In a recent interview with the NYTBR, Bill Clinton mentioned that he often (yearly?) reads Seamus Heaney's version of "Philoctetes", "The Cure at Troy" (1990/1991). I have not read Greek drama in *forever*, and "Philoctetes" is a play I was not even aware of, let alone read.
So, to prep for reading Heaney, I wanted to read the original. (Have not read the other 3 plays in this volume). Excellent Notes and ancillary material. The translation is into modern language, but sadly lacks the rhythm in the lines. I also have a Cambridge edition, and there the lines are more "poetic".
This is so nice, when I was young in the '70's, and apt to read Greek Drama, they just did not have well annotated editions like this!
Fun read! Now on to Heaney.

نمایشنامه الکترا را از ترجمه انگلیسی ماینک خوندم. ترجمه های ماینک، نه ترجمه های ادبی قوی بلکه ترجمه هایی هستند که برای اجرای روی صحنه پرداخته شده اند. زبان ساده و بی تکلفی دارند، بازی های ادبی را در حدی که به روانی اجرا لطمه نخورد در متن باقی گذاشته اند و در یادداشت ها هم بیشتر به نکاتی اشاره کرده اند که به دقت اجرای روی صحنه کمک کنند.
به هر حال، با وجود تمام این مشکلات ترجمه ای ساده و روان برای خواننده بی سواد غیر انگلیسی زبان (مثل من) به حساب می آیند. هر چند به منظور درک و فهم بهتر جزییات نمایشنامه سوفوکلس و مقا��سه روایت های سوفوکس، آیسخولوس و اوریپیدس از داستان الکترا، میتوان به مقدمه رابرت شاو روی ترجمه آن کارسون و یادداشت های پایانی کارسون مراجعه کرد.

Greeks with issues

In the USA there's a social category of people known as "airheads" for whom anything that happened before the year 2000 is "like, major antiquity, guy". What can we say, then, about plays that were written over 2,400 years ago ? For most of my life, the mention of Greek plays was on a par with cod liver oil. Probably good for me, but best avoided if possible. I admit, it was the airhead-lite approach. Recently, I finally buckled down and decided it was now or never. I'm not sorry I did.
The four plays by Sophocles in this collection deal with Iliad spinoffs---events connected to that ancient epic with some of the Trojan War characters already known to the Greeks of the author's time---with legends of the gods (Hercules or Heracles, as they write it) or with both at once. Each play uses a chorus to reflect inner thinking or thinking by "other people", whoever they may be. The translation in this volume brings a modicum of modern English to the plays, rendering them very understandable. Purists might not appreciate that, but I, for one, found myself better able to follow the deeper meanings of the plays because I didn't have to wade through archaic English. (Remember how we struggled through Shakespeare?) AJAX, ELECTRA, WOMEN OF TRACHIS, and PHILOCTETES jolted me out of my neo-airhead tendencies and amazed me by their modernity. Their form may be ancient, stilted to modern eyes, and lacking much action, but the themes reveal human nature as if these plays all were written yesterday. The same dilemmas pose themselves, the same contrasts in human character---the straight and the crooked, the mean and the noble, the forgiving and the vengeful. Actions well meant turn out to have disastrous consequences. Greed and jealousy run rampant. AJAX, the earliest work here, is a little less dramatic than the other three, but does deal with "temporary insanity". I don't have the silver tongue and deconstruction abilities of a literary expert, but if these plays don't knock your socks off---just because of their relevance to 2018 if for no other reason---then I don't know what will. Don't wait 40 years. Delicious cod liver oil, no lie.

More excellent works by Sophocles. His characters and plots are rich and complex. My favorite play in this volume was Philoctetes, which offers much to ponder about ends justifying the means.

Heady stuff. Greeks put in hard places by the events of the Trojan war. They are on the periphery, and the main guys like Odysseus play cameo roles in these plays. They are like spinoffs of Homer's great works, the Iliad and Odyssey, hundreds of years later, in the 400s before Christ.

Fate and loss of honor are big themes. What do we do when fate turns against us so that we lose our reputation, stumble and fall? For Ajax, it led to cynicism. "Most men have found friendship a treacherous harbor." Suicide was the answer.

Echoes of Job come through, when they consider the injustice of their suffering. Electra's murderer is her stepfather, and her sister acquiesces: "justice is not on my side but on yours." Electra cannot: "Have your rich table and your abundant life. All the food I need is the quiet of my conscience."

