The Three Theban Plays: Antigone; Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus

by Sophocles

The heroic Greek dramas that have moved theatergoers and readers since the fifth century B.C.

Sophocles' Theban Plays- Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone-lie at the core of the Western literary canon. They are extensively translated, universally taught, and frequently performed. Chronicling the downfall of Oedipus, the legendary king of Thebes, and his descendants, the Theban Plays are as relevant to present-day thought about love, duty, patriotism, family, and war as when they were written 2,500 years ago. Recent translations of the plays, while linguistically correct, often fail to capture the beauty of Sophocles' original words. In combining the skills of a distinguished poet, Ruth Fainlight, and an eminent classical scholar, Robert J. Littman, this new edition of the Theban Plays is both a major work of poetry and a faithful translation of the original works. Thoughtful introductions, extensive notes, and glossaries frame each of the plays within their historical contexts and illuminate important themes, mythological roots, and previous interpretations.

This elegant and uncommonly readable translation will make these seminal Greek tragedies accessible to a new generation of readers.

Genres: Classics

351 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 5, 2023

About the author

Sophocles (497/496 BC-406/405 BC), (Greek: Σοφοκλής ; German: Sophokles , Russian: Софокл , French: Sophocle , Catalan: Sòfocles ) was an ancient Greek tragedian, known as one of three from whom at least one play has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those of Aeschylus; and earlier than, or contemporary with, those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote over 120 plays, but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Women of Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. For almost fifty years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens which took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. He competed in thirty competitions, won twenty-four, and was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won thirteen competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles; Euripides won four.
The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature Oedipus and Antigone: they are generally known as the Theban plays, though each was part of a different tetralogy (the other members of which are now lost). Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor (attributed to Sophocles by Aristotle; to Aeschylus by Themistius), thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights.

Reviews

[Logan Drury]

“O the generations of men / the dying generations—adding the total of all your lives I find they come to nothing… / does there exist, is there a man on earth who seizes more joy than just a dream, a vision? / And the vision no sooner dawns than dies / blazing into oblivion. / You are my great example, you, your life / your destiny, Oedipus, man of misery— / I count no man blest.”

This trilogy of drama is the greatest Greek tragedy ever written. And I’m willing to say that two of these plays, Antigone and Oedipus the King, are two of the greatest plays of all time. Sophocles uses myths completely known to the Athenians at the time and are even commonly understood today, yet still provides a shock factor. How does he do it? By masterfully and ironically presenting the royal family of Thebes in a way that explores themes of Free Will, divine existence, and divine law. Everyone knows that Oedipus killed his dad and married his mother. But when Oedipus the King starts no one does. The audience is almost given the perspective of “the gods” since we know the truth and have to slowly watch Oedipus blindly pursue the revealing of that agonizing truth.

I particularly enjoyed the Penguin Classics edition since this is my first time reading this trilogy in release order which provided a unique take on the events and a more accurate representation of how the original viewers would’ve experienced it. If you haven’t read these plays, you haven’t experienced true tragedy🤷‍♂️

[Erik]

First about the edition I read. I chose the Fainlight, Littman translation to read, and I was very pleased with it. The book as available on Kindle with this translation, and I was displeased with the amount of editing errors in the text. It seemed to me that the book was digitized using automatic character recognition that made quite a few errors that were not corrected. I regularly found words misspelled, and often it was obvious what the spelling should be. But, there were times when I hit a sentence that I could not make sense of, and I felt that the meaning was being obscured by a typographical error that was not obvious and obscured the meaning.

To the content of the book. I was, of course, familiar with the story in Oedipus the king, and it's place as a part of the Western Canon is well established. I was not familiar with the other two stories of Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. Of the three stories, Oedipus at Colonus was the least interesting. But, I enjoyed both Oedipus the King and Antigone. I thought the translation did a good job at being understandable while still being poetic. Sometimes, translations try so hard to maintaing the poetic nature of a work that they become inscrutable. This one is understandable, with a degree of archaism that feels appropriate given that the source material is about 2400 years old.

[Zachary Jones]

I know this is kind of the point but it’s annoying no one listens to the prophecies or seers and actively seeks out their own doom.

[Tylerjohn DePasquale]

I enjoyed reading this. It put all three of the Oedipus stories into one consolidated book so that you can easily read them in order. Beginning with Oedipus the King, leading to Oedipus at Colonus and finally arriving at Antigone.

The translation was very good, however they attempted to recreate an “Old English” feeling with the translation. Making some of it a bit dense to understand with phrasings and spellings. It didn’t prove too challenging to get through if you are already familiar with the stories of Oedipus.

I picked this up for a mere $0.99 on Kindle and can definitely recommend picking it up if on sale. Or full price if you really appreciate the subject matter.