{"product_id":"sophocles-the-complete-plays-9780451531537","title":"Sophocles: The Complete Plays","description":"\u003cb\u003eWith new translations and a new afterword\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The full texts of the seven extant plays of Sophocles with Paul Roche's revised and updated translations of the Oedipus cycle, and all-new translations of the remaining plays.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSophocles\u003c\/b\u003e was born at Colonus, just outside Athens, in 496 BC, and lived ninety years. His long life spanned the rise and decline of the Athenian Empire; he was a friend of Pericles, and though not an active politician he held several public offices, both military and civil. The leader of a literary circle and friend of Herodotus, he was interested in poetic theory as well as practice, and he wrote a prose treatise \u003cb\u003eOn the Chorus\u003c\/b\u003e. He seems to have been content to spend all his life at Athens, and is said to have refused several invitations to royal courts.\u003cp\u003eSophocles first won a prize for tragic drama in 468, defeating the veteran Aeschylus. He wrote over a hundred plays for the Athenian theater, and is said to have come first in twenty-four contests. Only seven of his tragedies are now extant, these being \u003cb\u003eAjax\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003eAntigone\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003eOedipus the King\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003eWomen of Trachis\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003eElectra\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003ePhiloctetes\u003c\/b\u003e, and the posthumous \u003cb\u003eOedipus at Colonus\u003c\/b\u003e. A substantial part of \u003cb\u003eThe Searches\u003c\/b\u003e, a satyr play, was recovered from papyri in Egypt in modern times. Fragments of other plays remain, showing that he drew on a wide range of themes; he also introduced the innovation of a third actor in his tragedies. He died in 406 BC.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePaul Roche\u003c\/b\u003e, a distinguished English poet and translator, is the author of \u003cb\u003eThe Bible's Greatest Stories\u003c\/b\u003e. His other translations include \u003cb\u003eEuripides: Ten Plays\u003c\/b\u003e (Signet), \u003cb\u003eOedipus Plays of Sophocles\u003c\/b\u003e (Meridian) and \u003cb\u003eThe Orestes Plays of Aeschylus\u003c\/b\u003e (Meridian).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Signet Book","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50565910462738,"sku":"9780451531537","price":5.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_fe734fae-0917-4791-919a-2e45e46a715a.jpg?v=1731889242","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/sophocles-the-complete-plays-9780451531537","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}