Read complete books and articles on: Oedipus

Sophocles - sŏfˈəklēz, c.496 b.c.–406 b.c., Greek tragic dramatist, younger contemporary of Aeschylus and older contemporary of Euripides, b. Colonus, near Athens. A man of wealth, charm, and genius, Sophocles was given posts of responsibility in peace and in war by the Athenians. He was a general and a priest; after his death he was worshiped as a hero. At the age of 16 he led the chorus in a paean on the victory of Salamis. He won his first dramatic triumph in 468, over Aeschylus, and thenceforth wrote copiously (he composed about 123 dramas), winning first place about 20 times and never falling lower than second. A definitive innovator in the drama, he added a third actor—thereby tremendously increasing the dramatic possibilities of the medium—increased the size of the chorus, abandoned the trilogy of plays for the self-contained tragedy, and introduced scene painting. Seven complete tragedies (difficult to date), part of a satyr play, and over 1,000 fragments survive. Ajax is perhaps the earliest tragedy; three actors are used but the form is handled imperfectly. In his other plays, whether with two or three actors, the dialogue is polished and smooth. Antigone (c.441) contains extraordinarily fine characterization. The most famous of his tragedies (cited by Aristotle as a perfect example of tragedy) is Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannus (c.429), in which Greek dramatic irony reaches an apex. The plot is based on the Oedipus legend. Electra (date uncertain), the Trachiniae (date uncertain; on the death of Hercules by the blood of Nessus), and Philoctetes (409) followed. Oedipus at Colonus was written shortly before Sophocles' death and was produced in 401. A sequel to Oedipus Rex, it tells of the last days and death of Oedipus; it is a quiet, simple play of great beauty and power. There is also extant about half of a satyr play (Ichneutae or The Trackers, written perhaps c.460) on Hermes' theft of Apollo's cattle. The characters in Sophocles are governed in their fate more by their own faults than by the actions of the gods as in the tragedies of Aeschylus. Sophocles is supposed to have said that Aeschylus composed correctly without knowing it; Euripides portrayed people as they were; and he painted people as they ought to be. The translation by Richmond Lattimore and David Grene, The Complete Greek Tragedies (1959) is one of the many English translations of Sophocles.

See studies by C. H. Whitman (1951), A. J. A. Waldock (1966), R. P. Winnington-Ingram (1980), and C. Segal (1981).

Show Excerpt Only

11 of the Best Books and Articles on: Oedipus

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Kolonos, and Antigone » Read Now
by Sophocles, Robert Bagg. 269 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

With this volume, poet Robert Bagg completes his translation of the three plays in which Sophocles dramatized the agony and destruction inflicted on Oedipus and his family, the royal house of Thebes. To the newly revised Oedipus the King, first published in 1982, Bagg adds Antigone and Oedipus at...
Read More

With this volume, poet Robert Bagg completes his translation of the three plays in which Sophocles dramatized the agony and destruction inflicted on Oedipus and his family, the royal house of Thebes. To the newly revised Oedipus the King, first published in 1982, Bagg adds Antigone and Oedipus at Kolonos. Composed decades apart in the fifth century BCE, these tragedies hold a central place in Western literature--not only because of the formal beauty and dramatic power of their poetry, but because of the shocking ironies that convey Sophocles' understanding of divine malice and human vulnerability. Bagg's goal has been to make accurate but idiomatic renderings of the Greek originals that are suitable for reading, teaching, or performing. What makes his versions "leaner, tauter, more luminous and Sophoclean than other translations," writes classicist Richard P. Martin, is Bagg's "decision to follow the American poetic tradition of Stevens, Pound, and Frost rather than the English tradition" of mostother contemporary translators. Readers and actors alike will find these translations loyal to Sophocles' characteristic directness and concision, his pervasive irony, his unsparing descriptions of physical violence, and the music of his choral songs. Each character speaks with a distinctive voice; each play possesses a tone expressive of the issues that preoccupied Sophocles during the stages of his long engagement with the fate of Oedipus, his wife/mother Jocasta, and their children. In the introductions, Bagg and his wife Mary discuss factors in ancient Greek social and cultural life that are likely to be unfamiliar to the general reader but are central to interpreting Sophocles' meaning.They have also annotated each play to clarify mythological references and points of interpretation and translation. In their general introduction they explore the origins of Greek theater, the nature of the Athenian festival of
Show less
2.

