Prologue and the Parodos of Sophocles' Women of Trachis

translation, commentary, and notes

Abstract

This text presents an annotated translation of the Prologue and the Parodos of Sophocles’ Women of Trachis. The translation aims at the production of an accessible text to the casual reader of Greek Tragedy, but that can enrich the experienced reader with its solutions. The notes, in the same didactic proposal of the translation, seek to enrich the reading experience, clarifying passages and mythological episodes. The translation is preceded by a brief commentary on the theme of time in this tragedy, highlighting the ones which are present at the sections translated below. In this tragedy, Sophocles explores an episode of Heracles’ myth, the day of his demise. The play has as protagonists Heracles and Deianeira, his wife and unwitting cause of his fall. The theme of time presents itself in many ways in this tragedy, especially in the emphasis in the passage of time, the passage of ignorance to knowledge, and in the past that threatens the present.