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The Way to Colonos: Sophocles Retold
A modern Greek classic “written in an ageless prose that instantly strikes the reader as the work of a master.” (Rachel Cusk, from the foreword)
First published in 1961, The Way to Colonos reworks three plays by Sophocles in a modern-day setting, probing their characters with savage intimacy. Antigone, wheeling her father onto the ferry to Colonos, is a stylish woman in her thirties, disgusted by her father’s self-absorption, guilt, and evasions. A suburban Electra dreams of a bloody confrontation with her mother that may never come to pass. The myth of Philoctetes, the castaway soldier, is reframed as a story of shifting allegiances in a guerrilla war that divided Greece after World War II.
As Rachel Cusk writes in her foreword to this new edition, the first in sixty years, Cicellis was a woman before her time, whose work—written in English, her second language—offers “shocking insight into the secret lives of young women” and is only now “free to reach readers with an appetite for female artistic authority, who wish to see the world through sharp fresh eyes.”
First published in 1961, The Way to Colonos reworks three plays by Sophocles in a modern-day setting, probing their characters with savage intimacy. Antigone, wheeling her father onto the ferry to Colonos, is a stylish woman in her thirties, disgusted by her father’s self-absorption, guilt, and evasions. A suburban Electra dreams of a bloody confrontation with her mother that may never come to pass. The myth of Philoctetes, the castaway soldier, is reframed as a story of shifting allegiances in a guerrilla war that divided Greece after World War II.
As Rachel Cusk writes in her foreword to this new edition, the first in sixty years, Cicellis was a woman before her time, whose work—written in English, her second language—offers “shocking insight into the secret lives of young women” and is only now “free to reach readers with an appetite for female artistic authority, who wish to see the world through sharp fresh eyes.”
- GenresClassics
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
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December 19, 2025Good job Rachel Cusk for offering the most white and useless forward I've ever read. Who does this British boomer cup think she is, starting the forward with "this savage little book..." And then doing nothing to offer why it is so "savage". Who is that forward even for? The teenage crowd Cusk attempting to blend in with? All right, I forgot that all Greek people especially the ancient Greeks were all white and Western so we can say s*** like "savage" when describing associated culture. Nothing superficial about that.
The book is not bad, but reading them alongside the original plays, there is overall for me a struggle to understand what the purpose of the rewriting and modern retelling is. Nonetheless there our moments are very good writing.
I wanted to give a higher review just to balance out some of the awkwardly negative ones here, one guy said he's skimmed the second short story and skipped the third one, and yet still thinks that he should write a review.
But the book simply just doesn't provide what the hype promises.
The book is not bad, but reading them alongside the original plays, there is overall for me a struggle to understand what the purpose of the rewriting and modern retelling is. Nonetheless there our moments are very good writing.
I wanted to give a higher review just to balance out some of the awkwardly negative ones here, one guy said he's skimmed the second short story and skipped the third one, and yet still thinks that he should write a review.
But the book simply just doesn't provide what the hype promises.
February 2, 2026
WOWZA so beautiful. Spare and, in that way, faithful to the original. All of these are so, so stunning. Klytemnestra as a lazy housewife … Philoctetes as a political prisoner facing down the void … Oedipus as a truly pitiful old man in a wheelchair, refusing responsibility, refusing love. Beautifully written, and fascinating recastings of the plays.
The other 10 Philistines who have reviewed this work have obviously not read the originals, or do not appreciate the originals, because what they complain about is precisely the strength of these odd, beautiful tales.
The other 10 Philistines who have reviewed this work have obviously not read the originals, or do not appreciate the originals, because what they complain about is precisely the strength of these odd, beautiful tales.
January 13, 2026
“This woman’s life must have been divorced from the material world, yet with none of the freedom, the detachment of the abstract. Her emotions were her daily routine, a routine as obsessively monotonous as a morning at the office.”
If nothing else, this is a great snapshot of a moment in time, rendered through the smudged lens of myth. The setting (1960s, Greece) is evocative and brought to mind Ferrante’s descriptions of postwar Italy. While so much of the prose did work for me, because these were also “translations” of Sophocles’ tragedies they tended towards long stream-of-consciousness monologues rather than dialogue, which sometimes worked but mostly didn’t. All-in-all, glad I read it, not sure I’d recommend it.
If nothing else, this is a great snapshot of a moment in time, rendered through the smudged lens of myth. The setting (1960s, Greece) is evocative and brought to mind Ferrante’s descriptions of postwar Italy. While so much of the prose did work for me, because these were also “translations” of Sophocles’ tragedies they tended towards long stream-of-consciousness monologues rather than dialogue, which sometimes worked but mostly didn’t. All-in-all, glad I read it, not sure I’d recommend it.
October 30, 2024
I tried to get into these three short stories, even reading synopses of the ancient Greek plays on which they were based in order to better understand them. In the end, however, I felt like I was reading the diary of a petulant 15-year old girl who was angry with her father...or her mother...or her brother. Barely made it through the first story, skimmed the second, skipped the third entirely.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews