Hi friends and happy Wednesday! I hope you’re all doing well. I’m back again today with yet another classic read! Today I’m posting my reading update thoughts on Sophocles’ Three Theban Plays.

The heroic Greek dramas that have moved theatergoers and readers since the fifth century B.C.

Towering over the rest of Greek tragedy, the three plays that tell the story of the fated Theban royal family—Antigone, Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus—are among the most enduring and timeless dramas ever written. Robert Fagles’s authoritative and acclaimed translation conveys all of Sophocles’s lucidity and power: the cut and thrust of his dialogue, his ironic edge, the surge and majesty of his choruses and, above all, the agonies and triumphs of his characters. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction and notes by the renowned classicist Bernard Knox.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

(1939 translation)

StoryGraph synopsis

This is yet again another out of my comfort zone reading, but I’m liking it. So far, I’ve read the first play – Antigone and thought it was really good. I like how persistent and unwavering Antigone was in her beliefs that her brother should be buried and wept over, despite what her uncle and society told her was right. Then that plot twist at the end! I didn’t see that coming. She was so strong in her convictions that she went as far as death, I don’t know if I’d call that brave, but it was some serious dedication that if she’d only known what the reader knew, could have been avoided. But then that wouldn’t have made for much of a dramatic play nor would there have been any stakes, and you can tell that this has changed Creon and I wonder if that will come through in the other 2 plays. I guess I’ll find out soon! 

I’ve just finished reading the second play, Oedipus the King, and wow. So I didn’t know anything going into these plays and what a turn this play takes halfway through. I wasn’t prepared for where this story was going to go. It was gruesome at points, but the way Oedipus decides to handle things made sense to me. I now understand the whole “Oedipus complex” better because what a complex it is. I also learned that this one takes place before the first play, so that slightly changes how I see the characters in Antigone. I didn’t hate this, but I don’t think I’d see myself reading this play again. 

I’m now done with reading the last play, Oedipus at Colonus and what great tragedy and dramatics it was, but that’s what kept it entertaining. I was never quite sure where this story was going to go and I couldn’t have predicted its end. We learn so much more about these characters that we didn’t before; this play felt a lot more exposition heavy in the fact that we’re told everything now. The order of these plays are all over the place because this one takes place after Oedipus the King but not too long before Antigone and it really gave us context to those two plays so in a way, the order of them was kinda genius in fully understanding them all. There are some notes at the end I want to read before I make my final thoughts, but so far I’ve been impressed.

I’ve now finished all three plays and their notes and I have to say the notes did provide some additional context, some more interesting and valuable than others, but I still enjoyed reading it. It helped relate other Greek stories, like the Iliad, to these plays and I liked seeing the connection and references. It didn’t change how I feel about the plays, in which I thoroughly enjoyed them and would recommend them, but just helped to understand them a bit better.  

 Have you read The Three Theban Plays? Let me know in the comments!