Tan calf binding, Gilt Rugby school emblem on front board, gilt tooling with green title plate on the spine.

SOPHOCLES. TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE. ROBERT WHITELAW 1883. HARDBACK

A clean little used early edition

Sophocles (c. 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC) is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those of Aeschylus; and earlier than, or contemporary with, those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote over 120 plays, but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Women of Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. For almost fifty years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens which took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. He competed in thirty competitions, won twenty-four, and was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won thirteen competitions and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles; Euripides won four.

The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature Oedipus and Antigone: they are generally known as the Theban plays, though each was part of a different tetralogy (the other members of which are now lost). Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor (attributed to Sophocles by Aristotle; to Aeschylus by Themistius), thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights.

Robert Whitelaw (1843-1917) was born in London on 15 April 1843 and attended Lancaster Grammar School. He matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1861 (B.A., 1865; M.A., 1868), where he became a Fellow in 1866. He was assistant master at Rugby, 1868-1913. He died at Moultrie Cottage, Rugby, on 6 February 1917.Robert Whitelaw was one of England’s foremost Ancient Greek Scholars.