Sophocles

For other uses, seeSophocles (disambiguation).

Sophocles(c.497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)was anancient Greektragedian,known as one of three from whom at least one play has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ofAeschylus;and earlier than, or contemporary with, those ofEuripides.Sophocles wrote over 120 plays,but only seven have survived in a complete form:Ajax,Antigone,Women of Trachis,Oedipus Rex,Electra,Philoctetes,andOedipus at Colonus.For almost fifty years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of thecity-stateofAthenswhich took place during the religious festivals of theLenaeaand theDionysia.He competed in thirty competitions, won twenty-four, and was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won thirteen competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles; Euripides won four.

Sophocles
Born	497/496 BC Colonus,Attica
Died	406/405 BC (aged 90–92) Athens
Occupation	Tragedian
Genre	Tragedy
Notable works	Ajax Antigone Oedipus Rex Electra Oedipus at Colonus

The most famous tragedies of Sophocles featureOedipusandAntigone:they are generally known as theTheban plays,though each was part of a differenttetralogy(the other members of which are now lost). Sophocles influenced the development ofdrama,most importantly by adding a third actor (attributed to Sophocles by Aristotle; to Aeschylus by Themistius),thereby reducing the importance of thechorusin the presentation of theplot.He alsodeveloped his charactersto a greater extent than earlier playwrights.

Life

A marble relief of a poet, perhaps Sophocles

Sophocles, the son of Sophillus, was a wealthy member of the ruraldeme(small community) ofHippeios ColonusinAttica,which was to become a setting for one of his plays; and he was probably born there,a few years before theBattle of Marathonin 490 BC: the exact year is unclear, but 497/6 is most likely.He was born into a wealthy family (his father was an armour manufacturer), and was highly educated. His first artistic triumph was in 468 BC, when he took first prize in theDionysia,beating the reigning master of Athenian drama,Aeschylus.According toPlutarch,the victory came under unusual circumstances: instead of following the usual custom of choosing judges by lot, thearchonaskedCimon,and the otherstrategoipresent, to decide the victor of the contest. Plutarch further contends that, following this loss, Aeschylus soon left for Sicily.Though Plutarch says that this was Sophocles' first production, it is now thought that his first production was probably in 470 BC.Triptolemuswas probably one of the plays that Sophocles presented at this festival.

In 480 BC Sophocles was chosen to lead thepaean(a choral chant to a god), celebrating the Greek victory over thePersiansat theBattle of Salamis.Early in his career, the politicianCimonmight have been one of his patrons; but, if he was, there was no ill will borne byPericles,Cimon's rival, when Cimon was ostracized in 461 BC.In 443/2, Sophocles served as one of theHellenotamiai,or treasurers of Athena, helping to manage the finances of the city during the political ascendancy of Pericles.In 441 BC, according to theVita Sophoclis,he was elected one of the ten generals, executive officials at Athens, as a junior colleague of Pericles; and he served in the Athenian campaign againstSamos.He was supposed to have been elected to this position as the result of his production ofAntigone,but this is "most improbable".

In 420 BC, he was chosen to receive the image ofAsclepiusin his own house, when the cult was being introduced to Athens, and lacked a proper place (τέμενος).For this, he was given the posthumous epithetDexion(receiver) by the Athenians.But "some doubt attaches to this story".He was also elected, in 411 BC, one of the commissioners (probouloi) who responded to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force inSicilyduring thePeloponnesian War.

Sophocles died at the age of 90 or 91 in the winter of 406/5 BC, having seen, within his lifetime, both the Greek triumph in thePersian Wars,and the bloodletting of the Peloponnesian War.As with many famous men in classical antiquity, his death inspired a number of apocryphal stories. One claimed that he died from the strain of trying to recite a long sentence from hisAntigonewithout pausing to take a breath. Another account suggests he choked while eating grapes at theAnthesteriafestival in Athens. A third holds that he died of happiness after winning his final victory at the City Dionysia.A few months later, a comic poet, in a play titledThe Muses,wrote this eulogy: "Blessed is Sophocles, who had a long life, was a man both happy and talented, and the writer of many good tragedies; and he ended his life well without suffering any misfortune."According to some accounts, however, his own sons tried to have him declared incompetent near the end of his life; and that he refuted their charge in court by reading from his newOedipus at Colonus.One of his sons,Iophon,and a grandson, also named Sophocles (son ofAriston), also became playwrights.

