Antigone

by Sophocles, David Mulroy (Translator)

Overview

Sophocles’ Antigone ranks with his Oedipus Rex as one of world literature’s most compelling dramas. The action is taut, and the characters embody universal tensions: the conflict of youth with age, male with female, the state with the family. Plot and character come wrapped in exquisite language. Antagonists trade polished speeches, sardonic jibes and epigrammatic truisms and break into song at the height of passion.
    David Mulroy’s translation of Antigone faithfully reproduces the literal meaning of Sophocles’ words while also reflecting his verbal pyrotechnics. Using fluid iambic pentameters for the spoken passages and rhyming stanzas for the songs, it is true to the letter and the spirit of the great Greek original.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299290832
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	02/08/2013
Series:	Wisconsin Studies in Classics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	104
Lexile:	1090L (what's this?)
File size:	485 KB

About the Author

Sophocles (ca. 497/6–407/6 BCE) was the most acclaimed dramatist of his era, winning more than twenty festival competitions in ancient Athens. He is believed to have written 123 plays, but only seven have survived in complete form. David Mulroy is professor of classics at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He has translated The Complete Poetry of Catullus and Oedipus Rex, both published by the University of Wisconsin Press.

Table of Contents

Preface ix Introduction   Antigone 1   Appendix 1. Guide to Pronunciation Appendix 2. Synopses of the Surviving Accounts of Oedipus and His Family Suggestions for Further Reading

Editorial Reviews

A lucid, well-paced translation, natural enough sounding in the dialogue to make a good acting version.

Joseph Russo

"Gibbons's translation is the most faithful to the original Greek I know ... his translation is the truest to Sophocles' language." —The Journal of Classics Teaching

"Gibbons' text remains faithful to the Greek and yet poetic and apt for the stage; and Segal's contributions offer an insightful introduction to the play as a product of its own time. The combination of the two makes this new edition a great tool for college teaching and a rewarding experience of Sophoclean drama outside the classroom." —New England Classical Journal

"These two new additions to Oxford's 'Greek Tragedy in New Translations' series only add to the luster of the previous releases. Each is firmly packed with insightful introductions, comprehensive and numbered notes, glossaries, and up-to-date bibliographies (the plays' texts take up about half of each volume). The collaboration of poet and scholar in each volume produces a language that is easy to read and easy to speak (compare, for instance, the Watchman's first lines in Shapiro and Burian's Agamemnon with those in Lattimore's 1947 translation). Each volume's introduction presents the play's action and themes with some detail. The translators' notes describe the linguistic twists and turns involved in rendering the text into a modern poetic language. Both volumes are enthusiastically recommended for academic libraries, theatre groups, and theatre departments."—Library Journal [starred review of Oresteia and Antigone]

From the Publisher