''I would call the register 'restrained colloquial'. The language ranges between the straightforward and the genuinely poetic, its dominant characteristic being freshness. This is not the usual dull translationese, which reads as if the original were not in a language people once spoke and wrote and created art with... One of the most effective styles I have seen in a translation.'' -- Reader's report. Paul Woodruff is Professor of Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin.

Antigone is Sophocles' masterpiece, a seminal influence on a wide range of theatrical, literary, and intellectual traditions. This volume sets the play in the contexts of its mythical background, its performance, its relation to contemporary culture and thought, and its rich reception history. But its main aim is to encourage first-hand engagement with the complexities of interpretation that make the play so enduringly thought-provoking and rewarding. Though Creon's actions prove disastrous and Antigone's are vindicated, the Antigone is no simple study in the excesses of tyranny or the virtues of heroic resistance, but a more nuanced exploration of conflicting views of right and wrong and of the conditions that constrain human beings' efforts to control their destinies and secure their happiness. The book's chapters consider the extent of the original audience's acquaintance with earlier versions of the legends of Antigone's family, the structure of the plot as it unfolds in theatrical performance, the presentation of the characters and the motivations that drive them, the major political, social, and ethical themes that the play raises, and the resonance of those themes in the ways that the play has been interpreted, adapted, performed, and appropriated in later periods.

This volume offers the fruits of Peter Meineck and Paul Woodruff's dynamic collaboration on the plays of Sophocles' Theban cycle, presenting the translators' Oedipus Tyrannus (2000) along with Woodruff's Antigone (2001) and a muscular new Oedipus at Colonus by Meineck. Grippingly readable, all three translations combine fidelity to the Greek with concision, clarity, and powerful, hard-edged speech. Each play features foot-of-the-page notes, stage directions, and line numbers to the Greek. Woodruff's Introduction discusses the playwright, Athenian theatre and performance, the composition of the plays, and the plots and characters of each; it also offers thoughtful reflections on major critical interpretations of these plays.

The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Political Thought provides a guide to understanding the central texts and problems in ancient Greek political thought, from Homer through the Stoics and Epicureans. Composed of essays specially commissioned for this volume and written by leading scholars of classics, political science, and philosophy, the Companion brings these texts to life by analysing what they have to tell us about the problems of political life. Focusing on texts by Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle, among others, they examine perennial issues, including rights and virtues, democracy and the rule of law, community formation and maintenance, and the ways in which theorizing of several genres can and cannot assist political practice.