The Libation Bearers (Choephori) of Aeschylus is the central tragedy of his Oresteia, the only Greek trilogy that survives in full and one of the acknowledged masterpieces of Greek literature. The play enacts and explores in profound detail the unsettling myth of Orestes, the young hero who was obliged to avenge the murder of his father Agamemnon by killing his mother Clytemnestra. The standard commentary, by A. F. Garvie, is intended for advanced students and professional scholars and makes few concessions to the less experienced. This edition, while taking full account of the latest advances in scholarship and criticism, seeks to make the play accessible to a much wider range of readers. Besides an introduction and bibliography it includes a newly constituted Greek text (with critical apparatus), a facing translation closely matched to this, and a commentary keyed to the translation. The commentary seeks to interpret the play at all levels, not avoiding detailed issues of textual criticism and the meaning of individual words but also exploring the play's imagery, questions of stagecraft and dramatic effect, the poet's use of existing mythical and poetic material, and the wider significance of the play in relation to the rest of the trilogy.

Sophocles' Antigone is among the greatest and most famous of all works of Greek literature, and it is often the play that is read first, whether in Greek or in translation, by those who are beginning to study Greek tragedy. But it is by no means an easy play, and readers requires careful guidance if they are to appreciate its subtleties and come to grips with its problems. In this edition the introduction includes an account of the myth, a brief survey of the main interpretative issues, and a bibliography. The text is newly constituted in the light of the latest scholarly research, with an abbreviated critical apparatus. The facing translation stays as close to the Greek wording as English idiom allows, one of its purposes being to show how the Greek is to be construed. The commentary is designed to elucidate the play, not to discuss points of grammar or philology, though the reader is alerted to all serious textual uncertainties. While full account is taken of recent developments in scholarship and literary criticism, the needs of the complete beginner are constantly borne in mind, and almost all the notes are accessible to readers with no Greek at all. Copious references are provided to places where further discussion can be found. Greek text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.