The Tragedies of Sophocles

This volume provides separate discussions of each of Sophocles’ seven plays: Ajax, Women of Trachis, Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. Including a critical essay which surveys modern approaches to Greek tragedy and a coda spotlighting key moments in the reception of each work, The Tragedies of Sophocles focuses on the dramatic power of the tragedy and the challenges with which it confronts an audience. James Morwood refuses to confine the plays to a supposedly Sophoclean template, instead portraying them as seven unique works, united only by the fact that they are all major masterpieces. Using contemporary and historical reception studies of works such as Seamus Heaney’s The Cure at Troy, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Edipo Re, and Hugo von Hofmannstahl’s opera Elektra, this is the first modern introduction to Sophocles that fully tackles modern staging and retellings of his plays. Intended for students of classics at the college level and above, this volume is also a thrillingly modern read for the general reader who seeks the definitive introduction to Sophocles, his work, and his enduring legacy.