Sophocles may have written 130 plays during his lifetime. Only seven survive. This podcast episode covers a book a fragments of the 100+ other tragedy and satyr plays of Sophocles.

Fragments are phrases, sentences, or even paragraphs of content that were mostly referenced by other writers like Aristotle, Athenaeus, and Plutarch. They were aware of these plays that have since been lost to us and so they may have quoted a line within their own works. That’s how we have most of these fragments.

And the fragments are within familiar mythological stories, so we have a rough idea of the content of the play and then try to fit these fragments into particular characters, contexts, and situations. It’s thrilling!

There is an element of discovery and adventure in these fragments. Is this something Sophocles believed or did he have a character say it to prove another point? How did Sophocles expand on ideas from the seven play that have survived in his other plays?

In this episode, I cover fragments I liked, things I learned, and share a partial answer to a question I shared in last week’s episode about Sophocles’ Women of Trachis:

This tragedy concludes with a question - what law do you obey? Do you obey a father asking you to do terrible things from his deathbed? Or is there a higher law? Further, where does law come from? Is it divine? Is it dictated by those closest to you?

The Women of Trachis follows a set of characters as “Fate is on the march.” It’s a fascinating case of one of the women, Deianeira, the wife of Heracles, going “wrong trying to do right.”

There are so many connection points in Women of Trachis to other tragedy plays. In this episode, I cover some of those connections, talk about fate, Zeus, and characters moving things along, and close with that question about law.

In this podcast episode, I cover a pair of memoirs - one with a focus on a mother and the other with a focus on a father. Rick Bragg tells of his childhood in Alabama with an alcoholic father and a self-sacrificing mother, his pathway in journalism, and his attempt to pay back his mother. Debra King tells of her childhood in Wisconsin with an entrepreneurial father who was both a farmer and a gravedigger, and how that upbringing led to her path in life.

* All Over but the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg

* Gravedigger’s Daughter: Growing up Rural by Debra Raye King

In this episode, I'm diving into Jonathan Haidt's new book, The Anxious Generation, to explore three startling facts about its damaging effects. I then highlight what I consider to be the most manipulative tactic hidden within new algorithms – one that targets our subconscious.

It’s been an incredible year of reading so far. I’ve been utterly shocked at the beauty and relevancy of Greek Literature. In this episode, I share what I’ve read so far for 2024, what I have coming up during my Summer Break, and the most important thing I’ve learned in Greek Literature.

In the introduction to Ajax by Peter Meineck & Paul Woodruff, they highlight the main idea of the tragedy play:

Ajax shows the aftermath of an altercation over the honors that warriors feel are due to them after battle.

I love that this is a theme that shows up strongly in the Iliad as well. In fact, Ajax has so many connection point to the Iliad that it’s almost required reading before this play.

Sophocles highlights so many themes that were perhaps birthed in Homer and have started percolating deeper with the tragedy writers. Some of these include:

* Force vs Persuasion (Ares vs the Areopagus)

* The will of the gods

* Fate

* Honor

* Glory

In this episode, I talk about some of these themes, how they relate to other Greek literature, and what we learn about them in Sophocles’ Ajax.

In his introduction to The Theban Plays, Charles Segal highlights the question Sophocles asks in his plays:

“Why should a man or woman of noble character and good intentions have to bear a life of suffering?”

If Antigone is the woman of nobel character and Creon the man of, arguably, good intentions, why must they suffer? Why must bad things happen to good people?

Sophocles uses character, circumstances, and divine agency to address this question.

In this episode of the podcast, I highlight the themes, important ideas, and the one image I still have in my head after having read Antigone by Sophocles.

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Sophocles was a friend of Herodotus and a contemporary of the other Greek tragedy playwrights Aeschylus and Euripides. He wrote over 120 plays and seven of those survive. The Theban Plays (Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone) cover major events in the life of the mythical king Oedipus of Thebes and of his children.

In this podcast episode, I talk about the two Sophoclean plays about Oedipus and share what I learned about Sophocles’ discussion of prophecy, the Greek concept of a curse, and the little tiny light at the end of this disastrous tunnel of tragedy.

I read translations by David Grene, Paul Woodruff, and Robert Fagles.