Sophocles' most profound and celebrated play in a vivid and dynamic new translation by award-winning poet Robert BaggOedipus the King remains, after 2,500 years, a shocking, suspenseful, and highly emotional drama in which a royal family is brought to hellish ruin by fate, an inscrutable god, and the kindness of a stranger. Oedipus must find and destroy the murderer of his predecessor, King Laios, to rid Thebes of the plague caused by the killer's undetected and malignant presence. The play's headlong action resembles a tautly woven criminal investigation, but one whose immense stakes pose a host of wrenching and still unresolved questions: What constitutes human guiltWhy do gods punish the innocentWhat are the limits of human intellectWhy do family bonds so often prove destructive?Robert Bagg's spare, idiomatic, and nuanced translation is ideally suited for reading, teaching, or performing. This is Sophocles for a new generation.
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Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
When Theater Was Life: The World of Sophocles
Oedipus the King
Introduction: “Something . . . I Remember . . . Wakes Up Terrified”