Author · 7 titles

Sophocles

Sophocles (c. 496–406 BCE) made Greek tragedy feel inevitable. Oedipus hunts a crime and finds himself; Antigone buries a brother and breaks a state. Gods, chorus, and human stubbornness share the stage without anyone being merely a symbol. Sophocles wrote into old age, refining a form he had helped perfect: fewer actors, tighter action, a moral intelligence that never lectures. Read him for the shock of a story that knows more than its hero. Our 7 titles open that severe, luminous shelf — Athens at full tragic power.

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