Close Reading Of Steiner

I chose to look at page 99 for my close reading...simply because 9 is my favorite number (times two). If there was a 1000 words in this book, I would have probably picked 999.

On this fated page, Steiner quotes a German academic named Holderlin saying, "To him, the tragic dramas of Sophocles were indeed 'rediscoverd holy books.'" This stuck out to me. For quite a while I have wondered how such a short piece that Antigone is, how it could be considered a cornerstone or atleast a foundation for the reading of all tragic drama and stories of human conflict? Steiner himself addresses this (somewhere between 231-277) when he writes of how much longer the common known tragedies like Hamlet are compared to Antigone. It certainly suprises me that I had never heard of Antigone before this class and that the work seems so essential to an academic library. Maybe it's just cause I went to high school in Montana. Who knows?
Anyhow, I was shocked when people were quoted as saying this play rivals the holy bible, even as far to call it "rediscovered holy books." Once again, just hold ten copies of the bible in one hand (and I dont mean the pocket variety) and ten Antigones in the other, and see which one ya drop first. But then again, I suppose that something (other than the bible) is needed to be considered the foundation of tragic drama....even if it was simply ok in Greek times. When does a work become a classic? I'm sure students in Greece weren't studying Antigone as it was on the scene...that wouldn't make much sense at all. It would be the equivalent silliness of kids today studying Titanic or Rocky.

Although Rocky is bad ass, in case you didn't know. And this is not considering MTA majors. I'm thinking on more of a high school basis...movies today like plays of yesterday were for entertainment and not for study.