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Electra and Other Plays: Women of Trachis/ Ajax/ Electra/ Philoctetes (Penguin Classics)

Electra and Other Plays: Women of Trachis/ Ajax/ Electra/ Philoctetes (Penguin Classics)

by Sophocles (Author), David Raeburn (Translator), David Raeburn (Translator), Pat Easterling (Editor), Pat Easterling (Introduction), Sophocles (Author)

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    Paperback 2008

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Synopsis

Sophocles' innovative plays transformed Greek myths into dramas featuring complex human characters, through which he explored profound moral issues. "Electra" portrays the grief of a young woman for her father Agamemnon, who has been killed by her mother's lover. Aeschylus and Euripides also dramatized this story, but the objectivity and humanity of Sophocles' version provides a new perspective. Depicting the fall of a great hero, "Ajax" examines the enigma of power and weakness combined in one being, while the "Women of Trachis" portrays the tragic love and error of Heracles' deserted wife Deianeira, and "Philoctetes" deals with the conflict between physical force and moral strength.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 368
 Publisher: Penguin Classics
Published: 24 Apr 2008
ISBN 10: 0140449787
ISBN 13: 9780140449785

Author Bio
Sophocles was born just outside Athens, in 496 BC, and lived ninety years. His long life spanned the rise and decline of the Athenian Empire; he was a friend of Pericles, and though not an active politician he held several public offices, both military and civil. Sophocles wrote over a hundred plays for the Athenian theater, and is said to have come first in twenty-four contests. Only seven of his tragedies are now extant, these being Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus the King, Women of Trachis, Electra, Philoctetes, and the posthumous Oedipus at Colonus. He died in 406 BC. Pat Easterling was Regius Professor of Greek in Cambridge from 1994 until her retirement in 2001; before that she taught in Manchester, Cambridge and London (UCL). Her main field of research is Greek literature, particularly tragedy; she also has a special interest in the survival of ancient texts and the history of performance; her most recent book is Greek and Roman Actors: aspects of an ancient profession (Cambridge 2002), which she co-edited with Edith Hall. She is currently writing a commentary on Sophocles' for the series Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics, of which she is a general editor.