Reviews - The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone

550 reviews for:

The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone

Sophocles

3.87 AVERAGE

spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition

2.0

Translation by Peter Meineck and Paul Woodruff.

Oedipus Tyrannus (Meineck, Woodruff)
Antigone (Woodruff)
Oedipus at Colonus (Meineck)

spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition

3.0

This review is of the translation by Robert Fagles.

The Fagles translation is the best, in my opinion. I'm not the biggest fan of the Robert Fitzgerald (ft. Dudley Fitts) translation, although it's the edition I first studied. One major issue I had with Fitzgerald's translation was how he translated the word Ζεύς as "God." Initial capital, God. Interestingly, the Ancient Greek word Ζεύς is indeed the etymological ancestor of Modern English deity and French dieu, from Latin deus. In Attic Greek the word was Ζεύς (zeús); Doric, Δεύς (deús). Both sounded similar: the initial ζ (zêta) in the Attic would have been pronounced as either zd or dz. Fagles translates Ζεύς as Zeus.

ace_at_this's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Oedipus Rex - 4.5/5
Oedipus at Colonus - 2.5/5
Antigone - 4/5

bob625's review against another edition

5.0

I'm a complete neophyte to the ancient world, and the Three Theban Plays of Sophocles were my very first toe dip into ancient Greek literature.

For each play I wrote out a detailed plot outline, some relevant themes or interesting topics to think on, and my favourite quotes. I found this really helped me lay out everything in my head and achieve a greater understanding of the works. These plays are so vigorously detailed and poetic; elegant heapings of subtle meanings and insinuations lather each and every page; pure, pounding dramatic force is wielded by every single dire line; everything about these works of ingenious beauty make them impossible to go unloved by any fan of literature.