Don Taylor navigated a middle path. A seasoned director as well as a translator, Taylor understood that Greek plays were not written to be read silently in a library; they were written to be performed . His translation of Antigone is, therefore, an actor’s text. It is muscular, rhythmic, and breathes on the page.
In Taylor’s translation, the confrontation is stark:
Don Taylor ’s translation of Sophocles' (originally commissioned for a 1986 BBC production) is often used as a set text for drama and literature students because of its modern, accessible, and performable language. antigone pdf don taylor
: You can find 132 page scans of the translation, including commentary and notes by Angie Varakis, on HathiTrust Digital Libraries : A downloadable PDF version is hosted on
If you need the Antigone PDF Don Taylor for a class or a production, you have excellent legal options: Don Taylor navigated a middle path
Skip the sketchy free PDFs. Spend $9.99 on the Bloomsbury eBook. You get a clean, searchable, citeable file. You get Taylor’s full introduction (a masterclass in Greek theater history). And most importantly, you get the real Antigone—not a marble statue, but a living, breathing rebel who sounds like she could be sitting next to you in class.
Professors can instantly spot a bad PDF. If the page numbers don’t match the standard Methuen edition (1986 or later reprints), your citations will be incorrect. It is muscular, rhythmic, and breathes on the page
Most Victorian translations of Greek plays sound stilted and academic. Taylor, however, wrote for the ear, not just the eye. He famously argued that Greek plays were the "populist theater" of their day—loud, fast, bloody, and full of rhetorical duels. His translation of Antigone (often published as part of The Theban Plays ) strips away archaic "thees" and "thous" and replaces them with sharp, modern vernacular.