Sophocles
1) Electra
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One of the lesser known plays of the Greek tragedian Sophocles, "Electra" tells the tale of a young daughter's revenge for her father's death. Electra is one of the daughters of "Agamemnon," the leader of the Greeks during the Trojan War. He was killed by his wife's lover, and Electra wishes to avenge Agamemnon with the help of her twin brother Orestes. When she receives word that he is dead, Electra laments and fears she will not be able to avenge...
2) Philoctetes
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Sophocles' Philoctetes begins with their arrival on the island. Odysseus explains to Neoptolemus that he must perform a shameful action in order to garner future glory - to take Philoctetes by tricking him with a false story while Odysseus hides. Neoptolemus is portrayed as an honorable boy, and so it takes some persuading to get him to play this part. To gain Philoctetes's trust, Neoptolemus tricks Philoctetes into thinking he hates Odysseus as well....
3) Edipo Rey
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Edipo Rey es una obra cuya fuerza radica en que nos presenta de un modo magistral la enigmática relación que, con mayor frecuencia de la deseada, existe entre el dolor y el destino. Su lectura nos revela el sello casi indeleble que impone el azar en la vida de cada ser humano. Por ello, Edipo Rey es una gran tragedia, ya que además nos manifiesta una de las más extrañas paradojas de la vida: el hecho de que quien intenta escapar desesperadamente...
4) Antígona
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Entre las siete tragedias de Sófocles (c. 496-406 a.C.) que se han conservado completas, Antígona ocupa sin duda un lugar privilegiado. Como figura heroica la trascendencia de la protagonista ha propiciado innumerables relecturas a lo largo de los siglos (con una excelente acogida en el teatro contemporáneo) y ha dado pie a especulaciones filosóficas de todo pelaje. El personaje, encarnación del conflicto entre individuo y sociedad, lo consiente...
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'The Trachinian Maidens' (also 'Women of Trachis' or 'The Trachiniae') is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles, in which Deianeira, the wife of Heracles, is distraught over her husband's neglect of her family. Unable to cope with the thought of losing him, she decides to use a love charm on him, a magic potion that will win him back.
6) Aias
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Sophocles' play is a famous retelling of Aias's (Ajax's) demise. After the armor is, awarded to Odysseus, Aias feels so insulted that he wants to kill Agamemnon and Menelaus. Athena intervenes and clouds his mind and vision, and he goes to a flock of sheep and slaughters them, imagining they are the Achaean leaders, including Odysseus and Agamemnon. When he comes to his senses, covered in blood, he realizes that what he has done has diminished his...
7) Ajax
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Ajax Sophocles - Ajax is enraged because Achilles' armor was awarded to Odysseus, rather than to him. He vows to kill the Greek leaders who disgraced him. Before he can enact his extraordinary revenge, though, he is tricked by the goddess Athena into believing that the sheep and cattle that were taken by the Achaeans as spoil are the Greek leaders. He slaughters some of them, and takes the others back to his home to torture, including a ram which...
9) Oedipus Rex
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Regarded by many as the masterpiece of Greek tragedy, Oedipus Rex tells the story of Oedipus, a man who becomes the king of Thebes, whilst in the process unwittingly fulfilling a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. This edition follows the Francis Storr Translation.
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Blinded and disgraced, Oedipus dwells quietly in Thebes until the kingdom is roiled by discord attributed to his presence and the curse put upon him by the gods. The citizens banish their erstwhile sovereign to years of lonely exile. Finally, the aging king finds refuge in a sacred olive grove at Colonus, near Athens. Oedipus is a towering tragic figure whose final years comprise a moving portrayal of the perseverance of human dignity in the face...
11) Antigone
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The daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, the eponymous Antigone is an unconventional heroine who pits her beliefs against the King of Thebes in a bloody test of wills that leaves few unharmed. Emotions fly as she challenges the king for the right to bury her own brother. Determined but doomed, Antigone shows her inner strength throughout the play. This edition follows the Francis Storr Translation.
12) Oedipus the king
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One of the first and greatest of all Greek tragedies, Harry Lennix stars as Oedipus, the king who unwittingly kills his father and marries his mother. W. Morgan Sheppard and Carolyn Seymour also star. The broadcast includes a Q & A session with translator and director Nicholas Rudall. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Francis Guinan, Charles Kimbrough, Harry J. Lennix, Spencer Garrett, Rod McLachlan, Carolyn Seymour and W. Morgan...
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Only seven plays of the Ancient Greek dramatist Sophocles have survived to today. Sophocles is best known for his trilogy of dramas known as the "Three Theban Plays", which is comprised of the plays "Oedipus Rex", "Oedipus at Colonus", and "Antigone". The remaining four extant plays are collected together in this volume of "Electra and Other Plays". First in this collection we find "Ajax", the oldest of Sophocles plays, which unfolds the destiny of...
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Among the most celebrated plays of ancient Athens, Oedipus at Kolonos is one of seven surviving dramas by the great Greek playwright, Sophocles, now available from Harper Perennial in a vivid and dynamic new translation by award-winning poet Robert Bagg. Oedipus at Kolonos continues the story of Thebes's tragic, now-blinded hero in the last days of his life, as he attempts to answer for his shocking crimes of incest and patricide, and seeks forgiveness...
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One of the most famous poets from classical antiquity, Sophocles was one of three important ancient Greek tragedians, the others being Aeschylus and Euripides. Writing during the 5th century BC, Sophocles created some one hundred and twenty three plays during his lifetime, of which only seven have survived in their entirety. Included in this edition are those seven complete plays, as translated by Lewis Campbell and include the following: "Antigone,"...
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Among the most celebrated plays of ancient Athens, Elektra is one of seven surviving dramas by the great Greek playwright, Sophocles, now available from Harper Perennial in a vivid and dynamic new translation by award-winning poet Robert Bagg. Elektra masterfully explores the consequences of revenge-both for those who bear the brunt of violence and for those who become obsessed by hatred under its influence-as it focuses on the cycle of bloodshed...
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Among the most celebrated plays of ancient Athens, Aias is one of seven surviving dramas by the great Greek playwright, Sophocles, now available from Harper Perennial in a vivid and dynamic new translation by award-winning poet James Scully. Still powerful and remarkably timely thousands of years after its creation, Aias is the moving story of a soldier returning home victorious from the Trojan War, only to discover he has lost his life's purpose....
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Excerpt: "The Hellenic spirit has been repeatedly characterized as simple Nature-worship. Even the Higher Paganism has been described as 'in other words the purified worship of natural forms.'[1] One might suppose, in reading some modern writers, that the Nymphs and Fauns, the River-Gods and Pan, were at least as prominent in all Greek poetry as Zeus, Apollo, and Athena, or that Apollo was only the sweet singer and not also the prophet of retribution."...
19) The Trachiniae
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The story begins with Deianeira, the wife of Heracles, relating the story of her early life and her plight adjusting to married life. She is now distraught over her husband's neglect of her family. Often involved in some adventure, he rarely visits them. She sends their son Hyllus to find him, as she is concerned over prophecies about Heracles and the land he is currently in. After Hyllus sets off, a messenger arrives with word that Heracles, victorious...
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The doomed king of Thebes brings shame on his family in this iconic three-play cycle of ancient Greek literature, a foundational work of Western drama.
Oedipus Rex: As a young man, Oedipus was told of a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Fleeing his home to escape his destiny, he becomes the king of Thebes by marrying the former king's widow. But now Thebes is cursed until Oedipus discovers who killed his predecessor-a...