List Price: $14.00
Amazon Price: $3.63
Average Customer Rating: 
(15 reviews)
Editorial Review: English versions of Sophocles’ three great tragedies based on the myth of Oedipus, translated for a modern audience by two gifted poets. Index.
Customer Reviews:
9 of 9 found this review helpful:
Not the best, but very, very good, 2007-03-09
This version of Sophocles's Oedipus trilogy--Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone--is a great edition for students and seasoned classicists alike. The translations by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald are modern while still being poetic, and complete while still being very, very fast-paced. For instance, I read Antigone in about forty minutes, and I'm a slow reader.
Fitts and Fitzgerald have sacrificed some accuracy and literalness to achieve their extraordinary pacing and readability, but while their translations are not always true to the original text, they more than make up for it with the sheer power which which they grab the reader. I had read Oedipus Rex before, but I had never felt it like this. The plays come alive for the reader. The tragic end of Oedipus Rex was particularly moving.
This edition includes some notes and commentary, but the works stand well on their own, without the comments of a later generation. Overall, though, the briskness and modern sound of these plays make this one of the best translations available to students today.
Highly recommended.
1 of 3 found this review helpful:
Founding fathers, 2006-04-10
There is sickness in the kingdom. Oedipus learns that it is necessary to take revenge upon the murderer of Laios. Teiresias does not want to tell what he knows. He is then goaded into telling Oedipus that he is the cause of the pollution. Oedipus suspects that his brother-in-law Creon wishes to drive him from Thebes.
Oedipus grew up in Corinth where a drunken man at a feast called out he was not his father's son. Oedipus consulted the oracle at Delphi. He was told he would murder his father and marry his mother. He fled Corinth. He wanted to escape his fate. Oedipus is concerned to learn that Laios was killed at a crossroads. An eye witness to the crime is sought. In the meantime it is learned that the King of Corinth has died of old age. A messenger explains, though, that Polybos of Corinth was not Oedipus's father.
The messenger, a shepherd, had saved Oedipus when he was a baby from death by exposure. Another shepherd had a larger role in Oedipus's survival. The second man, the slave of Laios, affirmed that he gave the man a child from the house of Laios. It is determined that Oedipus was the child. He has now killed his father and married his mother. A messenger brings news that Iocaste has killed herself. Oedipus takes out his eyes and orders that he be led into self-exile. Oedipus leaves his daughters in the care of Creon.
In OEDIPUS AT COLONUS Oedipus and Antigone end up in an inviolate thicket near Athens. They are joined by Ismene. It is learned Oedipus's sons are vying for the throne at Thebes. The ruler of Athens, Theseus, addresses Oedipus. He is inclined to be hospitable. Ismene is taken and Creon has Antigone dragged away by his soldiers. The purpose of taking the children is to induce Oedipus to return to Thebes to die. Theseus seizes Creon and demands the release of the girls. Oedipus is then reunited with his daughters. His death does not take place in Thebes.
11 of 13 found this review helpful:
A powerful and moving piece!, 2002-10-17
~I had to read OEDIPUS REX for my pre-IB sophomore English class, feeling not too happy with another dull, lengthy Greek play (we had to read THE ODYSSEY last year, and it got really redundant). But Sophocles' play...wow, it's totally different! The characters are so much more real and the speeches are deep and engrossing. Thebes is fascinating, substantial - and the issues grip you unknowingly. ...When you finally resurface, you feel touched and bewildered at the same time! Throughout~~ THE OEDIPUS CYCLE run themes of fate and visions of free will amid reality. These elements reveal the universal truth: of human blindness to fate and truth; their blind resolutions that, in reality, lead them to their fate. Tragedy is forged between a character~{!/~}s personality and the inevitable events connected to it. Although the doctrine of predestination rejects independent will, OEDIPUS REX succeeds in explaining the coexistence, in which action is subordinate to destiny through~~ ignorance. ~{!0~}I was blind and now I can tell why: asleep for you had given ease of breath to Thebes while the false years went by."
THE OEDIPUS CYCLE beautifully fits Aristotle's definition of tragedies, being~{!0~}a casual, inevitable sequence of events connected intimately with the personality of the tragic character." Even if your English class doesn't require you to pick up this title, I highly recommend that you do. Being a translation, the language is very clear and reading~~ is direct. But the subject is still full - and full of revelation! It is so amazing, you have to experience it for yourself! I ended up reading all 3 plays of the cycle and they are all very different but I would think that OEDIPUS REX is the strongest one. It catches the reader the best, being more action-filled than the rest. OEDIPUS AT COLONUS is a more of character reflections and analyzing, which are heartfelt for both character and reader. ANTIGONE concludes the story with a good~~ feminist view of the affair by Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus. Her play is a mix of physical and mental action and reaction.~
3 of 5 found this review helpful:
Great Plays - Great Translations, 2002-09-21
First of all, I must say that this is the only translation of the Oedipus cycle that I have read. However, I have read translations of other Greek epics and plays in popular editions, and have found this to be the most readable of them by far.
The plays of the Oedipus cycle have been central to western literature ever since Aristotle based his theory of poetics upon Oedipus Tyrannus. The plots of the plays are quite well structured. Of course, if you don't like tragedy, you probably won't like this book either.
10 of 10 found this review helpful:
A Must Read: the Fitts-Fitzgerald Translation of "Antigone", 2002-09-04
Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald first published their excellent translation of "Antigone" in 1939. Having well stood the test of time, it is reprinted in their paperback, "The Oedipus Cycle." My reasons for liking this version better than recent translations by Don Taylor and Paul Roche appear in my Amazon review of the Taylor translation. Here I want to comment on the moral and human issues raised by the play itself, which make it superbly worth reading. ...
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