Sophocles, ancient Roman mosaic

Homosexuality

A very ancient source,Athenaeus's workSophists at Dinner,contains references to Sophocles' sexuality. In that work, a character named Myrtilus claims that Sophocles "was partial to boys, in the same way that Euripides was partial to women"( "φιλομεῖραξ δὲ ἦν ὁ Σοφοκλῆς, ὡς Εὐριπίδης φιλογύνης" ),and relates an anecdote, attributed toIon of Chios,of Sophocles flirting with a serving-boy at asymposium:

βούλει με ἡδέως πίνειν; [...] βραδέως τοίνυν καὶ πρόσφερέ μοι καὶ ἀπόφερε τὴν κύλικα.
Do you want me to enjoy my drink? [...] Then hand me the cup nice and slow, and take it back nice and slow too.

He also says thatHieronymus of Rhodes,in hisHistorical Notes,claims that Sophocles once led a boy outside the city walls for sex; and that the boy snatched Sophocles' cloak (χλανίς,khlanis), leaving his own child-sized robe ( "παιδικὸνἱμάτιον") for Sophocles.Moreover, when Euripides heard about this (it was much discussed), he mocked the disdainful treatment, saying that he had himself had sex with the boy, "but had not given him anything more than his usual fee"( "ἀλλὰ μηδὲν προσθεῖναι" ),or, "but that nothing had been taken off"( "ἀλλὰ μηδὲν προεθῆναι" ).In response, Sophocles composed this elegy:

Ἥλιος ἦν,οὐ παῖς, Εὐριπίδη, ὅς με χλιαίνων
γυμνὸν ἐποίησεν· σοὶ δὲ φιλοῦντι † ἑταίραν †
Βορρᾶς ὡμίλησε. σὺ δ᾿ οὐ σοφός, ὃς τὸν Ἔρωτα,
ἀλλοτρίαν σπείρων, λωποδύτην ἀπάγεις.
It was the Sun,Euripides, and not a boy, that got me hot
and stripped me naked. But the North Wind was with you
when you were kissing † a courtesan †. You're not so clever, if you arrest
Eros for stealing clothes while you're sowing another man's field.

Works and legacy

Portrait of theGreekactorEuiaon in Sophocles'Andromeda,c. 430 BC.

Sophocles is known for innovations indramatic structure;deeper development of characters than earlier playwrights;and, if it was not Aeschylus, the addition of a third actor,which further reduced the role of thechorus,and increased opportunities for development and conflict.Aeschylus, who dominatedAthenianplaywriting during Sophocles' early career, adopted the third actor into his own work.Besides the third actor, Aristotle credits Sophocles with the introduction ofskenographia,or scenery-painting; but this too is attributed elsewhere to someone else (by Vitruvius, toAgatharchus of Samos).After Aeschylus died, in 456 BC, Sophocles became the pre-eminent playwright in Athens,winning competitions at eighteenDionysia,and sixLenaiafestivals.His reputation was such that foreign rulers invited him to attend their courts; but, unlike Aeschylus, who died inSicily,or Euripides, who spent time inMacedon,Sophocles never accepted any of these invitations.Aristotle,in hisPoetics(c. 335 BC), used Sophocles'Oedipus Rexas an example of the highest achievement intragedy.

Only two of the seven surviving playscan be dated securely:Philoctetesto 409 BC, andOedipus at Colonusto 401 BC (staged after his death, by his grandson). Of the others,Electrashows stylistic similarities to these two, suggesting that it was probably written in the later part of his career;Ajax,Antigone,andThe Trachiniae,are generally thought early, again based on stylistic elements; andOedipus Rexis put in a middle period. Most of Sophocles' plays show an undercurrent of earlyfatalism,and the beginnings ofSocraticlogic as a mainstay for the long tradition of Greek tragedy.

Theban plays

The Theban plays comprise three plays:Oedipus Rex(also calledOedipus TyrannusorOedipus the King),Oedipus at Colonus,andAntigone.All three concern the fate ofThebesduring and after the reign of KingOedipus.They have often been published under a single cover;but Sophocles wrote them for separatefestival competitions,many years apart. The Theban plays are not a propertrilogy(i.e. three plays presented as a continuous narrative), nor an intentional series; they contain inconsistencies.Sophocles also wrote other plays pertaining to Thebes, such as theEpigoni,but only fragments have survived.

Subjects

The three plays involve the tale ofOedipus,who kills his father and marries his mother, not knowing they are his parents. His family is cursed for three generations.

