One has to read the Greek classics.,This is the beginning of literature . Sophocles voice crosses 25 centuries to talk to us about the many dramas of human nature and the destiny of man.
Amazing testimony to the art of writing.
It is hard to think that only 7 of his plays have survived among the 120 he is supposed to have written.

Classique, ce n’est pas mon genre mais je ne peux pas nier le travail derrière l’écriture.

Briefly, since it's all been said:

Five stars for the plays. They set up convincing tensions and navigate them in moving and brilliant ways.

Three stars for the translation. I compared the language with several other translations, and I found Bagg's and Scully's interpretations consistently felt less earthy and musical. That might be part of their intent, and it might be true to the original text (I have no way of knowing), but on the page, it felt a little flat to me.

أتممت "أوديب ملكا"، و يا لأوديب المسكين ويا لعبث القدر به، عمل عظيم شهد التاريخ بذلك للأسف ترجمة الدكتور بدوي ركيكة نوعا ما وتفتقر للمسة الأدبية .

4.5

i only read 3 of the plays in this collection for class, but i thoroughly enjoyed all 3.
elektra, oedipus the king, and antigone are all extremely well crafted works of art, and this translation does a great job at making it accessible for those who are not experienced in studying classical tragedy.

A través de estas tragedias hacemos un recorrido por las más básicas y profundas emociones y sentimientos humanos, como el poder, la envidia, la pasión, la justicia (de humanos y de dioses), el engaño y la venganza, entre muchos otros más. Entre las siete tragedias brilla una trilogía especial que cuenta la gran historia del rey Edipo (Edipo Rey, Antígona y Edipo en Colono), que son algunas de las tragedias más grandes y perfectas que existen.

Comparto mi post con un especial: Siete Tragedias de Sófocles - Lectura Colectiva #Sofocles2021 / (A.S.B)
Diario de lectura de las 7 tragedias: Áyax, Antígona, Las Traquinias, Edipo Rey, Electra, Filoctetes y Edipo en Colono.

https://asbvirtualinfo.blogspot.com/2...

Por alguna razón que no me explico, sentí la imperiosa necesidad de releer Antígona. Quizá fue alguna referencia directa en alguna película u otro libro. Algún eco.

Cuando agarré el tomo completo de Tragedias de Sófocles y comencé a leer Antígona, me propuse releer todas y leer por primera vez Áyax.

Fue un muy agradable viaje. En más de un sentido: mientras recordaba al Guillermo que leyó por primera vez a Sófocles en los primeros semestres de Letras, descubría que recordaba muy poco, no ya de los mitos y la estructura de las obras, sino incluso de las tramas.

Mi favorita es Edipo en Colono.

Más que leer a Sófocles para entender teorías freudianas, leerlo puede resignificar otro medio para entender a la humanidad desde lo humano y racional, pero también desde aquello que ignoramos y que atribuímos a los dioses.

Me gustan este tipo de libros porque siento que no envejecen, a pesar de las expresiones o lo giros lingüísticos que se modifican con la traducción. A pesar de las múltiples lecturas y trabajos que ya hay sobre este autor; uno puede aproximarse con la confianza de que el libro no defraudará.

Aristotle thought Sophocles the best of the Greek tragedians, and Oedipus the King the perfect tragedy. Sophocles wrote complicated, powerful plays - seven of them have survived, out of 120. He wrote about outcasts. My favorite, Antigone, is about fighting the power, and so are Elektra and Philoktetes. Robert Bagg and James Scully run down his common themes in their intro to this complete edition:

- Sympathy for fate's victims
- Hostility towards tyrants
- Skepticism toward self-indulgent "heroes"
- Disillusionment with war and revenge.

They go on: "It's impossible to sanction revenge...simply through analysis and debate. Revenge, the audience realizes, issues from hatred immune to logic or morality."

