Read for University!

I was surprised I didn't like this as well as the others, simply because it was more elegant in style and therefore marginally harder to read for meaning. Antigone didn't come across on a quick read with the raw spirit I perceived in the other plays. What I did love about this translation: the lessons taught to Creon by Tiresius and even by his own son Haemon were so elegant and expansive:

"It's no disgrace for a man, even a wise man,
to learn many things and not to be too rigid.
You've seen trees by a raging winter torrent,
how many sway with the flood and salvage every twig,
but not the stubborn--they're ripped out, roots and all.
Bend or break."

The Chinese have a similar saying. It's good advice to anyone, though one recognizes there is a difference between stubbornness and enlightened principle, which should not be comprised with easy solutions.

I loved Haemon telling his father: "What a splendid king you'd make of a desert island--you and yourself alone." Later, Tiresius tries again to warm Creon, "Take these things to heart, my son, I warn you...Stubbornness brands you for stupidity--pride is a crime. No, yield to the dead! Never stab a fighter when he's down. Where's the glory, killing the dead twice over?"

And the Chorus at the end, telling us

"Wisdom is by far the greatest part of joy,
and reverence toward the gods must be safeguarded.
The mighty words of the proud are paid in full
with mighty blows of fate, and at long last
those blows will teach us wisdom."

We'll learn it easy or learn it hard, but wisdom comes. At what price?

This edition tells us slightly more about why Creon hates Polynices but not why Polynices did what he did. Polynices returned to Thebes "consumed with one desire--to burn them roof to roots..." while his brother Eteocles is "crowned with a hero's honors."

This play is so brilliant, it is difficult to imagine someone could ruin it. This translation by Robert Fagles is masterly in the old style, and the Introduction and Notes are authored by Bernard Knox.

Did not read the other plays at this time.