Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #183951 in Books
• Published on: 1994-10-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 496 pages

Customer Reviews

Ideal for its Purpose
I have been motivated to write this largely because of the one star review it has currently been given. That reviewer appears to be under the impression that there is only one reason to write a translation, and only one translator's art. Under their criteria, apparently, this book's English text is appalling and meritless. Aside from the fact that they have only reviewed the half of the book in English (ignoring the other half in Greek), I could not disagree more vehemently.

Only one of the arts of the translator is to render the poetic or literary quality of the source work in English. This is what you want if you're picking up a Penguin edition or an Oxford World Classic. Then you will want a translation which gets you as close as possible to the "spirit" of the original. It may not be terribly accurate or close to the Greek text, but that is not the aim.

This is not what Loebs are, nor what they should be.

My fellow reviewer has perhaps failed to notice that Loebs are parallel texts. They do not do this because Greek is aesthetically pleasing. Loebs are intended as tools for Classicists so that they can more easily read the Greek. If they are having trouble with a passage then their eye flicks over to the translation. Thus Mr Lloyd-Jones' text might be "cold and vacuous" to my fellow reviewer, but what he is failing to appreciate is that it is an excellent aid, following the original Greek and its lines very closely.

Some of the Loebs do, I admit, have excellent poetic translations. But these are rare, and (as in the case of Smyth's Aeschylus) have been phased out in favour of editions that speak "Loebese" rather than English. If you are simply in search a readable English translation of Sophocles to peruse at your leisure then no, by no means buy this text. But if you are in need of a decently edited Greek text with critical apparatus, along with a solidly useful English translation, then this book is excellent.