Oedipus the King

Sophocles

Oct 2012 · University of Chicago Press

About this ebook

Available for the first time as an independent work, David Grene’s legendary translation of Oedipus the King renders Sophocles’ Greek into cogent, vivid, and poetic English for a new generation to savor. Over the years, Grene and Lattimore’s Complete Greek Tragedies have been the preferred choice of millions of readers—for personal libraries, individual study, and classroom use. This new, stand-alone edition of Sophocles’ searing tale of jealousy, rage, and revenge will continue the tradition of the University of Chicago Press’s classic series.

Praise for David Grene and Richmond Lattimore’s Complete Greek Tragedies

“This is it. No qualifications. Go out and buy it everybody.”—Kenneth Rexroth, Nation

“The translations deliberately avoid the highly wrought and affectedly poetic; their idiom is contemporary. . . . They have life and speed and suppleness of phrase.”—Times Education Supplement

Ratings and reviews

This play is beyond words, a beautiful tragedy that will be remembered through out the ages. Luckless Oedipus, you know not what you've done!! A beautiful translation, I definitely recommend this masterpiece to anyone.

I am not a fan of Sophocles, but this is a classic. My first real intro to tragedies. Read it.

this classic Greek tragedy had me hooked as if it had been written yesterday

About the author

David Grene (1913–2002) taught classics for many years at the University of Chicago. He was a founding member of the Committee on Social Thought and coedited the University of Chicago Press’s prestigious series The Complete Greek Tragedies.