In this Book

Late Sophocles: The Hero’s Evolution in Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus

Book
Thomas Van Nortwick
2018
Published by: University of Michigan Press
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
summary
Only a few plays by Sophocles—one of the great tragic playwrights from Classical Athens—have survived, and each of them dramatizes events from the rich store of myths that framed literature and art. Sophocles’ treatment evokes issues that were vividly contemporary for Athenian audiences of the Periclean age: How could the Athenians incorporate older, aristocratic ideas about human excellence into their new democratic society? Could citizens learn to be morally excellent, or were these qualities only inherited? What did it mean to be a creature who knows that he or she must die?

Late Sophocles traces the evolution of the Sophoclean hero through the final three plays, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. The book’s main thesis, that Sophocles reimagined the nature of the tragic hero in his last three works, is developed inductively through readings of the plays. This balanced approach, in which a detailed argument about the plays is offered in a format accessible to nonspecialists, is unusual—perhaps unique—in contemporary Classical scholarship on Sophocles.

This book will appeal to nonspecialist readers of serious literature as well as scholars of classical and other literatures. While including ample guidance for those not familiar with the plays, Late Sophocles goes beyond a generalized description of “what happens” in the plays to offer a clear, jargon-free argument for the enduring importance of Sophocles’ plays. The argument’s implications for longstanding interpretational issues will be of interest to specialists. All Greek is translated.

Table of Contents

open access

Cover Page

Cover

Title Page

pp. i-iii

Half Title, Title Page, Copyright, Dedication

Copyright Page

pp. iv-iv

Preface

pp. vii-x

Dedication

pp. v-vi

Acknowledgments

pp. xi-xii

Contents

pp. xiii-xiv

Preface

pp. vii-x

Acknowledgments

pp. xi-xii

Chapter 1. Introduction: The Artist in Old Age

pp. 1-6

Chapter 2. Electra: Glory Bathed in Tears

pp. 7-42

Chapter 1 - Introduction: The Artist in Old Age

pp. 1-6

Chapter 3. Philoctetes: The Creature in the Cave

pp. 43-80

Chapter 2 - Electra: Glory Bathed in Tears

pp. 7-42

Chapter 4. Oedipus at Colonus: Spiritual Geography

pp. 81-114

Chapter 5. Late Sophocles

pp. 115-124

Chapter 3 - Philoctetes: The Creature in the Cave

pp. 43-80

Chapter 4 - Oedipus at Colonus: Spiritual Geography

pp. 81-114

Notes

pp. 125-138

References

pp. 139-144

Chapter 5 - Late Sophocles

pp. 115-124

Notes

pp. 125-138

Index

pp. 145-148

References

pp. 139-144

Index

pp. 145-148
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