Author Description

Revised by Adolf Michaelis, the third edition of German philologist Otto Jahn's Greek text of Sophocles' Electra was published in 1882. Sophocles (c.496-406 BCE) wrote his great tragedy towards the end of his career; it is one of only seven of his estimated 123 works to survive. Taking place in Argos, the play portrays the revenge taken by Electra and Orestes, following the murder of their father Agamemnon, on their mother Clytemnestra and stepfather Aegisthus. Jahn (1813-69), who also produced a renowned scholarly biography of Mozart, was Professor of archaeology at Leipzig - until his removal for involvement in the 1848 uprisings - then Director of the Academic Art Museum at Bonn, and Professor of Archaeology at Berlin. This highly regarded edition, with extensive critical apparatus and commentary throughout, remains an authoritative resource for readers interested in the history of philology, textual criticism, and Classical Greek literature.