Sophocles
Sophocles | |
---|---|
Colonus, Attica | |
Died | 406/405 BC (aged 90–92) Athens |
Occupation | Tragedian |
Genre | Tragedy |
Notable works |
Sophocles
The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature
Life
Sophocles, the son of Sophillus, was a wealthy member of the rural
In 480 BC Sophocles was chosen to lead the
In 420 BC, he was chosen to receive the image of
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
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
Sophocles is known for innovations in
Only two of the seven surviving plays
Theban plays
The Theban plays comprise three plays:
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
In
In
Composition and inconsistencies
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
Other plays
In addition to the three Theban plays, there are four surviving plays by Sophocles:
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.
Electra corresponds roughly to the plot of Aeschylus'
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,
Fragments of
|
|
|
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
- Sophocles (crater), a crater on Mercury.
See also
Notes
- , Sophoklễs.
References
- ^ Jones, Daniel; Roach, Peter, James Hartman and Jane Setter, eds. Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary. 17th edition. Cambridge UP, 2006.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Sommerstein (2002), p. 41.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Suda (ed. Finkel et al.): s.v. Σοφοκλῆς.
- ^ Sophocles at the Encyclopædia Britannica
- ISBN 9780674995574.
- ^ a b c d Freeman, p. 247.
- ^ a b c Sommerstein (2007), p. xi.
- ^ Lloyd-Jones 1994, p. 7.
- ^ Freeman, p. 246.
- ^ Life of Cimon 8. Plutarch is mistaken about Aeschylus' death during this trip; he went on to produce dramas in Athens for another decade.
- ^ McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama: An International Reference Work in 5 Volumes, Volume 1, "Sophocles".
- ^ Beer 2004, p. 69.
- ^ Lloyd-Jones 1994, p. 12.
- ^ a b Lloyd-Jones 1994, p. 13.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Lloyd-Jones 1994, pp. 12–13.
- ^ Schultz 1835, pp. 150–51.
- ^ Lucas 1964, p. 128.
- ^ Cicero recounts this story in his De Senectute 7.22.
- ^ Sommerstein (2002), pp. 41–42.
- ^ ISBN 9780674996731.
- LCCN 2002554451. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
- ^ ISBN 9780674996731.
- ISBN 9780674996731.
- ISBN 978-1-4128-2773-7. p. 161
- ISBN 9780674996731.
- ISBN 9780674996731.
- ISBN 9780674995086.
- ISBN 9780674995086.
- ISBN 9780674996731.
- ISBN 9780674996731.
- ^ a b Lloyd-Jones 1994, p. 9.
- ^ Aristotle. Ars Poetica.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Lloyd-Jones 1994, pp. 8–9.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c Sophocles, ed Grene and Lattimore, pp. 1–2.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ISBN 0-393-92572-2
- ^ Freeman, pp. 247–48.
- ^ Lloyd-Jones 2003, pp. 3–9.
- ^ a b Seaford, p. 1361.
- ISBN 9780674995574.
- ^ Bowra, p. 386.
- ^ Bowra, p. 401.
- ^ Bowra, p. 389.
- ^ Bowra, p. 392.
- ^ Bowra, p. 396.
- ^ Bowra, pp. 385–401.
Sources
- Beer, Josh (2004). Sophocles and the Tragedy of Athenian Democracy. Greenwood Publishing. ISBN 0-313-28946-8
- JSTOR 291377.
- Finkel, Raphael. "Adler number: sigma,815". Suda on Line: Byzantine Lexicography. Retrieved 14 March 2007.
- Freeman, Charles. (1999). The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 0-670-88515-0
- 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.
- 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 Library No. 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 Library No. 21.
- Lloyd-Jones, Hugh (ed.) (1996). Sophocles: Fragments. Edited and translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Loeb Classical Library No. 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. ISBN 978-0-19-860641-3.
- Smith, Philip (1867). "Sophocles". In William Smith (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 3. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. pp. 865–73. Archived from the original on 2 February 2007. Retrieved 19 February 2007.
- Sommerstein, Alan Herbert (2002). Greek Drama and Dramatists. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-26027-2
- 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. ISBN 0-85668-766-9
- 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 Britannica Volume 20. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2005. 344–46.
External links
- Works by Sophocles at Project Gutenberg
- Works by Sophocles at Faded Page (Canada)
- Works by or about Sophocles at Internet Archive
- Works by Sophocles at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by Sophocles at the Perseus Digital Library (Greek and English)
- SORGLL: Sophocles, Electra 1126–1170; read by Rachel Kitzinger Archived 19 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine