Sophocles

Antigone · Oedipus the King · Oedipus at Colonus

THREE THEBAN PLAYS: ANTIGONE, OEDIPUS THE KING, OEDIPUS AT COLONUS - The Barnes & Noble review

Although I finished these plays yesterday afternoon, and I have in fact read two of them before, I find it difficult to give a quick summary of the action or a brief explanation of what it all means. Instead, here are a few of the things I've been thinking over the last 24 hours or so.

I love a good tragedy, and from Sophocles we get three for the price of one. Nearly everyone has heard of Oedipus, whether or not they've ever read Sophocles; we have S. Freud to thank for that. But I think what really captures our attention in these plays is that the protagonists are clearly honorable people trying to do the right thing, and they still end up with the short end of the stick.

Antigone is punished for doing the right thing, for standing up to the establishment and refusing to give in. Oedipus (in Oedipus the King) relentlessly searches out the truth, never giving in to fear even as he begins to suspect the awful truth. In Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus withstands suffering, humiliation and the cold glare of public scrutiny, finally to regain his power and self-worth in the last few moments of life, becoming in death what he could only hope to become in life.

I keep returning to translations by Robert Fagles. They are clear, intense, and seem to convey the urgency and mood of the plays and poems he translates. I recommend the Penguin Classics edition of The Three Theban Plays which includes useful introductions to each play as well as the wonderful Fagles translations.

SET - 1/10/2000

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