Sophocles was one of the great Greek play writes of all time. He wrote many Greek plays, but only seven seemed to survive over 2400 years. One of his most famous plays was part of a trilogy. The reader must have read or viewed the previous play in order to understand the next. However, his trilogy which was out of order, made it much more difficult to understand his plays despite reading all of them. Oedipus the King was part of this famous trilogy, which was also known as Oedipus Rex, and universally known as The Oedipus Tyrannus. It is not understood why this one play has different names, except for the theory to translate it into different languages, which was explained by Pierre Vidal-Naguet, a French professor. The confusion of translating to one's language sprawled the many translations of the play itself. Two example authors that will be discussed in this paper is Gilbert Norwood, M.A., author of Greek Tragedy, and J. Peter Euben, author of The Tragedy of Political The!

ory. The authors' translation of Oedipus the King will be compared and contrasted to prove how widespread the play is studied.

The exact date of Sophocles' life span is not certain, neither is when Oedpius the K

3) The complete Greek Drama:Volume I; Oates & O'Neill, Publisher: Random House New York, copyright 1938

1) Seven Famous Greek Plays; Oates, Whitney J., Publisher: Vintage Books, copyright 1938

4) The complete Greek Drama: Volume II; Oates & O'Neill, Publisher: Random House New York, copyright 1938

Oedipus the King was felt, by both authors, to be one of the best plays in history, which is why it is one of the most wide spread studied plays. Euben and Norwood mainly agree on all aspects of the play, but find different parts to study. Both focus and concentrate on the way that Sophocles uses his words, puns, irony, phrases, and explanations in his plays. This causes both authors to agree that Sophocles is one of the most well known, respected, and admired authors in history.

The truth was in front of Oedipus through the whole play, but both authors agreed that Oedipus didn't know the truth because he didn't want to. This is a classic example of, what Norwood explains to be tragic irony. Sophocles was big in using tragic irony in his plays. Euben felt Sophocles laid it on too thick, using too many puns and making the obvious too obvious. Norwood, on the other hand, felt Sophocles made three distinct mistakes, according to the reality-based play. 1) Even though both were warned, neither Jocasta nor Oedipus bothered on thinking about the prophecy when they got married. 2) Oedipus never really inquired on Laius death all those years. 3) Jocasta never as

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