InOedipus Rex,Oedipus is theprotagonist.His infanticide is planned by his parents, Laius and Jocasta, to prevent him fulfilling a prophecy; but the servant entrusted with the infanticide passes the infant on, through a series of intermediaries, to a childless couple, who adopt him, not knowing his history. Oedipus eventually learns of theDelphic Oracle's prophecy of him, that he would kill his father, and marry his mother; he attempts to flee his fate without harming those he knows as his parents (at this point, he does not know that he is adopted). Oedipus meets a man at a crossroads accompanied by servants; Oedipus and the man fight, and Oedipus kills the man (who was his father, Laius, although neither knew at the time). He becomes the ruler of Thebes after solving theriddle of the Sphinxand in the process, marries the widowed queen, his mother Jocasta. Thus the stage is set for horror. When the truth comes out, following from another true but confusing prophecy from Delphi, Jocasta commits suicide, Oedipus blinds himself and leaves Thebes. At the end of the play, order is restored. This restoration is seen when Creon, brother of Jocasta, becomes king, and also when Oedipus, before going off to exile, asks Creon to take care of his children. Oedipus's children will always bear the weight of shame and humiliation because of their father's actions.

InOedipus at Colonus,the banished Oedipus and his daughter Antigone arrive at the town ofColonus,where they encounterTheseus,King ofAthens.Oedipus dies and strife begins between his sonsPolyneicesandEteocles.They fight, and simultaneously run each other through.

InAntigone,the protagonist is Oedipus' daughter, Antigone. She is faced with the choice of allowing her brother Polyneices' body to remain unburied, outside the city walls, exposed to the ravages of wild animals, or to bury him and face death. The king of the land, Creon, has forbidden the burial of Polyneices for he was a traitor to the city. Antigone decides to bury his body and face the consequences of her actions. Creon sentences her to death. Eventually, Creon is persuaded to free Antigone from her punishment, but his decision comes too late and Antigone commits suicide. Her suicide triggers the suicide of two others close to King Creon: his son, Haemon, who was to wed Antigone, and his wife, Eurydice, who commits suicide after losing her only surviving son.

Composition and inconsistencies

Oedipus at ColonusbyJean-Antoine-Théodore Giroust(1788),Dallas Museum of Art

The plays were written across thirty-six years of Sophocles' career and were not composed in chronological order, but instead were written in the orderAntigone,Oedipus Rex,andOedipus at Colonus.Nor were they composed as atrilogy– a group of plays to be performed together, but are the remaining parts of three different groups of plays. As a result, there are some inconsistencies: notably,Creonis the undisputed king at the end ofOedipus Rexand, in consultation with Apollo, single-handedly makes the decision to expel Oedipus from Thebes. Creon is also instructed to look after Oedipus' daughtersAntigoneandIsmeneat the end ofOedipus Rex.By contrast, in the other plays there is some struggle with Oedipus' sonsEteoclesandPolynicesin regard to the succession. InOedipus at Colonus,Sophocles attempts to work these inconsistencies into a coherent whole:Ismeneexplains that, in light of their tainted family lineage, her brothers were at first willing to cede the throne to Creon. Nevertheless, they eventually decided to take charge of the monarchy, with each brother disputing the other's right to succeed. In addition to being in a clearly more powerful position inOedipus at Colonus,Eteocles and Polynices are also culpable: they consent (l. 429, Theodoridis, tr.) to their father's going to exile, which is one of his bitterest charges against them.

Other plays

In addition to the three Theban plays, there are four surviving plays by Sophocles:Ajax,Women of Trachis,Electra,andPhiloctetes,the last of which won first prize in 409 BC.

Ajaxfocuses on the proud hero of the Trojan War,Telamonian Ajax,who is driven to treachery and eventually suicide. Ajax becomes gravely upset whenAchilles’ armor is presented toOdysseusinstead of himself. Despite their enmity toward him, Odysseus persuades the kingsMenelausandAgamemnonto grant Ajax a proper burial.

The Women of Trachis(named for the Trachinian women who make up the chorus) dramatizesDeianeira's accidentally killingHeraclesafter he had completed his famous twelve labors. Tricked into thinking it is a love charm, Deianeira applies poison to an article of Heracles' clothing; this poisoned robe causes Heracles to die an excruciating death. Upon learning the truth, Deianeira commits suicide.

Electracorresponds roughly to the plot of Aeschylus'Libation Bearers.It details howElectraandOrestesavenge their fatherAgamemnon's murder byClytemnestraandAegisthus.

Philoctetesretells the story ofPhiloctetes,an archer who had been abandoned onLemnosby the rest of the Greek fleet while on the way toTroy.After learning that they cannot win theTrojan Warwithout Philoctetes' bow, the Greeks sendOdysseusandNeoptolemusto retrieve him; due to the Greeks' earlier treachery, however, Philoctetes refuses to rejoin the army. It is only Heracles'deus ex machinaappearance that persuades Philoctetes to go to Troy.

