David Grene Ordine dei libri (cronologico)

A fiercely independent thinker, colorful storyteller, and spirited teacher, David Grene devoted his life to two things: farming, which he began as a boy in Ireland and continued into old age; and classics, which he taught for several decades that culminated in his translating and editing, with Richmond Lattimore, of The Complete Greek Tragedies . In this charming memoir, which he wrote during the years leading up to his death in 2002 at the age of eighty-nine, Grene weaves together these interests to tell a quirky and absorbing story of the sometimes turbulent and always interesting life he split between the University of Chicago—where he helped found the Committee on Social Thought—and the farm he kept back in Ireland. Charting the path that took him from Europe to Chicago in 1937, and encompassing his sixty-five-year career at the university, Grene’s book draws readers into the heady and invigorating climate of his time there. And it is elegantly balanced with reflections stemming from his work on the farm where he hunted, plowed and regularly traveled on horseback to bring his cows home for milking. Grene’s form and humor are quite his own, and his brilliant storytelling will enthrall anyone interested in the classics, rural Ireland, or twentieth-century intellectual history, especially as it pertains to the University of Chicago.

Sofocle è uno dei più grandi drammaturghi dell'antica Grecia. Nelle sue opere dominano la volontà umana, la psicologia dei singoli personaggi e i conflitti che ne derivano, sia di natura personale che sociale. La sua opera drammatica, ancora viva oggi, trova la sua espressione più intensa in Antigone. La tragedia si svolge in un'epoca mitica davanti al palazzo di Tebe. Dopo la morte del re Edipo, il potere a Tebe viene assunto dai suoi due figli, Polinice ed Eteocle. Tuttavia, presto sorgono contrasti tra di loro e si uccidono a vicenda in battaglia. Dopo la loro morte, il potere passa allo zio Creonte. La trama di Antigone inizia nel momento in cui il nuovo re di Tebe emana un decreto secondo cui solo Eteocle può essere sepolto con tutti gli onori. Polinice, che ha tentato di conquistare Tebe, non merita un simile funerale e deve rimanere insepolto, abbandonato alle belve.