Sophocles: The Theban Plays 

Translated by Robert Fagles

430 pages

Published Jan. 3, 2000 by Penguin Classics

GG, one of our younger Mules members, suggested reading Sophocles, the great Greek playwright, for our July selection. In particular, he recommended Robert Fagles’ translation of The Theban Plays (Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone). I suggested reading Hemingway’s To Have or Have Not, which I reviewed here last week. It was decided that we would read both.

I had read Oedipus Rex before. In college. And Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus in graduate school. I knew the plots and I had an understanding of the trilogy’s importance in the history of Western literature, thanks to my teachers. (Including my father, who was, among other things, a reader of Greek and Latin literature.) I expected to have my high assessment of these tragedies confirmed. And it was. But I also got something I hadn’t gotten before: an appreciation for the poetic and rhetorical excellence of these works, thanks in part to the translation by Fagles.

But my enjoyment was most enhanced by the conversation that ensued after GG began our discussion of the Sophocles trilogy by asking, “Who was the greater tragic hero? Oedipus or Antigone?”

In a future blog post, I’ll tell you what I said. For today, I want to simply suggest that if you’ve never read these plays, you should do so. They are short. They are profound. And they are, as I mentioned, beautifully written.