But Sophocles is clever and ambiguous, so it's possible (for example) to misunderstand Antigone; Creon, the tyrant machine Antigone is raging against, isn't a two-dimensional villain. Sophocles' plays "bristle with ironies and implications that suggest his characters do not, or cannot, understand everything that is happening to them." If you're not careful you won't understand everything that's happening to these characters either.

This 2011 translation is a little controversial; Bagg and Scully refuse the tendency toward high-falutin' language that most other translations use. They present Sophocles in stubbornly modern voices: "Sure, you can bitch" (i.e. complain) says Elektra to her sister. The word "bogus" is used. "To translate the rich range of expressive modes Sophocles had at his disposal," argues Bagg, "we need the resources not only of idiomatic English, but also of rhetorical gravitas and, on rare occasion, colloquial English as well." They dismiss what they see as a stuffy insistence on high-toned, Victorian translation habits. The effect is a little jarring, but I'm kinda...convinced, to be honest. They do bring plenty of "rhetorical gravitas" at times: when Elektra bemoans

You, my rancid bed in that
Palace of pain
(118)

you're reminded that these guys are poets. But they're determined to avoid gravitas for gravitas's sake.

They compare the plays to Greek statues in museums: they're all this stark, pure white marble, and that's how we think of them, but they weren't anything like that when they were made. The Greeks painted them with bright, even garish colors. They even dressed them up. We have the wrong idea, because it's been so long that the colors have worn away. By using modern English in their translations, Bagg and Scully are trying to put the color back in Sophocles.

Elektra (Read October 2016)
But here's a weird effect: it's suddenly possible to interpret Elektra as a comedy. I didn't get this sense when I read Anne Carson's translation. I didn't like it as much either. Sophocles amped up the weirdness and unlikability of Elektra and Orestes from Aeschylus' Libation Bearers, which tells the same story - there's his tendency to undermine "heroes" for you - and in Bagg's hands it reaches points of near silliness. "They've found a way into the heart of their hostess," says Elektra to Aegisthus, snickering. (They found it with daggers.) And a moment later: "For gods sake, brother," she says to Orestes: "Don't let him talk! You'll get a speech!" There's a whole section where Orestes slowly reveals to Elektra that it's not his ashes in this urn that's almost goofy.

So your mileage will vary on these idiosyncratic translations. For me: I found that I was drawn into these plays more than I ever have been before. (And I've read some of these like five times.) I liked them more; I understood them better; I was more interested. And I was more entertained.

More plays
Aias (Read in December 2016)
Great stuff, five stars, review here.

Women of Trakhis (Read in January 2017)
Dug it! Four stars, Review here.

Philoktetes (Read in October 2017)
Loved it! Five stars, Review here.

Antigone (read a bunch of times)
Probably the consensus best of his plays, and I see no reason to disagree. Here's my most complete review of it.

Oedipus Rex & at Colonus (read years ago and not this translation)
I never have written a review of these two, even though Oedipus is the most iconic figure in all of Greek drama. They're good? Dude fucks his mom?

I really enjoyed this translation, and Greek tragedies are certainly amusing to read. Some of these plays were better then others, and some were rather to ridiculous. The most interesting for me were Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex) and Philoctetes, while for me Ajax and Antigone were a bit too silly. But all of these are fascinating, most centering around characters from Homor's The Illiad and The Odyssey. I would also recommend watching stage versions, because there is nothing like seeing them enacted instead of simply reading the words on the page. Also, this particular copy is not organized chronologically, since Oedipus at Colonus is set before Antigone, but it is the last one of this edition. Still, I recommend reading these Greek tragedies.

كتاب رائع يحتوي على عده مسرحيات ل سوفليس بتقديم وشرح عبدالرحمن البدوي

Antîgona

Technically my version only had the three Theban plays, but this was the only collection of plays listed on Goodreads that I could find.

What an incredible collection of plays- Sophocles is one of the greatest playwrights in history, and certainly one of my personal favorites. I'll round up from a 4.5 to a 5.