Abandoned by his community, doomed to a solitary existence with his voice as sole companion: can Sophocles’ Philoctetes still speak to us? What do his screams have to say? Dancing with Philoctetes: Reflections on Pain and Remembrance juxtaposes a new adaptation of Sophocles’ play with an essay describing the process of bringing it to life in a world on the brink of a pandemic. Akavia investigates Sophocles’ nuanced portrayal of the fragility of empathy in the face of suffering, and also shares the challenges of embodying and vocalizing Sophocles’ text onstage. She proposes that the pandemic and its aftermath offer a renewed perspective on Philoctetes’ thematization, not just of empathy and disease, but of the longing to return: to home, to health, to what memory holds. Akavia’s treatment of Philoctetes starts out from his body and voice and journeys on to loneliness, toxic masculinity, nostalgia, cancer, dreaming, parenthood, language, ballet lessons, siblings, music, and growing up. Here, scholarship and creative non-fiction combine to tell a story of reading, performing, thinking about, and living (through) tragedy.

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Only a few plays by Sophocles—one of the great tragic playwrights from Classical Athens—have survived, and each of them dramatizes events from the rich store of myths that framed literature and art. Sophocles’ treatment evokes issues that were vividly contemporary for Athenian audiences of the Periclean age: How could the Athenians incorporate older, aristocratic ideas about human excellence into their new democratic society? Could citizens learn to be morally excellent, or were these qualities only inherited? What did it mean to be a creature who knows that he or she must die?Late Sophocles traces the evolution of the Sophoclean hero through the final three plays, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. The book’s main thesis, that Sophocles reimagined the nature of the tragic hero in his last three works, is developed inductively through readings of the plays.

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Three Theban Plays, by Sophocles, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. The pinnacle of classical drama in Greece, the three-part, 2,500 year-old Oedipus cycle remains a touchstone of Western culture. Nearly perfect technically, the plays feature headstrong heroes, intense plots, and breathtaking imagery that have influenced generations of artists, philosophers, and statesmen. These fresh, historically faithful renditions by renowned translator Peter Constantine bring new life to civilization’s most meaningful dramas. Rich in sex and violence, the plays follow the tragic downfall of King Oedipus, a man who mistakenly believes he can control his own destiny. In Oedipus the King, we watch as the hero learns the truth about his past, including his murder of his father, Laius, and marriage to his mother, Jocasta. Written just before the death of Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus features a more subdued tone as the blind, exiled king reflects on his passing from this world. Antigone, the earliest written of the three, presents the powerful story of the iron-willed daughter of Oedipus as she takes a fatal stand against her uncle Creon, the new ruler of Thebes. Favoring her own moral code to the dictates of an unjust ruler, Antigone becomes the first heroine in Western literature and a model of civil disobedience. Pedro de Blas holds degrees in law and classics and has taught Greek at Columbia University and the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute. He has acted in several productions of Greek tragedy in the original and he is the author of the introduction and notes to Essential Dialogues of Plato, also published by Barnes & Noble Classics.

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Vulnerability is not often associated with virtue. Yet to be vulnerable is central to human experience. In this book, McCoy examines ways in which Greek epic, tragedy, and philosophy have important insights to offer about the nature of human vulnerability and how human beings might better come to terms with their own vulnerability. While studies of Greek heroism and virtue often focus on strength of character, prowess in war, or the achievement of honor for oneself or one’s society, McCoy examines another side to Greek thought that extols the recognition and proper acceptance of vulnerability. McCoy begins with the literary works of Homer’s Iliad, Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Philoctetes before expanding her analysis to philosophical works. There, she analyzes imagery of wounding in Plato’s Gorgias and Symposium as well as Aristotle’s work on the vulnerability inherent in friendship and an innovative interpretation of tragic catharsis in the Poetics. As much a work of philosophy as of classical textual analysis, McCoy’s work aims at a deeper understanding of the virtues of vulnerability for individuals and societies alike.

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