Sophocles

Sophocles' Philoctetes begins with their arrival on the island. Odysseus explains to Neoptolemus that he must perform a shameful action in order to garner future glory - to take Philoctetes by tricking him with a false story while Odysseus hides. Neoptolemus is portrayed as an honorable boy, and so it takes some persuading to get him to play this part. To gain Philoctetes's trust, Neoptolemus tricks Philoctetes into thinking he hates Odysseus as well....

Sophocles' play is a famous retelling of Aias's (Ajax's) demise. After the armor is, awarded to Odysseus, Aias feels so insulted that he wants to kill Agamemnon and Menelaus. Athena intervenes and clouds his mind and vision, and he goes to a flock of sheep and slaughters them, imagining they are the Achaean leaders, including Odysseus and Agamemnon. When he comes to his senses, covered in blood, he realizes that what he has done has diminished his...

Edipo Rey es una obra cuya fuerza radica en que nos presenta de un modo magistral la enigmática relación que, con mayor frecuencia de la deseada, existe entre el dolor y el destino. Su lectura nos revela el sello casi indeleble que impone el azar en la vida de cada ser humano. Por ello, Edipo Rey es una gran tragedia, ya que además nos manifiesta una de las más extrañas paradojas de la vida: el hecho de que quien intenta escapar desesperadamente...

Entre las siete tragedias de Sófocles (c. 496-406 a.C.) que se han conservado completas, Antígona ocupa sin duda un lugar privilegiado. Como figura heroica la trascendencia de la protagonista ha propiciado innumerables relecturas a lo largo de los siglos (con una excelente acogida en el teatro contemporáneo) y ha dado pie a especulaciones filosóficas de todo pelaje. El personaje, encarnación del conflicto entre individuo y sociedad, lo consiente...

The ancient Greek tragedy about the exiled king's final days-and the power struggle between his two sons. The second book in the trilogy that begins with Oedipus Rex and concludes with Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus is the story of an aged and blinded Oedipus anticipating his death as foretold by an earlier prophecy. Accompanied by his daughters, Antigone and Ismene, he takes up residence in the village of Colonus near Athens-where the locals fear...

The second Theban play written by Sophocles, "Oedipus Rex," or "Oedipus the King," is the drama which chronologically begins the Oedipus cycle. After Laius, King of Thebes, learns from an oracle that he is doomed to perish by the hand of his own son, he binds the feet of his newborn child and orders his wife Jocasta to kill the infant. Unable to kill her own child, Jocasta entrusts a servant with the task instead, who takes the baby to a mountaintop...

The story begins with Deianeira, the wife of Heracles, relating the story of her early life and her plight adjusting to married life. She is now distraught over her husband's neglect of her family. Often involved in some adventure, he rarely visits them. She sends their son Hyllus to find him, as she is concerned over prophecies about Heracles and the land he is currently in. After Hyllus sets off, a messenger arrives with word that Heracles, victorious...

Among the most celebrated plays of ancient Athens, Aias is one of seven surviving dramas by the great Greek playwright, Sophocles, now available from Harper Perennial in a vivid and dynamic new translation by award-winning poet James Scully. Still powerful and remarkably timely thousands of years after its creation, Aias is the moving story of a soldier returning home victorious from the Trojan War, only to discover he has lost his life's purpose....

Award-winning poet and playwright Robert Bagg offers a set of exciting and authentic new translations of Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Kolonos, and Antigone-together known as The Oedipus Cycle. One of the unquestionable acmes of world literature, Sophocles's immortal series of plays centers upon the royal family of Thebes, whose struggles for nobility and greatness lead paradoxically to their own tragic downfalls. Portraying humankind at its worst...

One of the most famous poets from classical antiquity, Sophocles was one of three important ancient Greek tragedians, the others being Aeschylus and Euripides. Writing during the 5th century BC, Sophocles created some one hundred and twenty three plays during his lifetime, of which only seven have survived in their entirety. Included in this edition are those seven complete plays, as translated by Lewis Campbell and include the following: "Antigone,"...