"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Monday, June 23, 2025

Oedipus Trilogy (Oedipus Rex (429 BC), Oedipus at Colonus (406 BC), Antigone (442 BC)) (Sophocles)

Re-read - first time would have been freshman year at Notre Dame, so 1974 or 1975.  I got the idea to read this from a book gifted on Father's Day from Paul Jr. and Nedda ("Papyrus" - lots of interesting thoughts on the ancient Greeks).

Pretty quick reading, the story lines are familiar.  Oedipus runs into some bad luck and is made eternally famous; in his old age he is supported by Antigone in particular and then protected by Theseus; one of his sons, slain in battle, is left to the jackals by Creon (an incredible insult in those days, perhaps any time) - at least until Antigone defies Creon.

Kind of amazing that folks were doing this quality of literature this long ago, I hope I don't take it for granted.  I hadn't realized the sequencing of the three works, how far apart in time.

The "Papyrus" book indicates that Sophocles was one of the big three of that time period (with Aeschyles and Euripides). 

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