Sophocles

Electra and Other Plays (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Only seven plays of the Ancient Greek dramatist Sophocles have survived to today. Sophocles is best known for his trilogy of dramas known as the "Three Theban Plays", which is comprised of the plays "Oedipus Rex", "Oedipus at Colonus", and "Antigone". The remaining four extant plays are collected together in this volume of "Electra and Other Plays". First in this collection we find "Ajax", the oldest of Sophocles plays which unfolds the destiny of the warrior Ajax after the Trojan War. Second there is "The Trachinian Maidens", which gives an insightful account of the neglect that the wife of Hercules, Deianeira, and her family suffer as a result of her husband's frequent and lengthy adventures. Thirdly we find the title drama, "Electra" which tells the classic tale of a young daughter's revenge for her father's death. Lastly in this collection there is, "Philoctetes", which follows the life of a unique and important man through his trials and triumphs. In this volume the reader will find more evidence of why Sophocles is considered one of the greatest dramatists from classical antiquity. This edition follows the verse translations of Lewis Campbell and includes a biographical afterword.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Neeland Media LLC
• Erscheinungstermin: 11. November 2019
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781420964745
• Artikelnr.: 58133703

Autorenporträt

Sophocles was born at Colonus, just outside Athens, in 496 BC, and lived ninety years. His long life spanned the rise and decline of the Athenian Empire; he was a friend of Pericles, and though not an active politician he held several public offices, both military and civil. The leader of a literary circle and friend of Herodotus, he was interested in poetic theory as well as practice, and he wrote a prose treatise On the Chorus. He seems to have been content to spend all his life at Athens, and is said to have refused several invitations to royal courts. Sophocles first won a prize for tragic drama in 468, defeating the veteran Aeschylus. He wrote over a hundred plays for the Athenian theater, and is said to have come first in twenty-four contests. Only seven of his tragedies are now extant, these being Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus the King, Women of Trachis, Electra, Philoctetes, and the posthumous Oedipus at Colonus. A substantial part of The Searches, a satyr play, was recovered from papyri in Egypt in modern times. Fragments of other plays remain, showing that he drew on a wide range of themes; he also introduced the innovation of a third actor in his tragedies. He died in 406 BC. David Raeburn is a lecturer in classics at Oxford University. He has translated Sophocles and directed numerous school and university productions of Greek tragedies.