Three dramas of old age - Sophocles

Sophocles created these three tragedies in his 80s, when the faction-ridden Athenian democracy was heading towards final defeat in the Peloponnesian War. Elektra dramatizes the increasing madness and savagery of the avenging heroine; in Philoktetes Odysseus tries to impose a philosophy of pure expediency on the young captain Neoptolemos; and in Oidipous at Kolonos, the blind and polluted Oidipous comes to Athens to die. He rewards his benefactors, and destroys those who seek to enlist him for their own selfish ends. The volume also includes the surviving part of Sophocles' satyr-drama Trackers, and other selected fragments.