Fragmentary plays

Although more than 120 titles of plays associated with Sophocles are known and presented below,little is known of the precise dating of most of them.Philoctetesis known to have been written in 409 BC, andOedipus at Colonusis known to have only been performed in 401 BC, posthumously, at the initiation of Sophocles' grandson. The convention on writing plays for theGreek festivalswas to submit them in tetralogies of three tragedies along with onesatyr play.Along with the unknown dating of the vast majority of more than 120 plays, it is also largely unknown how the plays were grouped. It is, however, known that the three plays referred to in the modern era as the "Theban plays" were never performed together in Sophocles' own lifetime, and are therefore not a trilogy (which they are sometimes erroneously seen as).

Fragments ofIchneutae(Tracking Satyrs) were discovered inEgyptin 1907.These amount to about half of the play, making it the best preservedsatyr playafter Euripides'Cyclops,which survives in its entirety.Fragments of theEpigoniwere discovered in April 2005 by classicists atOxford Universitywith the help ofinfraredtechnology previously used forsatelliteimaging. The tragedy tells the story of the second siege ofThebes.A number of other Sophoclean works have survived only in fragments, including:

Aias Lokros(Ajax the Locrian) Aias Mastigophoros(Ajax the Whip-Bearer) Aigeus(Aegeus) Aigisthos(Aegisthus) Aikhmalôtides(The Captive Women) Aithiopes(The Ethiopians), orMemnon Akhaiôn Syllogos(The Gathering of the Achaeans) Akhilleôs Erastai([male] Lovers of Achilles) Akrisios Aleadae(The Sons of Aleus) Aletes Alexandros(Alexander) Alcmeôn Amphiaraus Amphitryôn Amycos Andromache Andromeda Antenoridai(Sons of Antenor) Athamas(two versions produced) Atreus,orMykenaiai Camicoi Cassandra Cedaliôn Cerberus Chryseis Clytemnestra Colchides Côphoi(Mute Ones) Creusa Crisis(Judgement) Daedalus Danae Dionysiacus Dolopes Epigoni(The Progeny) Eriphyle

Eris Eumelus Euryalus Eurypylus Eurysaces Helenes Apaitesis(Helen's Demand) Helenes Gamos(Helen's Marriage) Herakles Epi Tainaro(Hercules At Taenarum) Hermione Hipponous Hybris Hydrophoroi(Water-Bearers) Inachos Iobates Iokles Iôn Iphigenia Ixiôn Lacaenae(LacaenianWomen) Laocoôn Larisaioi Lemniai(LemnianWomen) Manteis(The Prophets) orPolyidus Meleagros Minôs Momus Mousai(Muses) Mysoi(Mysians) Nauplios Katapleon(Nauplius' Arrival) Nauplios Pyrkaeus(Nauplius' Fires) Nausicaa,orPlyntriai Niobe Odysseus Acanthoplex(Odysseus Scourged with Thorns) Odysseus Mainomenos(Odysseus Gone Mad) Oeneus Oenomaus Palamedes

Pandora,orSphyrokopoi(Hammer-Strikers) Pelias Peleus Phaiakes Phaedra Philoctetes In Troy Phineus(two versions) Phoenix Phrixus Phryges(Phrygians) Phthiôtides Poimenes(The Shepherds) Polyxene Priam Procris Rhizotomoi(The Root-Cutters) Salmoneus Sinon Sisyphus Skyrioi(Scyrians) Skythai(Scythians) Syndeipnoi(The Diners, or, The Banqueters) Tantalus Telephus Tereus Teukros(Teucer) Thamyras Theseus Thyestes Troilus Triptolemos Tympanistai(Drummers) Tyndareos Tyro Keiromene(Tyro Shorn) Tyro Anagnorizomene(Tyro Rediscovered). Xoanephoroi(Image-Bearers)

Sophocles' view of his own work

There is a passage ofPlutarch's tractDe Profectibus in Virtute 7in which Sophocles discusses his own growth as a writer. A likely source of this material for Plutarch was theEpidemiaeof Ion of Chios, a book that recorded many conversations of Sophocles; but a Hellenistic dialogue about tragedy, in which Sophocles appeared as a character, is also plausible.The former is a likely candidate to have contained Sophocles' discourse on his own development because Ion was a friend of Sophocles, and the book is known to have been used by Plutarch.Though some interpretations of Plutarch's words suggest that Sophocles says that he imitated Aeschylus, the translation does not fit grammatically, nor does the interpretation that Sophocles said that he was making fun of Aeschylus' works.C. M. Bowraargues for the following translation of the line: "After practising to the full the bigness of Aeschylus, then the painful ingenuity of my own invention, now in the third stage I am changing to the kind of diction which is most expressive of character and best."

