About this title: Antigone defending her integrity and ideals to the death, Oedipus questing for his identity and achieving immortality - these heroic figures have moved playgoers and readers since the fifth century BC. Towering over the rest of Greek tragedy, these three plays are among the most enduring and timeless dramas ever written. Robert Fagles' translation conveys all of Sophocles' lucidity and power: the cut and thrust of his dialogue, his ironic edge, the surge and majesty of his choruses and, above all, the agonies and triumphs of his characters.
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Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780140444254ISBN:0140444254
Description: Good. Cover and pages may have some wear or writing. Binding is tight. We ship daily Monday-Friday. Delivery Confirmation included on all domestic orders. read more
Description: Satisfaction Guaranteed. Shipped quickly. 2000. Paperback. 1st Ed. Used, good. Cover has some rubbing. Cover has some edge wear. read more
Description: Satisfaction Guaranteed. Shipped quickly. 2000. Paperback. 1st Ed. Used, good. Small tears/creases on spine/cover. Cover has substantial edge wear. Text pages show substantial aging/yellowing. read more
"I've read and taught "Oedipus Rex" countless times, but I had never read the other two plays in the trilogy. Sophocles wrote them many, many years apart, and they all feel very different from each other. Because of this, it's hard to compare them, but I think I like "Oedipus at Colonus" the best overall. The scenes between Oedipus and his two daughters are really touching, and he's much more human than in the first play (and than Creon in the third). For the few days I was reading these, I noticed I had some pretty dark dreams--there's something just primordial about these stories."
"Much as I expected, my favorites were "Oedipus the King," then "Antigone," and lastly "Oedipus at Colonus." That last play wasn't a bad play; it just didn't have any of the same intensity of emotion or tension as the other two in the book, and so paled in comparison for me (although I can see that obviously it has complexity of meaning etc - just personal preference -wise, not my thing). "Antigone" was pretty great, especially Creon's touting of human law over divine dictate, which I felt looped back to Oedipus Rex again, but at first (first 400 lines, maybe) I found the characters of Isthene and Antigone rather one-dimensional and predictable, Isthene in particular. Some of Sophocles' messages also seemed more explicit in "Antigone" than in "Oedipus," at least in this translation, something that I don't usually enjoy in my reading. I was very happy however that I read these three plays together, as opposed to separately, because then a certain unity of themes could be easily perceived, for example re: hubris, divine omnipotence (of sorts) slash inescapability of fate, fallibility of man, necessity of proper respect in regards to the gods, etc etc etc.
"One of the benefits of a job like mine is that you get to talk about great books all the time. Antigone has been one of my favorites for a long time, and I've been teaching it for a long time. Then I added Oedipus the King. I think there's a reason that Aristotle thought this the greatest tragedy ever written (although I still have to give a slight nod to Antigone over it for myself). Now I have finally added Oedipus at Colonus to the curriculum, and I'm glad I did. Sophocles has probably surpassed Aeschylus in my book as Greek playwrights, but just barely.
Antigone is still the the most thought-provoking of the three plays for me, but the relentless, driving pace of Oedipus the King excites me, and the most emotional is Oedipus at Colonus - Sophocles' lament, perhaps eulogy is a better word, for a dying Athens (and surely also filled with the hope of a Phoenix-like rebirth)."
"I found this book to be a more simpler read than Hamlet. Hamlet was written in old English so a modern day version is hard to fully translate. Yet, I found the story of Antigone and Oedpidus to be thought provoking as well. The book had a simple storyline but made me think about whether fate really exists or not. It is impossible to tell for sure whether there is such as thing called destiny. I feel that people need to understand that their actions are meaningful and that there is never a definite in life."
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