Sophocles

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Three Theban plays
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Sophocles
Colonus, Attica
Died406/405 BC (aged 90–92)
Athens
OccupationTragedian
GenreTragedy
Notable works

Sophocles

Dionysia. 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.[5]

The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature

Theban plays, though each was part of a different tetralogy (the other members of which are now lost). Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor (attributed to Sophocles by Aristotle; to Aeschylus by Themistius),[6] thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights.[7]

Life

A marble relief of a poet, perhaps Sophocles

Sophocles, the son of Sophillus, was a wealthy member of the rural

strategoi present, to decide the victor of the contest. Plutarch further contends that, following this loss, Aeschylus soon left for Sicily.[11] Though Plutarch says that this was Sophocles' first production, it is now thought that his first production was probably in 470 BC.[8] Triptolemus was probably one of the plays that Sophocles presented at this festival.[8]

In 480 BC Sophocles was chosen to lead the

Hellenotamiai, or treasurers of Athena, helping to manage the finances of the city during the political ascendancy of Pericles.[2] In 441 BC, according to the Vita 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 against Samos. He was supposed to have been elected to this position as the result of his production of Antigone,[13] but this is "most improbable".[14]

In 420 BC, he was chosen to receive the image of

probouloi) who responded to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War.[17]

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 the

Persian Wars, and the bloodletting of the Peloponnesian War.[2] 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 his Antigone without pausing to take a breath. Another account suggests he choked while eating grapes at the Anthesteria festival in Athens. A third holds that he died of happiness after winning his final victory at the City Dionysia.[18] A few months later, a comic poet, in a play titled The 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."[19] 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 new Oedipus at Colonus.[20] One of his sons, Iophon, and a grandson, also named Sophocles (son of Ariston), also became playwrights.[21]

Homosexuality

A very ancient source, Athenaeus's work Sophists 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"[22][23] ("φιλομεῖραξ δὲ ἦν ὁ Σοφοκλῆς, ὡς Εὐριπίδης φιλογύνης"),[24] and relates an anecdote, attributed to Ion of Chios, of Sophocles flirting with a serving-boy at a symposium:

βούλει με ἡδέως πίνειν; [...] βραδέως τοίνυν καὶ πρόσφερέ μοι καὶ ἀπόφερε τὴν κύλικα.[24]
Do you want me to enjoy my drink? [...] Then hand me the cup nice and slow, and take it back nice and slow too.[22]

He also says that Hieronymus of Rhodes, in his Historical 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 ("παιδικὸν ἱμάτιον") for Sophocles.[25][26] 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"[27] ("ἀλλὰ μηδὲν προσθεῖναι"),[28] or, "but that nothing had been taken off"[29] ("ἀλλὰ μηδὲν προεθῆναι").[30] 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.[31]
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.[32]

Works and legacy

Portrait of the Greek actor Euiaon in Sophocles' Andromeda, c. 430 BC.

Sophocles is known for innovations in

Macedon, Sophocles never accepted any of these invitations.[2] Aristotle, in his Poetics (c. 335 BC), used Sophocles' Oedipus Rex as an example of the highest achievement in tragedy.[34]

Only two of the seven surviving plays

The Trachiniae, are generally thought early, again based on stylistic elements; and Oedipus Rex is put in a middle period. Most of Sophocles' plays show an undercurrent of early fatalism, and the beginnings of Socratic logic as a mainstay for the long tradition of Greek tragedy.[36][37]

Theban plays

The Theban plays comprise three plays:

Thebes during and after the reign of King Oedipus.[38] They have often been published under a single cover;[39] but Sophocles wrote them for separate festival competitions, many years apart. The Theban plays are not a proper trilogy (i.e. three plays presented as a continuous narrative), nor an intentional series; they contain inconsistencies.[38] Sophocles also wrote other plays pertaining to Thebes, such as the Epigoni, but only fragments have survived.[40]

Subjects

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

In

riddle of the Sphinx and 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.[41]

In

. They fight, and simultaneously run each other through.

In

Antigone
, 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 Colonus by Jean-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 order

Creon is the undisputed king at the end of Oedipus Rex and, in consultation with Apollo, single-handedly makes the decision to expel Oedipus from Thebes. Creon is also instructed to look after Oedipus' daughters Antigone and Ismene at the end of Oedipus Rex. By contrast, in the other plays there is some struggle with Oedipus' sons Eteocles and Polynices in regard to the succession. In Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles attempts to work these inconsistencies into a coherent whole: Ismene explains 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 in Oedipus 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.[38]

Other plays

In addition to the three Theban plays, there are four surviving plays by Sophocles:

Electra, and Philoctetes, the last of which won first prize in 409 BC.[42]

Ajax focuses on the proud hero of the Trojan War, Telamonian Ajax, who is driven to treachery and eventually suicide. Ajax becomes gravely upset when Achilles’ armor is presented to Odysseus instead of himself. Despite their enmity toward him, Odysseus persuades the kings Menelaus and Agamemnon to grant Ajax a proper burial.

Deianeira's accidentally killing Heracles
after 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.

Electra corresponds roughly to the plot of Aeschylus'

Libation Bearers. It details how Electra and Orestes avenge their father Agamemnon's murder by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus
.

Philoctetes retells the story of Philoctetes, an archer who had been abandoned on Lemnos by the rest of the Greek fleet while on the way to Troy. After learning that they cannot win the Trojan War without Philoctetes' bow, the Greeks send Odysseus and Neoptolemus to retrieve him; due to the Greeks' earlier treachery, however, Philoctetes refuses to rejoin the army. It is only Heracles' deus ex machina appearance that persuades Philoctetes to go to Troy.

