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A review by erinriker
The Three Theban Plays: Antigone / Oedipus the King / Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles
5.0
This Robert Fagles translation is beautiful--far superior to other versions I've read (Fitts/Fitzgerald or David Greene's, for instance). The language is vibrant and compelling, an important asset for reading drama on the page. If you've not read Sophocles since a forced-and-indifferent slog during high school, I'd encourage you to rediscover it in a better light with this translation. Highly recommended.
This was my first time reading all three "Oedipus plays" in succession, and I appreciated that this volume presents them chronologically by Sophocles' date of composition rather than sequentially according to their place in the Theban myth. It's helpful to think of the three plays not as a "trilogy," but rather three separate tellings of the myth. This is how the Greek audiences would have seen them, and this arrangement also serves to better highlight Sophocles' development as a playwright.
The introductory essays by Bernard Knox are also a joy to read for those who are interested, but they're by no means a requirement for the general reader. The plays will stand on their own merit, with or without the introductory material. (At the very least, though, I'd suggest reading the brief summary of the Theban myths on pp. 27-29 for background if you're not already familiar with the story.)
This was my first time reading all three "Oedipus plays" in succession, and I appreciated that this volume presents them chronologically by Sophocles' date of composition rather than sequentially according to their place in the Theban myth. It's helpful to think of the three plays not as a "trilogy," but rather three separate tellings of the myth. This is how the Greek audiences would have seen them, and this arrangement also serves to better highlight Sophocles' development as a playwright.
The introductory essays by Bernard Knox are also a joy to read for those who are interested, but they're by no means a requirement for the general reader. The plays will stand on their own merit, with or without the introductory material. (At the very least, though, I'd suggest reading the brief summary of the Theban myths on pp. 27-29 for background if you're not already familiar with the story.)