Information concerning April 14 essay


One of the most frequently translated and discussed Greek texts is Sophocles, Antigone. The translation by Fitts and Fitzgerald, used by Harris and Platzner, gives a more or less strongly monotheistic cast to play, by using "God" where Sophocles has words such as "Zeus", "Olympus", or "the gods". A notable example appears at H & P, p. 710, lines 307-312 (H & P line nos.; this is around lines 450 ff. in the standard text of the play). At this point the original has references to (1) "Zeus", (2) "gods", and (3) "gods", whereas Fitts & Fitzgerald have (1) "God's", (2) omit any specific reference and/or paraphrase the original as "Justice", and (3) "God." In contrast to Fitts & Fitzgerald's version, a fairly literal translation of this part of Antigone's speech is that by Richard C. Jebb, as follows (underlining of the three words or phrases is added for clarity):

"Yes, since it was not Zeus that published me that edict, and since not of that kind are the laws which Justice who dwells with the gods below established among men. Nor did I think that your decrees were of such force, that a mortal could override the unwritten [455] and unfailing statutes given us by the gods ."

There are also various other occurrences of the same sort of thing ("God" in place of "Zeus", "the gods", or the like) elsewhere in the Fitts & Fitzgerald translation.


Your April 14 essay should discuss whether Fitts & Fitzgerald's choice of wording is basically valid, or seriously distorts the play. You should consider questions such as the following:

Does Fitts & Fitzgerald's choice of wording make the play more "up-to-date"? Does it produce something that a modern audience could more directly relate to? Or does their choice of wording produce something that a modern audience would almost automatically reject as out of place in a fifth century BCE Greek work?

Also, another area to consider is how a modern critic's choice of translation may affect his or her overall interpretation of the play. In this connection, you might wish to consider Harris & Platzner's analysis (pp. 642-648) and Grant's (pp. 211-221).


A very large number of translations of Antigone are available. The class handout listed 19 from various libraries. Among these, there is a 15 to 4 ratio of translations which use "Zeus", "gods", and "gods" or similar terminology, rather than some use of "God" and/or "God's". (Among the translations with "Zeus", "gods", and "the gods" is the one provided in Barry Powell, Classical Myth [translation by Herbert M. Howe and/or Powell], widely used in another course at the University of Pittsburgh, viz., Mythology in the Ancient World.)

Several translations of Antigone are available online. Most of these use "Zeus", etc. in the particular passage under consideration.

One such translation is that by Richard C. Jebb, already cited from Perseus (link is directly to Antigone's speech). Unfortunately, the Perseus site can sometimes be a bit slow, and you might therefore wish to try a link to a different, more archaic version of Jebb's translation (with forms such as "thou" for "you" and "thy" for "your").

Besides Jebb's translation, the same overall handling of the passage in question can be found in translations by the following:

On the other hand, there is at least some use of "God" in one online version, viz., that by E. H. Plumptre (lines 493ff.).