The most celebrated plays of ancient Athens in vivid, dynamic new translations by award-winning poets Robert Bagg & 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 vindic...

Award–winning poet Robert Bagg presents a dynamic translation of Sophocles's celebrated play of ancient Athens, Oedipus the King.Praised by Aristotle as the pinnacle of Greek drama, Oedipus the King is one of seven surviving dramas by the great Greek playwright, Sophocles. The ancient world's most shocking and memorable tragedy, it is the story of Thebes's resilient hero and his royal family brought to hellish ruin by fate, manipulation of the Olym...

The heroic Greek dramas that have moved theatergoers and readers since the fifth century B.C.Towering over the rest of Greek tragedy, the three plays that tell the story of the fated Theban royal family—Antigone, Oedipus the King and *Oedipus at Colonus—*are among the most enduring and timeless dramas ever written. Robert Fagles's authoritative and acclaimed translation conveys all of Sophocles's lucidity and power: the cut and thrust of his dialogue, his ...

For readers accustomed to the relatively undramatic standard translations of Prometheus Bound, this version by James Scully, a poet and winner of the Lamont Poetry Prize, and C. John Herington, one of the world's foremost Aeschylean scholars, will come as a revelation. Scully and Herington accentuate the play's true power, drama, and relevance to modern times. Aeschylus originally wrote Prometheus Bound as part of a tragic trilogy, and this translation is unique in includ...

'We hear the voice of a great and enduring poet in our ear again' Carol Ann Duffy'Go, girls, pursue the violet Muses' brightGifts and the plangent lyre, lover of hymns'By turns subversive, erotic and poignant, Sappho is one of the most versatile and exquisite poets in Classical literature. Invoking female deities, Sappho summons the Muses for inspiration and beseeches Aphrodite's allegiance in a battle of the heart, while episodes f...

Based on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly recreate the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations series offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order to evoke the poetry of the originals. The series seeks to recover the entire extant corpus of Greek tragedy, quite as though the ancient tragedians wrote in the English of our own time. Under th...

Based on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly recreate the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations series offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order to evoke the sense of poetry evident in the originals. Under the editorship of Peter Burian and Alan Shaprio, each volume includes a critical introduction, commentary on difficult passages, ampl...

A lively look at the influence of Ancient Greece on contemporary culture—"A primer, lavish lecture and love song" ( Kirkus Reviews).Why is ancient Greece important? Because, quite simply, if we want to understand the modern Western world, we need to look back to the Greeks. Consider the way we think about ethics, about the nature of beauty and truth, about our place in the universe, about our mortality. All this we have learned from the ancient Greeks. The...

Oedipus, the former ruler of Thebes, has died. Now, when his young daughter Antigone defies her uncle, Kreon, the new ruler, because he has prohibited the burial of her dead brother, she and he enact a primal conflict between young and old, woman and man, individual and ruler, family and state, courageous and self-sacrificing reverence for the gods of the earth and perhaps self-serving allegiance to the gods of the sky. Echoing through western culture for more than two millennia, Sophocles...

Sophocles' Antigone comes alive in this new translation that will be useful for academic study and stage production. Diane Rayor's accurate yet accessible translation reflects the play's inherent theatricality. She provides an analytical introduction and comprehensive notes, and the edition includes an essay by director Karen Libman. Antigone begins after Oedipus and Jocasta's sons have killed each other in battle over the kingship. The new king, Kreon, decrees that the brother who attacke...

'Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all' Aristotle'Knowing yourself is the mark of all wisdom''You will never do anything in this world without courage'Aristotle was one of the greatest philosophers that has ever lived. Taught by Plato, he was the first genuine scientist in history, a true pioneer of both science and philosophy. Widely credited as the inventor of the field of formal lo...

The most celebrated plays of ancient Athens—Sophocles’s seven surviving works—in vivid and dynamic new translations. ANTIGONE, translated by award-winning poet Robert Bagg, is one of seven plays Harper Perennial has published as beautifully designed, stand-alone editions.Powerfully portraying the clash between civic and familial duty—between morality and obedience—Antigone brings the Oedipus Cycle to a conclusion with the story of the tragic hero's eldest daughter Antigone...