Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone (Cliffs Notes)

Rating:
Summary: Not Too Bad
Review: Leave it to Cliff Notes to produce another fine study aid to classic literature pieces. The insights were intuitive and well thought out and it made the difficult plays to read and understand quite easy. I would recommend it to anyone having to read any of the included plays.

Rating:
Summary: Understanding Greek Tragedy and Sophocles' Theban Plays
Review: One of the nice things about Robert J. Milch's Cliffs Notes for the Theban Plays of Sophocles, is that like his other volumes on Greek tragedies, he begins with an outstanding section on the Background of Greek Tragedy as well as Aristotle on Tragedy from the "Poetics." No matter which Greek plays you happen to be teaching/reading, Milch sets up the particular structure of these plays with episodes and stasimons, the theatrical equipment of the day such as orchestra and eccyclmea, and such key literary concepts as mimesis, catharsis, harmartia, peripetia and anagnorisis. I especially appreciate the fact that Milch employs the original Greek terms for concepts that are, of course, perfectly suited to understanding Greek tragedies.

After providing the Mythological Background of Oedipus and his haunted family, Milch looks at "Oedipus the King," "Oedipus at Colonus" and "Antigone" in turn, providing summaries and commentaries for each specific part of the play (parados, episods, stasimons, exodus). Each play concludes with some general commentary and there is a excellent Note on Translations at the end of the volume that provides examples of various translations of the same verses. Because Milch is covering three plays in this volume, there is not as much commentary as you would usually find in this little yellow book with the black stripes. However, the introductory material on Greek tragedies should work quite well to give teachers/students a framework with which to explore these plays in the grand tradition of cookie-cutter criticism. Final Note: There is a reference to Oedipus in Homer's "Iliad," that indicates he was slain in battle, which would suggest he was not blind. In turn, this suggests that Sophocles might have come up with something new when he had Oedipus blind himself. In that case, all the overbearing foreshadowing that appears early in "Oedipus the King" might not be as blatant as it seems. Food for thought.

Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: These cliff notes are great! They give you an indepth analyzation of all the characters, a great background, a summary and an analysis for every part of the book. These a great if you are not familiar with Greek literature or are having any trouble.