Overview

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 thefinal three plays, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. The book’s main thesis, that Sophocles reimagined the nature of the tragic hero inhis 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 goesbeyond 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.

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9780472119561

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Reviews

This short, clear and elegantly-written study considers how 'the Sophoclean tragic hero--lonely, defiant, and self-destructive--undergoes a crucial transformation in the last three plays'. --Classics for All-- (07/28/2017) The author provides a most satisfying discussion of Sophocles' struggle... --Patricia A. Johnston, CJ-Online -- (10/23/2015) Late Sophocles leads the reader through the last phase of the dramatist's art with sound and reliable judgement, illuminating three great tragedies sensitively. --N J Sewell-Rutter, Bryn Mawr Classical Review-- (10/06/2015)

Late Sophocles leads the reader through the last phase of the dramatist's art with sound and reliable judgement, illuminating three great tragedies sensitively. --N J Sewell-Rutter, Bryn Mawr Classical Review--N J Sewell-Rutter Bryn Mawr Classical Review (10/6/2015 12:00:00 AM) The author provides a most satisfying discussion of Sophocles' struggle... --Patricia A. Johnston, CJ-Online --Patricia A. Johnston CJ-Online (10/23/2015 12:00:00 AM) This short, clear and elegantly-written study considers how 'the Sophoclean tragic hero--lonely, defiant, and self-destructive--undergoes a crucial transformation in the last three plays'. --Classics for All--David Stuttard Classics for All (7/28/2017 12:00:00 AM)

Author Information

Thomas Van Nortwick is Nathan A. Greenberg Professor of Classics, Oberlin College, USA.

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