I’m writing a paper based partly on Robert Fagles’ translation of Sophocles’ three Theban plays. Most likely I will be citing all three in different places. My question is, how exactly should I cite them parenthetically according to MLA standards? Also, I will be citing another source, so I can’t leave the author’s name out of the parentheticals.
To give an example, let’s say I wanted to quote lines 433-434 from Oedipus at Colonus:
“It costs them little to raise an old man! / Someone crushed in younger days” (reference here).
What would my cite be?
I’ve been googling all over the place and I can’t find the answer.
I believe in situations with multiple sources by one author, you use the title of the work (sometimes in shortened form).
If the other source you mentioned is another translation of the same play, I would think you could use that author’s name (unless, of course, you have multiple sources from that author as well) to differentiate.
If you absolutely must use both the author’s name and the title in the parenthetical cite, separate them with a comma. This can usually be avoided by including one or both of those pieces of information in a signal phrase leading into the quote (or paraphrase or summary).
For example, instead of saying "These words reveal the true feelings of society towards the elderly: “It costs them little to raise an old man! / Someone crushed in younger days” (Fagles, Oedipus at Colonus 433-434), you could say:
"Robert Fagles, in his translation of Oedipus at Colonus, explains the feelings of society toward the elderly by saying, “. . .” (433-434).
http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/humanities/intext.html
P.S. One of the best writing resources I’ve found online is Purdue’s Online Writing Lab.