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A review by patrickwadden
The Theban Plays: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone by Sophocles
4.0
It's funny, the thing that surprised me most about reading the Theban plays, stories that have most certainly been consumed by everyone on at least some small part by pop-cultural osmosis, is just how short they are. For real, I think even an attention-seeking tik-tok user of our generation would find these plays move so quickly it's hard to keep up; especially when people start dying! I did enjoy how the sadness just compounds and compounds; messengers serving as a way to tease and bemuse our pro/antagonist with riddles before ultimately announcing the death of a loved one, only to leave the stage for about two lines and come back with more tragedy.
Beginning with Oedipus Tyurannis (⭐⭐⭐⭐), I was delighted to read the great prose that wasn't highlighted in my Greek Mythology course last year, but I knew everything that was about to accumulate and it's still a pleasure watching it unravel. I believe it does the play great help in pacing (and avoiding not even made-yet cliches) to not hear the prophecy of Oedipus at the get-go, like I assumed it would but instead only indulges us in the cosmic prophetic eventualities after Oedipus clues in 'Oh, that old man I killed? Could have been someone..." It's just such a nice complete puzzle box where it all ties nicely together at the end, and what are we all, If not wandering blindly around if we mess w/ the primal forces of nature? see also, incestuous murderers.
Sophocles In Colonus (⭐⭐⭐)
It hits the same drum that is constantly in the back of the other two plays, of a good leader and the difference between Thebes and Athens. I like that it serves as a more direct voice and vision from Sophocles of rewriting his own mythology with an aged voice, but beyond that; there's a man who needs a place to stay for a night...and that's all that happens? I mean, I guess they founded a religion off that...
Antigone (⭐⭐⭐⭐) My highlight
Speaking of nothing happening, Antigone features the main conflict stemming just from a woman TRYING to bury her brother. And it's fucking great. Cosmic fates come back in, Athens versus Thebes, Family over the law, law vs morality, and we get some hints of what makes a good leader, being strong enough to learn from others; imagine learning from YOUR SON! Especially with all the Odepieous connections that this entails. It has more death, some great melodrama and some reckoning. A great piece with great prose.
Beginning with Oedipus Tyurannis (⭐⭐⭐⭐), I was delighted to read the great prose that wasn't highlighted in my Greek Mythology course last year, but I knew everything that was about to accumulate and it's still a pleasure watching it unravel. I believe it does the play great help in pacing (and avoiding not even made-yet cliches) to not hear the prophecy of Oedipus at the get-go, like I assumed it would but instead only indulges us in the cosmic prophetic eventualities after Oedipus clues in 'Oh, that old man I killed? Could have been someone..." It's just such a nice complete puzzle box where it all ties nicely together at the end, and what are we all, If not wandering blindly around if we mess w/ the primal forces of nature? see also, incestuous murderers.
Sophocles In Colonus (⭐⭐⭐)
It hits the same drum that is constantly in the back of the other two plays, of a good leader and the difference between Thebes and Athens. I like that it serves as a more direct voice and vision from Sophocles of rewriting his own mythology with an aged voice, but beyond that; there's a man who needs a place to stay for a night...and that's all that happens? I mean, I guess they founded a religion off that...
Antigone (⭐⭐⭐⭐) My highlight
Speaking of nothing happening, Antigone features the main conflict stemming just from a woman TRYING to bury her brother. And it's fucking great. Cosmic fates come back in, Athens versus Thebes, Family over the law, law vs morality, and we get some hints of what makes a good leader, being strong enough to learn from others; imagine learning from YOUR SON! Especially with all the Odepieous connections that this entails. It has more death, some great melodrama and some reckoning. A great piece with great prose.