The Plays of Sophocles

About this book

The emphasis throughout this book, ideal for sixth form and early university students, is on Sophocles' tragic thinking, on the concept of the 'Sophoclean hero', and on the dramatic structure of the plays. The seven extant plays—Ajax, Women of Trachis, Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus—are assessed, and a brief concluding chapter draws together what has been said in the seven studies. This second edition has been fully revised, with an updated further reading list and more detailed information on the chorus and staging of the plays. The aim of the book is to help readers understand why Sophocles is still worth reading or seeing in the theatre in the 21st century, and to show how far Sophoclean scholarship has moved in recent decades from the once prevalent view that he was a pious religious conformist who had nothing very profound or original to say, but who said it very beautifully.