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To anyone who cares for classic theatre, the Theban plays by Sophocles are among the best to be found. And to anyone who reads the classics of Greece or Rome -- regardless of genre -- the translations of Robert Fagles are the absolute best. Here we have the best plays by the best translator. The introduction by Bernard Knox should be of special value for those not terribly familiar with the trilogy, and his notes should be useful for all readers.
Since I can only haltingly stumble through his Greek, I always read translations, and I read a different translation each time.When one reads a translated literary work, one is reading a piece of literature that, in a manner of speaking, is "co-authored." Translation isn't, can't, and oughtn't to be a mechanically isomorphic transliteration of the original text. Fagles has the soul of a poet (his volume of poems, I, Vincent, is very good indeed), and his rendering of "Antigone" and "Oedipus the King" are especially fine. (In this regard, they're not unlike stage directors, who also "co-author" the plays they present). For example, Oedipus the King [1442], after learning of his unhappy fate:.the agony. The choices they make in deciding how best to render the original text reflects not only their own creative sensitivity, but also their cultural context. Different translators, because of the variability of their temperaments, talents, and times, focus on different inflections. I try to reread Sophocles every few years, both because I enjoy him and because I find him a moral tonic. In Fagles' case, it's what the existentialists would call nausea or anxiety over the absurd contingency of existence.
For translators aren't transliterators or transcribers. Like all translators, he has a spin that mirrors the fears and hopes of his own time. They're not secretaries. One always reads Fagles' Sophocles, or Fitzgerald's Sophocles, or X's Sophocles.I think Fagles and Sophocles make a marvelous collaboration. Translators--good ones, anyway--are artists in their own right. I am agony--where am I going.
So one never reads Sophocles, unless one reads the original Greek. In fact, I like this translation better than any other I've read over the past half-century (and I've liked some others very much). where on earth.where does all this agony hurl me.where's my voice.winging, swept away on a dark tide--My destiny, my dark power, what a leap you made.What more could one ask of a translator than that s/he remain loyal to the ancient text being interpreted while rendering it in such a way as to speak to contemporary readers. They're artists.
No one can study the greek classics without these titles; a spring board to other works. Page layouts are easily read (numbered and indexed with referent notes). Each offering is accompanied by its own introduction loaded with connections.
This causes uproar within the royal family eventually showing that the king's rash actions and need for power leads to the dismantling of his own household. While the introductions can be lengthy, and give away the story, the plays are quite short and good for students like myself with the attention span of a infant. The three Theban plays are a great way to introduce high school student into classical Greek literature. The second play, Oedipus the King, tells the tale the grown son of the king of Thebes that had been given away at birth, in an effort to avoid a prophecy by a blind prophet. Both plays a very dramatic and filled with scandal which is something that the tens of today can relate to. The first play, Antigone, tells of a woman who fights for her right to give her brother a proper burial, and even though she is dating the son of the king she is sentenced to death. Everything that they tried to avoid comes true in the most unfortunate of fashions. For those who enjoy the modern media it can be compared to a celebrity sex scandal.
That said, I still prefer the older Fitts/Fitzgerald translations, which are a model of restrained but powerful poetic expression. This is a fine translation of Sophocles' great Oedipus trilogy. Fagles has rendered these plays into fluent English with a fine feel for how to vary the nature of the language between characters and scenes. I think Fagles' translations of Homer are the finest available but he has not done quite as well with these plays. A very nice feature of this edition are the fine introductions to the plays and a short discussion of the history of the texts.
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