The Complete Plays of Sophocles: A New Translation - Softcover

Sophocles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006202034X ISBN 13: 9780062020345

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2011

Synopsis

Award-winningpoet-playwrights Robert Bagg and James Scully presenta gripping new translation of Western literature’s earliest treasures in TheComplete Plays of Sophocles. In the tradition of Robert Fagles’bestselling translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey, andretaining the textual authenticity of Richmond Lattimore’sAeschylus, Bagg and Scully render Sophocles’ dramasaccessible and exciting for the modern reader. Students new to Athenian drama,readers of classical literature, and anyone wishing to kindle anew theirpassion for Greek tragedy will find no more captivating entrance to thesemilestones of world literature than in Bagg andScully’s The Complete Plays of Sophocles.

About this title

From the Back Cover

The most celebrated plays of ancient Athens in vivid and dynamic newtranslations by award-winningpoets Robert Bagg and James Scully

The dominant Athenian playwright in fifth-century-BCE Athens, Sophocles left us seven powerful dramas that still shock as they render the violence that erupts within divinity and humankind. Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Kolonos, and Antigone trace three generations of a family manipulated by the inscrutably vindictive god Apollo to commit patricide, incest, and kin murder. Elektra and Women of Trakhis begin as studies of women obsessed with hatred and desire but become dissenting critiques of the Greeks’ enthusiasm for revenge and ego-crazed heroics. Two hard-hitting dramas set in war zones, Aias and Philoktetes, use conflicts among Greek warriors at Troy to thrash out political and ethical crises confronting Athenian society itself.

These translations, modern in idiom while faithful to the Greek and already proven stageworthy, preserve the depth and subtlety of Sophocles’ characters and refresh and clarify his narratives. Their focus on communities under extreme stress still resonates deeply for us here and now. This is Sophocles for a new generation entering the turbulent arena of ancient Greek drama.

About the Author

Robert Bagg is the author of five books of poetry, including Madonna of the Cello, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Prix de Rome, Guggenheim, Rockefeller, NEA, and NEH fellowships have supported his projects. Bagg's translations of Euripides and Sophocles have been staged in more than 60 productions worldwide. James Scully has published 11 books of poetry, and three book-length translations. His first book of poems, The Marches, won the Lamont Poetry Award from the Academy of American Poets. He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and fellowships from the NEA and the Ingram Merrill Foundation.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 006202034X
• ISBN 13: 9780062020345
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 842