GREAT EDITION THIS EDITION HAS SPACE FOR YOUR NOTES, AND ALONG THE SIDE IT HAS NOTES THAT HELP YOU BETTER UNDERSTAND THIS ALREADY GREAT STORY. ONE MORE IMPORTANT REASON FOR YOU TO BUY THE TOUCHSTONE EDITION IS ITS PRICE, CAN'T BE BEAT. I ONLY WISH THAT IT WAS THE SIZE OF OTHER PAPERBACK BOOKS.
Satisfaction This product is extremely helpful when reading Oedipus. It is a fantastic version of the play.A student friendly edition of the paradigmatic Greek tragedy "Oedipus Rex" is not only the most read Greek tragedy, it is also the most misread. The play's reputation exists in part because it is presented as the paradigmatic example of the Greek tragedy by no less an authority than Aristotle in his "Poetics." No doubt this reputation played a part it making it one of the relatively few plays by Sophocles that has been preserved from ancient times. Whenever I have taught the Greek tragedies in various classes my students almost always find in the play the best examples of Aristotle's key concepts of harmartia ("tragic error of judgment"), anagnorisis ("recognition"), peripeteia ("reversal"), catharsis, etc. Still, there is the fact that because even those who do not know the play know the story about the man who killed his father and married his mother, "Oedipus Rex" is usually misread by students. Because they know the curse they miss something very important: the curse that the oracle at Delphi tells Oedipus (ln. 752-57) is not the same curse that was told to his parents (ln. 676-78).
The only reference to Oedipus by name in Homer appears in the "Iliad" (Book 23, ln 756) where it says that the king of Thebes died in battle, which suggests he was not blind. At some point in between the time of Homer and when Sophocles wrote this play, the tradition became that Oedipus blinded himself (Ismene refers to it in "Antigone," ln 37-39, which was written 15 years earlier but may have been edited later to conform with the more famous work). Sophocles could be playing with the legend again by having the prophecy change because this way there is an explanation for the sin of incest being part of the prophecy: it is added when Jocasta tries to thwart destiny and she herself gives the baby Oedipus over to the huntsman to be killed. Consequently, in the view of Sophocles at least, the incest is a punishment for the actions of Jocasta and not something that the innocent babe Oedipus faced from the moment of his birth.
Anyhow, there is no need for me to convince you that "Oedipus Rex" (a.k.a. "Oedipus the King" and "Oedipus Tyrannos") is a great play and the epitome of the Greek tragedy. So let me instead recommend this Literary Touchstone Edition with it use of sidebar notes to explain terms, concepts and mythological references. Once upon a time it seemed like only Shakespeare got this treatment, so it is nice to see Sophocles being treated the same. Before you read the play there are some Reading Points for Sharper Interest, which give readers some key things to consider whether they are reading the play for the first time or the twentieth. A list of Dramatis Personae is provided before the play and a look at the Mythological Background follows, although reading that latter one first as well could be quite useful.
Actually, a lot of what is included in this book would be useful reading before rather than after. The rest of this volume is devoted to brief considerations of the Origins of Greek Drama, Tragedy and the City (looking at the importance of these dramas to the Athenians), Conventions of Greek Drama, and Aristotle's Influence on Our Understanding of Tragedy. If anything, depending on how much you already know about such things, these sections may be too brief. But they do provide some key concepts for better understanding "Oedipus Rex." Even teachers who cannot get classroom sets of this edition to give their students to read can take advantage of what they find here to benefit their students.
