The Three Theban Plays - Sophocles Translated by Robert Fagles with Introductions and Notes by Bernard Knox
Acknowledgments
Translator's Preface
Greece and the Theater
SOPHOCLES: THE THREE THEBAN PLAYSIntroduction to Antigone
Antigone
Introduction to Oedipus the King
Oedipus the King
Introduction to Oedipus at Colonus
Oedipus at Colonus
A Note on the Text of Sophocles
Textual Variants
Notes on the Translation: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at
Colonus
Select Bibliography
The Genealogy of Oedipus
Glossary
Sophocleswas 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 treatiseOn 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 beingAjax,Antigone,Oedipus the King,Women of
Trachis,Electra,Philoctetes, and the posthumousOedipus at Colonus.
A substantial part ofThe 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.
Robert Fagles(1933-2008) was Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of
Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He was
the recipient of the 1997 PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation
and a 1996 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts
and Letters. His translations include Sophocles'sThree Theban
Plays, Aeschylus'sOresteia(nominated for a National Book Award),
Homer'sIliad(winner of the 1991 Harold Morton Landon Translation
Award by The Academy of American Poets), Homer'sOdyssey, and
Virgil'sAeneid.
Bernard Knox(1914-2010) was Director Emeritus of Harvard's Center
for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. He taught at Yale
University for many years. Among his numerous honors are awards
from the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the National
Endowment for the Humanities. His works includeThe Heroic Temper-
Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy, Oedipus at Thebes- Sophocles' Tragic
Hero and His TimeandEssays Ancient and Modern(awarded the 1989
PEN/Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award).
“I know of no better modern English version.”—Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones,
Oxford University
“A marvel of craftsmanship and intelligence.”—Emily Vermeule,
Harvard University
“The most impressive verse translations of Sophocles that have been
made.”—Stephen Spender
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