messages.

Antigone is a play about a sense of higher justice than the law. Doing what is right because it is right even if it means death. It is a great look into the greek view of justice. Still today this may be on my top ten play list of all time. I believe that this is the first of a trilogy on the King Creon and his down fall.

Oedipus Tyrannos (Oedipus the tyrant) is about hubris or man trying to rival the gods. Oedipus is also about self discovery and finding out things about yourself that lies just below the surface. It is also about stubborn pride and how it bind you and turns you against those tring to help you. As well it is about the tragedy that accompanies self discovery. Don't try to read to much Freud into this. Again one of the best playes ever written.

Oedipus at Colonus is about redemption of Oeidpus and the freedom that he achieves in admitting himself as human. This is a great play also.

This entire series is a jewel from the classics department of U of Chicago.

Antigone is the very best play ever written. It shows how a woman can be just as strong as men and teaches you to follow what's in your heart.

Antigone is the very best play ever written. It shows how a woman can be just as strong as men and teaches you to follow what's in your heart.