Oedipus Rex

Suggestions for Further Reading

105 Suggestions for Further Reading Historical Background Chadwick, John. Linear B and Related Scripts. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. The story of the discovery and decipherment of Mycenaean writing. De Romilly, Jacqueline. The Great Sophists in Periclean Athens. Tr. Janet Lloyd. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. A balanced assessment of the role of the sophists in Athenian culture. Dickinson, Oliver. The Aegean Bronze Age to Iron Age. New York: Routledge, 2006. A survey of what is now known about the material conditions of Greece in the Dark Age. Drews, Robert. The Coming of the Greeks: Indo-European Conquests in the Aegean and the Near East. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988. Analysis of the evidence for the date of the arrival of Greek-speaking Indo-Europeans in Greece. . The End of the Bronze Age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993. An examination of explanations for the destruction of the Mycenaean palaces. After criticizing other views, the author defends the theory that changes in military technology and tactics made chariots obsolete and left palaces and cities at the mercy of piratical raiders. Martin, Thomas R. Ancient Greece from Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996. A brief, accessible survey of Greek history. 106 Murray, Oswyn. Early Greece. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1980. A detailed history of Archaic Greece from the end of the Dark Age to the Persian War. Osborne, Robin. Greece in the Making 1200–479 B.C. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2009. A history of Greece from the Mycenaean Age to the end of the Archaic Period. Distinguished by careful attention to the nature of the sources of our information and the way in which their statements about the past reflected their own circumstances and conflicts. Pomeroy, Sarah B., Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, Jennifer Tolbert. Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. A history of Greece from Mycenae to the Hellenistic Age. Emphasis on social and cultural conditions as well as political and military ones. Vermeule, Emily. Greece in the Bronze Age. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964. The classic introduction to life in Mycenaean Greece. Interpretations of Oedipus Rex Ahl, Frederick. Sophocles’ Oedipus: Evidence and Self-Conviction. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991. A defense of the surprising thesis that Oedipus was not the son of Laius and Jocasta and did not kill the former. Berkowitz, Luci, and Theodore Brunner. Sophocles, “Oedipus Tyrannus”: A New Translation, Passages from Ancient Authors, Religion and Psychology: Some Studies, Criticism. A Norton Critical Edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 1966. A prose translation and a selection of critical essays and other sources, including Thucydides’ account of the plague in Athens. Suggestions for Further Reading 107 Dodds, E. R. “On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex.” Greece and Rome 13 (1966): 37–49. A highly regarded essay arguing that Oedipus does not have a tragic flaw and that he is not the victim of fate. He is a hero who faces the fact that all human happiness is an illusion. Reprinted frequently (e.g., in Berkowitz and Brunner and in O’Brien). Griffith, Drew. The Theatre of Apollo: Divine Justice and Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Montreal, Quebec: McGillQueens University Press, 1996. Argues that Apollo brought about Oedipus’ fall to punish him for his hubris. Knox, Bernard. Oedipus at Thebes. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957. The classic presentation of the case that Oedipus may be understood as a symbol of Periclean Athens. O’Brien, Michael. Twentieth-Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1968. An anthology of influential writings on the play. Segal, Charles. Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge. Twayne Masterworks Series. New York: Twayne, 1993. Comprehensive background information and running commentary on the play for Greekless readers. Vellacott, Philip. “The Guilt of Oedipus.” Greece and Rome 11 (1964): 137–48. Defense of the interpretation that Oedipus knew that Laius and Jocasta were probably his real parents. Reprinted in Berkowitz and Brunner. Ancient Greek Drama Gregory, Justina, ed. A Companion to Greek Tragedy. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. A collection of essays by leading scholars treating a wide range of topics related to Greek tragedy. Rehm, Rush. Greek Tragic Theatre. London: Routledge, 1992. An engaging introduction, with attention to archaeological Suggestions for Further Reading 108 as well as literary evidence and interesting speculation about stage effects. Storey, Ian, and Arlene...