Sophocles

"Oedipus the King" (or, "Oedipus Rex") is probably Sophocles' most famous work, first performed about 429 B. C. It should be required reading for every college Freshman. As had been prophesied, Oedipus unknowingly kills his father, Laius, and marries his own mother, Jocasta. The play has great use of irony. Jocasta (or, Iocasta) recognizes the truth before Oedipus and tries to prevent him from finding out. The play has unsrpassed use of dramatic irony. It has had a great influence on later authors. "Antigone" (probably first performed about 442 B. C.) is another tragedy centered on the flaw of stubborn pride. It also presents the conflict between secular law and divine law. A stubborn King Creon of Thebes refuses to allow the equally stubborn Antigone to bury the body of her brother Polynices despite the entreaties of Creon's wife and son. Creon orders her death but she commits suicide, as does Creon's wife and son. The play has excellent characterizations. The well-constructed "Oedipus at Colonus" (405 B. C.) was first produced after the death of Sophocles. It shared first prize in Athens along with some other plays. It is apparently a reflection of a quarrel between Sophocles and his own sons. An aged Oedipus, nearing death, curses his sons and prophesies their own deaths.

The three thebian plays defenetly defines irony, love, tragedy and power. For all who wonder where the term absolute power absolutely corrupts, now you know. These plays are beautifly tragic, the description of emotion, the plot twists and the story as a whole wrenches ur heart and if you are like me, this book makes you cry, laugh, and do every thing in between. This book is a book for those that trully enjoy a book.

"Early on the Sunday morning of May 22, 1949, after copying out half of Sophocles' desolate poem 'The Chorus from Ajax' as a valediction ("'Woe, woe!' will be the cry . . ."), James Forrestal tied one end of his bathrobe sash to the radiator of the diet kitchen across the hall from his sixteenth-floor room, tied the other end around his neck, removed the screen from the window above the radiator and jumped." This passage from Richard Rhodes' Dark Sun says less about Forrestal (U. S. Secretary of the Navy during the Second World War) than it does about Sophocles. It prompted me to read Sophocles' Ajax. I found Forrestal's valediction both powerful and terrifying: ". . . By painful stages came to his right mind. And when he saw his dwelling full of Ruin, He beat his head and bellowed. There he sat, Wreckage himself among the wreck of corpses, The sheep slaughtered; and in an anguished gripe Of fist and fingernail he clutched his hair. . ." This in turn prompted me to reread the three Oedipus plays. I remembered reading them in college. I thought that I knew the story, but to my surprise I had missed some of the best parts. Either I'm getting wiser or I'm reading a better translation. I don't recall feeling the excitement or seeing the incredible beauty of construction when I read these plays for the first time. Sophocles is much, much better than I remembered him. Unlike Forrestal, I think that there is nothing better than a good Greek tragedy to cheer you up. David Green's superb translations reveal the Master's touch in readable, comprehensible, modern English.