Sean Sheehan: Sophocles' Initiation into Oedipus Rex

This book serves as an introduction to the Greek tragic playwright Sophocles’ *Oedipus Rex*, a translation of Sean Sheehan’s *Sophocles’ Oedipus the King* (2012). Professor Kwon Oh-sook translated the original text into Korean; it is part of a Reader’s Guide series designed to provide clear and concise explanations for the easy understanding of original texts in Western philosophy and literature. Chapter 1 explains the background and significance of Sophocles’ writing of *Oedipus Rex* within the context of the traditional narrative of the ancient Oedipus myth and the tragic works created and performed under the social and political circumstances of ancient Athens. Chapter 2 details the form, linguistic characteristics, and style of Greek tragedy and *Oedipus Rex*, and specifically discusses how Aristotle analyzed this play, which he adopted as the archetype of tragedy in his *Poetics*. Chapter 3 organizes the themes of *Oedipus Rex* into tragic action, cognition and self-awareness, and fate, and analyzes these themes in depth through various examples found in Western literary classics and modern works. Building upon the understanding of form and background explained in Chapters 1 through 3, the text reading section of Chapter 4 divides the entire play—comprising 1,530 lines of verse—into 17 sections for detailed commentary. It facilitates a multi-dimensional reading by analyzing key dialogue and Greek words in each scene, as well as comparing various English translations.

Korean title: 소포클레스의 오이디푸스 왕 입문

Korean author: 숀 쉬한

Korean publisher: 서광사

ISBN-13: 9788930680004