Wednesday, June 9, 2021

Why should we dance?

Claire Catenaccio reviews Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, translated By David Kovacs, at The New Criterion.

"To test their coinage, the Greeks used a touchstone, a basanos, on which pure gold leaves a yellow streak; for both Thucydides and Sophocles, plague is a touchstone of integrity and moral excellence. And while in Thucydides’ account Athens fails the test, Sophocles’ Oedipus emerges from his ordeal humbled and blinded by his own hands but still recognizably great."

See Sophocles, Plays, Great Books of the Western World (first edition, 52 Vol., 1952) volume 5, (second edition, 60 Vol., 1990) volume 4.

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