Plays

All of the surviving plays of Sophocles are based on mythological plots drawn from the Trojan and Theban cycles, as well as tales about Heracles: the mighty warrior Ajax, after the death of Achilles, claims the armor of the fallen... hero, but it goes to Odysseus; the Theban king Oedipus discovers that he is the cause of the calamities that have befallen his city and condemns himself to voluntary exile, and the faithful wife of Heracles, Deianira, in despair trying to win back her husband's love, unknowingly condemns him to death. However, Sophocles managed to present well-known events to all Greeks from a new perspective and breathe new life into familiar characters. The central focus of his works consistently lies in the emotional state of the characters and the feelings they experience, whereby legendary mythological heroes are subject to the same emotions as ordinary people.
This edition includes all seven tragedies of Sophocles that have survived to this day and excerpts from the satyr play "The Trackers," found in 1911 in Egypt on fragments of papyrus.