Philological Method and Textual Scholarship

At its foundation, the book exemplifies the highest standards of philological research. The commentary demonstrates a close, line-by-line engagement with the Greek text, informed by both traditional textual criticism and modern linguistic awareness. Markantonatos examines significant manuscript readings and textual variants, offering balanced judgements grounded in philological evidence and contextual coherence. His treatment of unique or problematic forms—such as the deliberative aorist subjunctive ἑσθῶ—exemplifies the precision of his approach: each linguistic observation is connected to broader interpretive concerns about tone, dramatic gesture, and meaning. The translation reflects this same balance between accuracy and interpretive nuance. Rather than imposing a uniform modern idiom, it seeks to preserve the syntactic rhythm and poetic dignity of Sophocles’ Greek. The result is a version that reads fluently in English yet retains the tonal range of the original—from the ritual solemnity of the choral odes to the understated humanity of Oedipus’ final speeches. In this respect, the edition exemplifies what may be termed an ‘integrated philology’: a method in which textual criticism, translation, and interpretation operate as interdependent disciplines rather than separate tasks.