The gods are always the ones pulling the strings, and life is pain. "None can foresee what is to come... and there is nothing here which is not Zeus." "Nothing painless has the all-accomplishing King dispensed for mortal men." Philoctetes says, "How can I praise, when praising Heaven I find the gods are bad?"

It's quite a dismal worldview, when you step back and look at it. Electra sums up the Greeks well: "It is terrible to speak well and be wrong." Of course, they capture glimpses of wisdom, too, like in that quote.

Here are a few more.
"Harsh words, however just, still rankle."
"You win the victory when you yield to friends."

Morals of the story:

Don’t be a bitch to Athena or you’ll pay

Αν μπορείς να διαβάσεις τον Αίαντα στο πρωτότυπο, γεύεσαι μια διπλή εμπειρία θεατρικής τέχνης και γλωσσικής μυσταγωγίας.

What can I say? All of the well-known Greek playwrights are important reading, both for their historical significance as well as the fact that they're excellent plays. They haven't remained famous for 2,400 years because they're not worthy of it.

Ajax
Electra
Women of Trachis
Philoctetes

Although I love Robert Fagles translations of the three Theban plays, I think penguin classics has found another great translator in David Raeburn. Philoctetes was excellent. And no matter who translates it, Sophocles' Electra cannot compete with Aeschylus' Orestia (probably not fair to compare a complete trilogy to a single tragedy, but it's what we've got.). Definitely recommend:)

I've only read one Sophocles' tragedy before (Antigone), but that was top-rate, so my expectations were high. Sophocles didn't disappoint: these were very entertaining and interesting plays that still have relevance, 2500 years after they were written.

Women of Trachis told the story of Heracles' suicide by funeral pyre. I was pretty unfamiliar with the mythos around Heracles, so the twists and turns of the story managed to surprise me. Not bad.

Ajax was the best of these four plays. Ajax was a hero of the Trojan war who got royally pissed when Achilles' weapons were handed to Odysseus instead of him. So pissed, in fact, that he decides to torture-kill all the leaders of the expedition. Sounds reasonable to me. Athene casts a confusion over him, so Ajax ends up killing only pack animals. When Ajax realizes his error, he gets ashamed of his actions - not the torture-killing bit, but the fact that he killed helpless animals, which is unbecoming of a warrior. He gets so ashamed, in fact, that he decides to kill himself. Once again, most reasonable logic.
The play has unusual structure: Ajax's suicide happens in the middle of the play, and then the story turns into Antigone part 2: for the rest of the play the conflict revolves around the burial of Ajax. Odysseus acts as a voice of reason, so the play ends on a more of less peaceful note.

In Philoctetes, on the other hand, Odysseus is depicted as a crafty and amoral manipulator. According to a prophecy the Trojan war can't be won without Philoctetes and his invincible bow. Odysseus comes up with a deceitful plan to get Philo back to Troy. The only trouble is that he drafts young Neoptolemy to lure Philoctetes, but Neo feels sorry for the poor man and decides to come clean and confess the whole plot. Philoctetes decides to have nothing to do with the whole war, Greeks be damned - but changes suddenly his mind after literal deus ex machina: Heracles descends from Olympos to tell Philoctetes to stop his whining and get back on board with the war business.
Philoctetes obeys, and the play ends - happily. Zero suicides, zero murders. Extremely unexpected.

With Electra we get back on the proper Greek tragedy track: here we have murders aplenty. This play tells the same story as The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus. Sophocles focuses more on Electra than Orestes. The most interesting bit was the dialogue between Electra and her sister Crysothemis. They are both living with their murderous mother, who they both hate, but Cryso has decided to accept her fate for the time being and submit to her mother's will. Therefore she lives in luxury. Electra, on the other hand, is relentless in her hate and isn't afraid to show how much she despised her mother. Thus she wears only rags and is treated like a slave. Both sisters try unsuccesfully to convert the other to their point of view. The audience is left to draw their own conclusions as to which way is actually better.

Oto mój ranking dramatów Sofoklesa, o który nikt nie prosił a każdy potrzebował
1. Król Edyp ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
2. Filoktet ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
3. Antygona ⭐⭐⭐⭐
4. Edyp w Kolonos ⭐⭐⭐✨
5. Trachinki ⭐⭐⭐