Sophocles: The Theban Plays: Antigone/King Oidipous/Oidipous at Colonus (Focus Classical Library) [Paperback]

Sophocles (Author), Ruby Blondell (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1585100374 | ISBN-13: 978-1585100378 | Publication Date: December 1, 2001

This anthology includes English translations of three plays of Sophocles' Oidipous Cycle: Antigone, King Oidipous and Oidipous at Colonus. The trilogy includes an introductory essay on Sophocles life, ancient theatre, and the mythic and religious background of the plays. Each of these plays is available from Focus in a single play edition. Focus Classical Library provides close translations with notes and essays to provide access to understanding Greek culture.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The three best known of Sophocles' plays in a readable translation, designed specifically for college courses in Classics, Classical tradition and Greek theater.

About the Author

Ruby Blondell is Professor of Classics at the University of Washington in Seattle. She has published widely on Greek literature and philosophy, and the reception of myth in popular culture. Her books include "The Play of Character in Plato’s Dialogues" (Cambridge 2002); "Women on the Edge: Four Plays by Euripides" (co-authored) (Routledge 1999); "Helping Friends and Harming Enemies. A Study in Sophocles and Greek Ethics" (Cambridge 1989).

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Co. (December 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585100374
• ISBN-13: 978-1585100378
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #96,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #41 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > Classical & Early
  • #85 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > Greek & Roman

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction and translations of Sophocles' Theban plays, September 20, 2011

By 

Leon Seaman (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sophocles: The Theban Plays: Antigone/King Oidipous/Oidipous at Colonus (Focus Classical Library) (Paperback)

I ran across this book in my local university bookstore when I was pursuing research on the influence of tragedy on Mark's Gospel in conversation with Aristotle's Poetics, in which he recommends Sophocles as the model tragedian.

Ruby Blondell writes like she teaches in class (I read the Greek text of the Iliad with her), offering clear, concise explanations of the various backgrounds, along with helpful and thought-provoking comments (in notes) on the text.

In this book she has one introduction, then very readable translations of each drama, with helpful footnotes. If you don't mind spending a few bucks extra, I'd also recommend her individual treatments of the three dramas, which each have a version of the introduction and the translation with footnotes, but also include a helpful essay specific to the drama, too:

Sophocles: Antigone (Focus Classical Library)
Sophocles: King Oidipous (Focus Classical Library)
Sophocles: Oidipous at Colonus (Focus Classical Library)

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Little to Add, December 20, 2010

By 

grozny - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Sophocles: The Theban Plays: Antigone/King Oidipous/Oidipous at Colonus (Focus Classical Library) (Paperback)

Very little to add to Mr. Bernabo's review except that the translation is modern without being "slangy" and the introduction is excellent and helpful, especially for students not too familiar with Greek tragedy. Highly recommended.

7 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Theban Plays of Sophocles in chronological rather than narrative order, August 15, 2005

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Sophocles: The Theban Plays: Antigone/King Oidipous/Oidipous at Colonus (Focus Classical Library) (Paperback)

"The Theban Plays" from the Focus Classical Library collects three of Sophocles's greatest tragedies, which are arranged here in the chronological order they were written rather than the narrative order that would have "Antigone" last. "Antigone" was actually written first by Sophocles. Following the death of Oidipous, 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.

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 seems 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 is developing. Even though the playwright strips Creon of his son, Haemon and wife, Eurydice by the end of the drama, it is not a fatal verdict rendered against the king's judgment, but rather the playing out of the tragedy that began with the birth of Oidipous to its grim conclusion.

"King Oidipous" is not only the most read of all the Greek tragedies, it is also has the clear distinction of being the most misread as well. The play's exalted reputation exists in part because it was presented as the paragon of the dramatic form by Aristotle in his "Poetics," and it may well be because of that fact that "King Oidipous s" was one of the relatively few plays by Sophocles to be passed down from ancient times. When I have taught Greek tragedies in various classes students have reconsidered the play in terms of key concepts such as harmartia ("tragic error of judgment"), angonrisis ("recognition"), peripeteia ("reversal"), catharsis, etc., and they usually agree this play provides the proverbial textbook examples of these terms.

However, I was always bothered by the fact that Sophocles engages in some rather heavy-handed foreshadowing regarding the fact that the play's tragic hero is going to blind himself before the conclusion. The lines were closer to, dare I say, sophomoric humor than eloquently setting up the climax. But then I read something very, very interesting in Homer's "Iliad," where there appears a single reference to Oidipous which suggests that he died in battle. Remember now that Homer's epics were written several hundred years before Sophocles was born and that the Greek playwrights were allowed to take great liberties with the various myths (consider the three different versions of the death of Clytemnestra at the hands of Orestes we have from Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus). The Athenian audience would know its Homer, but "King Oidipous " was a new play.

This leads me to advance a very interesting possibility: the Greek audience did not know that Oidipous was going to blind himself. This was a new idea. Iocasta (Jocasta) appears in the "Odyssey" when Odysseus visits Hades, but the only mention of the sin involved is in her marriage to her son, nothing about his being blind. Obviously you will have to make your own judgment about my hypotheses, but I have to think it is at least worth consideration. Still, there is the fact that because even those who do not know the play know the story about the man who killed his father and married his mother, "King Oidipous" is usually misread by students. Because they know the curse they miss something very important: the curse that the oracle at Delphi tells Oidipous is not the same curse that was told to his parents.

In "Oidipous at Colonus" Sophocles tells of the final fate of the exiled figure. Colonus is a village outside Athens, where the blind, old man has become a benevolent source of defense to the land that has given him his final refuge. The tragedy was produced posthumously in 401 B.C.E., and the legend is that it was used by Sophocles as his defense against the charge of senility brought by his children. In terms of its lack of dramatic structure (the scenes are connected by the character of Oidipous rather than by the loosely constructed plot) and the melancholy of its lyric odes it is the most atypical of the extant plays of Sophocles. But it is the characterization of Oidipous as a noble figure that stands out. This is still the same proud and hot-tempered figure who vowed to solve the reason for the curse on Thebes in the earlier play. But this is also an Oidipous who has accepted his punishment, even though he insists that he is innocent.

The fact that this was the last play written by Sophocles offers a line of analysis for understanding "Oidipous at Colonus" as well. You can read in certain lyrics, such as the first "staismon" with its ode to Colonus and the characterization of King Theseus of Athens, the playwright's praise for the democratic institutions and proud history of Athens. On a more psychological level you can consider the play as articulating Sophocles' views on death. Still here is the compelling argument of the play that through his personal suffering Oidipous has been purified.