Chris's Reviews > The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King - Oedipus at Colonus - Antigone
The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King - Oedipus at Colonus - Antigone
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The plays and messages were excellent (I mean how can one go wrong with Sophocles?), but this translation took a nosedive with the last play Antigone. The slang and too modern language (i.e. "blockhead", "I won't take the rap") sounded like dissonant music to my ear. I had to pull out my 1967 Penguin Classic edition from H.S. days to finish this last play. In HS we only read Oedipus Rex, so the Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone were fresh reads for me. If you are looking for a review that discusses the story or a scholarly treatise, you'll have to look elsewhere; there are plenty by better writers than I.
I did have one niggle, as the plays presented in the trilogy are not presented in their chronologically written order, so do I assume the story of Oedipus was already well known to the citizens before Antigone was staged as a play as it already refers to the curse of the house of Oedipus as a few other actions from the other plays.
I also seemed to have missed why Oedipus after unknowingly fulfilling the tragic prophecy from his birth, exiling and blinding himself, yet still showed the same hubris from Oedipus Rex in Oedipus at Colonus, was allowed a death that was near divine.
Antigone was definitely my favorite character and my hats off to Sophocles for developing a strong female character in a male dominated mortal world.
I did have one niggle, as the plays presented in the trilogy are not presented in their chronologically written order, so do I assume the story of Oedipus was already well known to the citizens before Antigone was staged as a play as it already refers to the curse of the house of Oedipus as a few other actions from the other plays.
I also seemed to have missed why Oedipus after unknowingly fulfilling the tragic prophecy from his birth, exiling and blinding himself, yet still showed the same hubris from Oedipus Rex in Oedipus at Colonus, was allowed a death that was near divine.
Antigone was definitely my favorite character and my hats off to Sophocles for developing a strong female character in a male dominated mortal world.
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Reading Progress
November 16, 2023
–
Started Reading
November 16, 2023
– Shelved
November 16, 2023
– Shelved as:
classics
November 16, 2023
– Shelved as:
plays
November 28, 2023
–
64.58%
"Finished Oedipus at Colonus. It was not easy, children THAT I know, and yet one little word can change all the pain: that word is LOVE, and love you've had from me more than any man can ever give. But now you must live on, when I am gone.
CHORUS: Dear children, think of this he made a blessed end so cease your crying. There's none alive that's free from trial."
page
186
CHORUS: Dear children, think of this he made a blessed end so cease your crying. There's none alive that's free from trial."
December 25, 2023
–
Finished Reading
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Shelley's Book Nook
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Dec 27, 2023 05:05PM

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Thanks Shelley! Do you read the ancients?