Home The Theban Plays: King Oedipus; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone by Sophocles; E. F. Watling (Translator); Introduction by E. F. Watling (ISBN: 9780140440034)

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The Theban Plays: King Oedipus; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone Paperback - 1986

Name: The Theban Plays: King Oedipus; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone (Penguin Classics)
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Author: Sophocles
ISBN: 9780140440034

by Sophocles; E. F. Watling (Translator); Introduction by E. F. Watling

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Summary

‘O Light! May I never look on you again,
Revealed as I am, sinful in my begetting,
Sinful in marriage, sinful in shedding of blood!’

The legends surrounding the royal house of Thebes inspired Sophocles (496–406 BC) to create a powerful trilogy of mankind’s struggle against fate. King Oedipus tells of a man who brings pestilence to Thebes for crimes he does not realise he has committed, and then inflicts a brutal punishment upon himself. With profound insights into the human condition, it is a devastating portrayal of a ruler brought down by his own oath. Oedipus at Colonus provides a fitting conclusion to the life of the aged and blinded king, while Antigone depicts the fall of the next generation, through the conflict between a young woman ruled by her conscience and a king too confident in his own authority.

E. F. Watling’s masterful translation is accompanied by an introduction, which examines the central themes of the plays, the role of the Chorus, and the traditions and staging of Greek tragedy.

From the publisher

'O Light! May I never look on you again,
Revealed as I am, sinful in my begetting,
Sinful in marriage, sinful in shedding of blood!'

The legends surrounding the royal house of Thebes inspired Sophocles (496-406 BC) to create a powerful trilogy of mankind's struggle against fate. King Oedipus tells of a man who brings pestilence to Thebes for crimes he does not realise he has committed, and then inflicts a brutal punishment upon himself. With profound insights into the human condition, it is a devastating portrayal of a ruler brought down by his own oath. Oedipus at Colonus provides a fitting conclusion to the life of the aged and blinded king, while Antigone depicts the fall of the next generation, through the conflict between a young woman ruled by her conscience and a king too confident in his own authority.

E. F. Watling's masterful translation is accompanied by an introduction, which examines the central themes of the plays, the role of the Chorus, and the traditions and staging of Greek tragedy. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

First line

The place called Thebes lay in the central plain of Boeotia, part of the narrow tongue of land joining the Athenian country to the more northerly mainland.

Details

Title The Theban Plays: King Oedipus; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone
Author Sophocles; E. F. Watling (Translator); Introduction by E. F. Watling
Binding Paperback
Edition [ Edition: Repri
Pages 176
Volumes 1
Language ENG
Publisher Penguin Group, Harmondsworth
Date 1986
Illustrated Yes
ISBN 9780140440034 / 0140440038
Weight 0.3 lbs (0.14 kg)
Dimensions 7.74 x 5.09 x 0.44 in (19.66 x 12.93 x 1.12 cm)
Ages 18 to UP years
Grade levels 13 - UP
Themes
- Chronological Period: Ancient (To 499 A.D.)
- Cultural Region: Greece
Library of Congress subjects Drama, Oedipus (Greek mythology)
Dewey Decimal Code 882.01

About the author

Sophocles was born at Colonus, just outside Athens, in 496 BC, and lived ninety years. His long life spanned the rise and decline of the Athenian Empire; he was a friend of Pericles, and though not an active politician he held several public offices, both military and civil. The leader of a literary circle and friend of Herodotus, he was interested in poetic theory as well as practice, and he wrote a prose treatise On the Chorus. He seems to have been content to spend all his life at Athens, and is said to have refused several invitations to royal courts.

Sophocles first won a prize for tragic drama in 468, defeating the veteran Aeschylus. He wrote over a hundred plays for the Athenian theater, and is said to have come first in twenty-four contests. Only seven of his tragedies are now extant, these being Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus the King, Women of Trachis, Electra, Philoctetes, and the posthumous Oedipus at Colonus. A substantial part of The Searches, a satyr play, was recovered from papyri in Egypt in modern times. Fragments of other plays remain, showing that he drew on a wide range of themes; he also introduced the innovation of a third actor in his tragedies. He died in 406 BC. E.F. Watling was educated at Christ's Hospital and University College, Oxford. His translations of Greek and Roman plays for the Penguin Classics include the seven plays of Sophocles, nine plays of Plautus, and a selection of the tragedies of Seneca.

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