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Oedipus

The Ancient Legend and Its Later Analogues

Lowell Edmunds

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Drawing on more than seventy works that dispersed the Oedipus legend from Greece to Asia, Africa, and the Americas, Edmunds provides a foundation for discussion of the lasting appeal of this legend, for claims of its universality, and for its uses as a vehicle for personal and cultural expression.

The power of the Oedipus legend is apparent not only in its interpretations but even more so in its variations. As Edmunds writes, "Translations, adaptations, and performances still come forth in a never-ending stream. Again and again, playwrights have tried their hand at new shapings of the...

Drawing on more than seventy works that dispersed the Oedipus legend from Greece to Asia, Africa, and the Americas, Edmunds provides a foundation for discussion of the lasting appeal of this legend, for claims of its universality, and for its uses as a vehicle for personal and cultural expression.

The power of the Oedipus legend is apparent not only in its interpretations but even more so in its variations. As Edmunds writes, "Translations, adaptations, and performances still come forth in a never-ending stream. Again and again, playwrights have tried their hand at new shapings of the Sophoclean Oedipuses and often a country's Oedipus forms a whole chapter in the history of its literature." Drawing on more than seventy works that dispersed the Oedipus legend from Greece to Asia, Africa, and the Americas, Edmunds provides a foundation for discussion of the lasting appeal of this legend, for claims of its universality, and for its uses as a vehicle for personal and cultural expression.

Reviews

Reviews

Edmunds is a classical philologist whose wide critical reading in the scholarship of other disciplines pertaining to Oedipus, together with his mastery of the popular analogues, has enabled him to direct corrective criticisms at Freud, Vladimir Propp, Lévi-Strauss, and many an interpreter of Sophocles, always with a disarming modesty and circumspection.

All who study and teach Greek texts touching on Oedipus should look into this book.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
268
ISBN
9781421437187
Table of Contents

Preface
Sigla
List of Analogues
Abbreviations

Introduction
Ancient Sources for the Oedipus Legend
Texts of the Analogues
Medieval Europe and the Near East
Modern Europe (Except Slavic)
Slavic
Near East, Asia

Preface
Sigla
List of Analogues
Abbreviations

Introduction
Ancient Sources for the Oedipus Legend
Texts of the Analogues
Medieval Europe and the Near East
Modern Europe (Except Slavic)
Slavic
Near East, Asia, Africa, Western Hemisphere

Bibliographies
Index of Sources
Index of Names and Subjects

Author Bio
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Lowell Edmunds

Lowell Edmunds is an emeritus professor of classics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. His books include Intertextuality and the Reading of Roman Poetry and Poet, Public, and Performance in Ancient Greece, both published by Johns Hopkins.