Antigone

by Sophocles

Overview

When Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, chooses to obey the law of the gods rather than an unconscionable command from Creon, ruler of Thebes, she is condemned to death. How the gods take their revenge on Creon provides the gripping denouement to this compelling tragedy, still one of the most frequently performed of classical Greek dramas. Footnotes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486278049
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	10/12/1993
Series:	Dover Thrift Editions: Plays
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	64
Sales rank:	130,571
Product dimensions:	5.19(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1090L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Reginald Gibbons is the author of nine volumes of poems, including Sparrow: New and Selected Poems, It's Time and Fern-Texts. With Charles Segal he has also translated Euripides' Bakkhai. He teaches at Northwestern University. The late Charles Segal was Walter C. Klein Professor of the Classics at Harvard University. His many books include Sophocles' Tragic World, Tragedy and Civilization: An Interpretation of Sophocles, and Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge.

Table of Contents

IntroductionOn the TranslationAntigoneNotes on the TextAppendices1. The Date of Antigone2. The Myth of Antigone, to the End of the Fifth CenturyThe Transmission of the TextGlossarySuggestions for Further Reading

Editorial Reviews

A lucid, well-paced translation, natural enough sounding in the dialogue to make a good acting version.

Joseph Russo

These two new additions to Oxford's "Greek Tragedy in New Translations" series only add to the luster of the previous releases. Each is firmly packed with insightful introductions, comprehensive and numbered notes, glossaries, and up-to-date bibliographies (the plays' texts take up about half of each volume). The collaboration of poet and scholar in each volume produces a language that is easy to read and easy to speak (compare, for instance, the Watchman's first lines in Shapiro and Burian's Agamemnon with those in Lattimore's 1947 translation). Each volume's introduction presents the play's action and themes with some detail. The translators' notes describe the linguistic twists and turns involved in rendering the text into a modern poetic language. Both volumes are enthusiastically recommended for academic libraries, theater groups, and theater departments.-Larry Schwartz, Minnesota State Univ., Moorhead Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

"Gibbons's translation is the most faithful to the original Greek I know ... his translation is the truest to Sophocles' language." —The Journal of Classics Teaching

"Gibbons' text remains faithful to the Greek and yet poetic and apt for the stage; and Segal's contributions offer an insightful introduction to the play as a product of its own time. The combination of the two makes this new edition a great tool for college teaching and a rewarding experience of Sophoclean drama outside the classroom." —New England Classical Journal

"These two new additions to Oxford's 'Greek Tragedy in New Translations' series only add to the luster of the previous releases. Each is firmly packed with insightful introductions, comprehensive and numbered notes, glossaries, and up-to-date bibliographies (the plays' texts take up about half of each volume). The collaboration of poet and scholar in each volume produces a language that is easy to read and easy to speak (compare, for instance, the Watchman's first lines in Shapiro and Burian's Agamemnon with those in Lattimore's 1947 translation). Each volume's introduction presents the play's action and themes with some detail. The translators' notes describe the linguistic twists and turns involved in rendering the text into a modern poetic language. Both volumes are enthusiastically recommended for academic libraries, theatre groups, and theatre departments."—Library Journal [starred review of Oresteia and Antigone]

From the Publisher