The Oedipus Cycle

[Taken from the back cover]

The Oedipus Cycle of Sophocles: An English Version

Oedipus Rex: Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald Oedipus at Colonus: Robert Fitzgerald Antigone: Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald

The myth of Oedipus, which reverberates to our own day, provided Sophocles with material for three great tragedies – Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone, which together recount the downfall of Oedipus, King of Thebes, his death in exile, and the action carried out after his death by his daughter Antigone.

These new English versions of Sophocles' trilogy were composed specifically for a modern audience by two gifted poets and Hellenists. Their aim was to recapture the directness and simplicity as well as the concentrated richness of the poetry of Sophocles; they wished at the same time to make their verse renderings of the plays "clear and credible in English" and actable as well as readable. The critical acclaim with which these new versions have been received both in the United States and Great Britain indicates that Mr. Fitts and Mr. Fitzgerald have achieved their aim.

The plays originally appeared separately: Antigone and Oedipus Rex – on which Mr. Fitts and Mr. Fitzgerald collaborated – in 1939 and 1949 respectively; Oedipus at Colonus, by Mr. Fitzgerald, in 1941. Harvest Books now makes available for the first time in one volume these distinguished renderings of the entire Oedipus Cycle.