Fragmentary plays

Although over 120 titles of plays associated with Sophocles are known and presented below,

Greek festivals was to submit them in tetralogies of three tragedies along with one satyr play
. Along with the unknown dating of the vast majority of over 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 of

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), or Memnon
  • 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, or Mykenaiai
  • 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 (Lacaenian Women)
  • Laocoôn
  • Larisaioi
  • Lemniai (Lemnian Women)
  • Manteis (The Prophets) or Polyidus
  • Meleagros
  • Minôs
  • Momus
  • Mousai (Muses)
  • Mysoi (Mysians)
  • Nauplios Katapleon (Nauplius' Arrival)
  • Nauplios Pyrkaeus (Nauplius' Fires)
  • Nausicaa, or Plyntriai
  • Niobe
  • Odysseus Acanthoplex (Odysseus Scourged with Thorns)
  • Odysseus Mainomenos (Odysseus Gone Mad)
  • Oeneus
  • Oenomaus
  • Palamedes
  • Pandora, or Sphyrokopoi (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 of Plutarch's tract De Profectibus in Virtute 7 in which Sophocles discusses his own growth as a writer. A likely source of this material for Plutarch was the Epidemiae of 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.[45] 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.[46] 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. Bowra argues 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."[47]

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,[48] and thus did not keep his imitation up. Sophocles' first stage, in which he imitated Aeschylus, is marked by "Aeschylean pomp in the language".[49] Sophocles' second stage was entirely his own. He introduced new ways of evoking feeling out of an audience, as in his Ajax, when Ajax is mocked by Athene, then the stage is emptied so that he may commit suicide alone.[50] 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.[51]

Locations named after

See also

Notes

  1. Ancient Greek: Σοφοκλῆς, pronounced [so.pʰo.klɛ̂ːs]
    , Sophoklễs.

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel; Roach, Peter, James Hartman and Jane Setter, eds. Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary. 17th edition. Cambridge UP, 2006.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Sommerstein (2002), p. 41.
  3. ^ The exact number is unknown, the Suda says he wrote 123, another ancient source says 130, but no exact number "is possible", see Lloyd-Jones 2003, p. 3.
  4. ^ Suda (ed. Finkel et al.): s.v. Σοφοκλῆς.
  5. ^ Sophocles at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  6. .
  7. ^ a b c d Freeman, p. 247.
  8. ^ a b c Sommerstein (2007), p. xi.
  9. ^ Lloyd-Jones 1994, p. 7.
  10. ^ Freeman, p. 246.
  11. ^ Life of Cimon 8. Plutarch is mistaken about Aeschylus' death during this trip; he went on to produce dramas in Athens for another decade.
  12. ^ McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama: An International Reference Work in 5 Volumes, Volume 1, "Sophocles".
  13. ^ Beer 2004, p. 69.
  14. ^ Lloyd-Jones 1994, p. 12.
  15. ^ a b Lloyd-Jones 1994, p. 13.
  16. ^ Clinton, Kevin "The Epidauria and the Arrival of Asclepius in Athens", in Ancient Greek Cult Practice from the Epigraphical Evidence, edited by R. Hägg, Stockholm, 1994.
  17. ^ Lloyd-Jones 1994, pp. 12–13.
  18. ^ Schultz 1835, pp. 150–51.
  19. ^ Lucas 1964, p. 128.
  20. ^ Cicero recounts this story in his De Senectute 7.22.
  21. ^ Sommerstein (2002), pp. 41–42.
  22. ^ .
  23. . Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  24. ^ .
  25. .
  26. . p. 161
  27. .
  28. .
  29. .
  30. .
  31. .
  32. .
  33. ^ a b Lloyd-Jones 1994, p. 9.
  34. ^ Aristotle. Ars Poetica.
  35. ^ The first printed edition of the seven plays is by Aldus Manutius in Venice 1502: Sophoclis tragaediae [sic] septem cum commentariis. Despite the addition 'cum commentariis' in the title, the Aldine edition did not include the ancient scholia to Sophocles. These had to wait until 1518 when Janus Lascaris brought out the relevant edition in Rome.
  36. ^ Lloyd-Jones 1994, pp. 8–9.
  37. ^ Scullion, pp. 85–86, rejects attempts to date Antigone to shortly before 441/0 based on an anecdote that the play led to Sophocles' election as general. On other grounds, he cautiously suggests c. 450 BC.
  38. ^ a b c Sophocles, ed Grene and Lattimore, pp. 1–2.
  39. ^ See for example: "Sophocles: The Theban Plays", Penguin Books, 1947; Sophocles I: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, University of Chicago, 1991; Sophocles: The Theban Plays: Antigone/King Oidipous/Oidipous at Colonus, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company, 2002; Sophocles, The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, Harvest Books, 2002; Sophocles, Works, Loeb Classical Library, Vol I. London, W. Heinemann; New York, Macmillan, 1912 (often reprinted) – the 1994 Loeb, however, prints Sophocles in chronological order.
  40. ^ a b Murray, Matthew, "Newly Readable Oxyrhynchus Papyri Reveal Works by Sophocles, Lucian, and Others Archived 11 April 2006 at the Wayback Machine", Theatermania, 18 April 2005. Retrieved 9 July 2007.
  41. ^ Freeman, pp. 247–48.
  42. ^ Lloyd-Jones 2003, pp. 3–9.
  43. ^ a b Seaford, p. 1361.
  44. .
  45. ^ Bowra, p. 386.
  46. ^ Bowra, p. 401.
  47. ^ Bowra, p. 389.
  48. ^ Bowra, p. 392.
  49. ^ Bowra, p. 396.
  50. ^ Bowra, pp. 385–401.

Sources

External links