Here Sophocles says that he has completed a stage of Aeschylus' work, meaning that he went through a phase of imitating Aeschylus' style but is finished with that. Sophocles' opinion of Aeschylus was mixed. He certainly respected him enough to imitate his work early on in his career, but he had reservations about Aeschylus' style,and thus did not keep his imitation up. Sophocles' first stage, in which he imitated Aeschylus, is marked by "Aeschylean pomp in the language".Sophocles' second stage was entirely his own. He introduced new ways of evoking feeling out of an audience, as in hisAjax,when Ajax is mocked by Athene, then the stage is emptied so that he may commit suicide alone.Sophocles mentions a third stage, distinct from the other two, in his discussion of his development. The third stage pays more heed to diction. His characters spoke in a way that was more natural to them and more expressive of their individual character feelings.

Locations named after

• Sophocles (crater),a crater onMercury.

See also

• Theatre of ancient Greece

Sources

• Beer, Josh (2004).Sophocles and the Tragedy of Athenian Democracy.Greenwood Publishing.ISBN0-313-28946-8
• Bowra, C. M.(1940). "Sophocles on His Own Development".American Journal of Philology.61(4): 385–401.doi:10.2307/291377.JSTOR291377.
• Finkel, Raphael."Adler number: sigma,815".Suda on Line: Byzantine Lexicography.Retrieved14 March2007.
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• Hubbard, Thomas K. (2003).Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents.
• Johnson, Marguerite, & Terry Ryan (2005).Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature: A Sourcebook.Routledge.ISBN0-415-17331-0,978-0-415-17331-5
• Lloyd-Jones, Hugh, & Wilson, Nigel Guy (ed.) (1990).Sophoclis: Fabulae.Oxford Classical Texts.
• Lloyd-Jones, Hugh (ed.) (1994).Sophocles: Ajax. Electra. Oedipus Tyrannus.Edited and translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones,Loeb Classical LibraryNo. 20.
• Lloyd-Jones, Hugh (ed.) (1994).Sophocles: Antigone. The Women of Trachis. Philoctetes. Oedipus at Colonus.Edited and translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones,Loeb Classical LibraryNo. 21.
• Lloyd-Jones, Hugh (ed.) (1996).Sophocles: Fragments.Edited and translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones,Loeb Classical LibraryNo. 483.
• Lucas, Donald William (1964).The Greek Tragic Poets.W.W. Norton & Co.
• Plato.Plato in Twelve Volumes,Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
• Schultz, Ferdinand (1835).De vita Sophoclis poetae commentatio.Phil. Diss., Berlin.
• Scullion, Scott (2002). "Tragic dates",Classical Quarterly,new sequence 52, pp. 81–101.
• Seaford, Richard A. S. (2003). "Satyric drama". In Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth (ed.).The Oxford Classical Dictionary(revised 3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 1361.ISBN978-0-19-860641-3.
• Smith, Philip (1867)."Sophocles".InWilliam Smith(ed.).Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.Vol. 3. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. pp. 865–73. Archived fromthe originalon 2 February 2007.Retrieved19 February2007.
• Sommerstein, Alan Herbert (2002).Greek Drama and Dramatists.Routledge.ISBN0-415-26027-2
• Sommerstein, Alan Herbert (2007). "General Introduction", pp. xi–xxix in Sommerstein, A. H., Fitzpatrick, D.. and Tallboy, T.Sophocles: Selected Fragmentary Plays: Volume 1.Aris and Phillips.ISBN0-85668-766-9
• Sophocles.Sophocles I: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone.2nd ed. Grene, David, and Lattimore, Richard, eds. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1991.
• Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. "Macropaedia Knowledge In Depth".The New Encyclopædia BritannicaVolume 20. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2005. 344–46.

External links

• Works by SophoclesatProject Gutenberg
• Works by SophoclesatFaded Page(Canada)
• Works by or about Sophoclesat theInternet Archive
• Works by SophoclesatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
• Works by Sophoclesat thePerseus Digital Library(Greek and English)
• SORGLL: Sophocles, Electra 1126–1170; read by Rachel KitzingerArchived19 October 2017 at theWayback Machine