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The preface also critiques prior verse and prose renderings and justifies a prose approach prioritizing clarity and vigor.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/","Literature",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/oedipus-the-king-preface/569003/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/oedipus-the-king-preface/569003.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Himbo","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-13",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":33},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",{"@type":56,"mainEntity":57},"FAQPage",[58,64,68],{"name":59,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":61},"Who prepared this translation and for what purpose?","Question",{"text":62,"@type":63},"The preface presents Bernard M. W. Knox’s “acting version,” created for actors and for student audiences studying filmed lessons of the play.","Answer",{"name":65,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":66},"Why was a new translation needed?",{"text":67,"@type":63},"The translator explains that existing versions did not meet the needs of the program: they were not immediately intelligible in performance and did not preserve dramatic excitement for students unfamiliar with Greek tragedy and theater.",{"name":69,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":70},"What criteria guided the translator’s prose approach?",{"text":71,"@type":63},"Clarity and vigor are named as the prose criteria, even at the cost of other qualities, aiming to convey one dimension of Sophocles’ dramatic 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London and at St.John's College,Cambridge,England.He came to the United Statesin 1938 and divided the next eight years betweenteaching and service in Europe with the U.S.Army.  \nIn 1948 he wasawarded a Ph.D.byYale University andhas taught there eversince,except for one  \n\n| A NOTE ABOUT  \u003Cbr>THE TRANSLATOR   |\n| --- |\n\nperiod of research on a Morse Fellowship and an-other as a Guggenheim Fellow.In 1959 he wasnamed Professor of Classics at Yale.  \nProfessor Knox's experience is peculiarly suited tothe preparation of this new translation of Oedipusthe King for he has,during the past ten years,con-ducted a large lecture course on Greek drama intranslation.He is the author of numerous articleson this subject and of a book,Oedipus at Thebes,which was described by The New Yorker as“asuperb analysis ...an almost total summing up offifth-century Athens-political,religious,philosoph-ic,legal,medical,scientific,mathematical,and evenvocational.\"  \n# S o P H O C L E S\n\nTranslated by Bernard M W.Knox  \nOEDIPUS THE KING  \nWASEINOTON SQUARE PREss edition published 19593rd printing…      …  ……November,1961  \nA new edition of a distinguished lit-erary work now made available inan inexpensive,well-designed format  \nL  \nPublished by  \nWashington Square Press,Inc.:Executive Ofices,630 Fifth Avenue;University Press Division,32 Washington Place,New York,N.Y.  \nWASHINOTON SQUARE PREss editions are distributed inthe U.S.by Affiliated Publishers,a division of Pocket  Books,Inc.,630 Fifth Avenue,New York 20,N.Y.    \nCopyright,◎,1959,by Bernard M.W.Knox.All rights reserved.Pub-ished on the same day in Canada by Washington Square Press,Inc.Printed in the U.S.A.  \n# PREFACE\n\nThis translation is an“acting version.”It wasmade for actors,for a performance;in fact for thescenes from the play which are acted by the Strat-ford Shakespearean Festival Company of Canadain a series of lessons filmed in color on the Oedipus.These films have been made by the Council for aTelevision Course in the Humanities for SecondarySchools,and this translation is intended primarilyfor the students who will study the play with theaid of the films.  \nThere are so many translations of the Oedipusalready easily available that the reader may wonderwhy the job had to be done all over again.The rea-son is that none of the existing translations met thedemands of the situation.The films,which areaimed at the junior year of high school,required a  \nversion which would be immediately intelligible,inperformance,to an audience which has no previousacquaintance with Greek tragedy and little ac-quaintance with the theater in any form.It had tobe clear,simple,direct,its only aim the creationand maintenance of dramatic excitement.To put itanother way,it had to be a version which wouldplace no obstacles between the modern audienceand the dramatic power of the play.  \nThe versions already available are all of them,with one well-known exception,in verse.But mostof them are written by scholars who are not poets,and verse can be a treacherous instrument in thehands of an amateur.It tempts him to indulge inarchaic language,in high-sounding obscurity,incuts and additions dictated by his verse form.Onthe other hand,the translator who really is a poettends,for that very reason,to make a poem of hisown out of the Greek text and to substitute for thepoetic vision of Sophocles his own poetic vision,asYeats does in his translation of the choral odes ofthe play.(What would Sophocles have made,forexample,of “the Delphic Sybil's trance”or “forDeath is all the fashion now,till even Death bedead\"?)There is one modern translator,RichmondLattimore,who is both scholar and poet,and whohas given us an Oresteia which is at the same time  \nEnglish poetry and an accurate reflection of theoriginal,but,unfortunately,he has not translatedthe Oedipus.  \nThere is,of course,the prose translation ofYeats,which has been used in most of the recentperformances of the 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W. Knox’s “acting version,” created for actors and for student audiences studying filmed lessons of the play.\"},{\"question\":\"Why was a new translation needed?\",\"answer\":\"The translator explains that existing versions did not meet the needs of the program: they were not immediately intelligible in performance and did not preserve dramatic excitement for students unfamiliar with Greek tragedy and theater.\"},{\"question\":\"What criteria guided the translator’s prose approach?\",\"answer\":\"Clarity and vigor are named as the prose criteria, even at the cost of other qualities, aiming to convey one dimension of Sophocles’ dramatic power.\"}]","OEDIPUS THE KING - Preface | PDF",1791873461,228]