Readers and Mythic Signs: The Oedipus Myth in Twentieth-Century Fiction » Read Now
by Debra A. Moddelmog. 176 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library
3.

Tragedy and the Tragic: Greek Theatre and Beyond (Chap. 1 "Vision, Blindness, and Mask: The Radicalization of the Emotions in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex" and Chap. 2 "What Can You Rely on in Oedipus Rex? Response to Calame") » Read Now
by M. S. Silk. 566 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

This important book of thirty new essays focuses on the crucial question: what makes tragedy, especially Greek tragedy, tragic? The contributors include many of the world's foremost scholars in the field of Greek drama. The book is accessible to readers with no knowledge of Greek and will be...
Read More

This important book of thirty new essays focuses on the crucial question: what makes tragedy, especially Greek tragedy, tragic? The contributors include many of the world's foremost scholars in the field of Greek drama. The book is accessible to readers with no knowledge of Greek and will be essential reading for anyone interested in tragedy, especially students and specialists in classics, drama, and English literature.
Show less
4.

A Commentary on the Plays of Sophocles ("Oedipus the King: The Theban Plays" begins on p. 19) » Read Now
by James C. Hogan. 390 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library
5.

Greek Tragic Theatre (Chap. 7 "Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus") » Read Now
by Rush Rehm. 170 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

Emphasizing the political nature of Greek tragedy, as theatre of, by and for the polis , Rush Rehm characterizes Athens as a performance culture ; one in which the theatre stood alongside other public forums as a place to confront matters of import. In treating the various social, religious and...
Read More

Emphasizing the political nature of Greek tragedy, as theatre of, by and for the polis , Rush Rehm characterizes Athens as a performance culture ; one in which the theatre stood alongside other public forums as a place to confront matters of import. In treating the various social, religious and practical aspects of tragic production, he shows how these elements promoted a vision of the theatre as integral to the life of the city - a theatre focussed on the audience.
Show less
6.

The Tragic Protest (Chap. III "The Tragic Fear - Oedipus King: Sophocles: Oedipus the King") » Read Now
by Zygmunt Adamczewski. 282 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library
7.

The Myths of Greece & Rome (Chap. XXIII "Oedipus, King of Thebes") » Read Now
by H. A. Guerber. 424 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Literature, Entire Library
8.

On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy (Chap. 5 "Action and Actors: Antigone and Oedipus the King") » Read Now
by John Jones. 284 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Literature, Entire Library
9.

The Secret Cause: A Discussion of Tragedy (Chap. 1 "The Invisible Piper: Einstein and Oedipus") » Read Now
by Normand Berlin. 189 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library
10.

Archetypes of the Family in Literature (Chap. III "Inceptions in Greek Tragedy II: Oedipus and Creon") » Read Now
by Sven Armens. 264 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library
11.

Politics of Security: Towards a Political Philosophy of Continental Thought (Chap. 6 "Oedipus Asphaleos: The Tragedy of (In)Security") » Read Now
by Michael Dillon. 252 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

With insights into the thinking of Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida, Levinas and Arendt, Michael Dillon contributes to the rethinking of some of the fundamentals of international politics, developing what might be called a political philosophy of Continental thought.Drawing on the work of Martin...
Read More

With insights into the thinking of Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida, Levinas and Arendt, Michael Dillon contributes to the rethinking of some of the fundamentals of international politics, developing what might be called a political philosophy of Continental thought.Drawing on the work of Martin Heidegger, Politics of Security establishes the relationship between Heidegger's radical hermeneutical phenomenology and politics and the fundamental link between politics, the tragic and the ethical.
Show less