= Sophocles =

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= Sophocles =
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Introduction
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Sophocles (; , , 'Sophoklễs'; 497/496 - winter 406/405 BC) was an
ancient Greek tragedian, one of three from whom at least two plays
have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or
contemporary with, those of Aeschylus and earlier than, or
contemporary with, those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote more than 120
plays, but only seven have survived in a complete form: 'Ajax',
'Antigone', 'Women of Trachis', 'Oedipus Rex', 'Electra',
'Philoctetes', and 'Oedipus at Colonus'. For almost 50 years,
Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic
competitions of the city-state of Athens, which took place during the
religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. He competed in 30
competitions, won 24, and was never judged lower than second place.
Aeschylus won 13 competitions and was sometimes beaten by Sophocles;
Euripides won four.

The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature Oedipus and Antigone:
they are generally known as the 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), 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.

Life
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A marble relief of a poet, perhaps Sophocles

Sophocles, the son of Sophillus, was a wealthy member of the rural
'deme' (small community) of Hippeius Colonus in Attica, which was to
become a setting for his play Oedipus at Colonus. He was also probably
born there, a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 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 the Dionysia, beating the reigning master of Athenian drama,
Aeschylus. According to Plutarch, the victory came under unusual
circumstances: instead of following the usual custom of choosing
judges by lot, the archon asked Cimon, and the other 'strategoi'
present, 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's first production, it is
now thought that his first production was probably in 470 BC.
'Triptolemus' was perhaps one of the plays that Sophocles presented at
this festival.

In 480 BC, Sophocles was chosen to lead the paean (a choral chant to a
god), celebrating the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of
Salamis. Early in his career, the politician Cimon might have been one
of his patrons, but if he was, there was no ill will borne by
Pericles, Cimon's rival, when Cimon was ostracized in 461 BC. In
443/2, Sophocles served as one of the 'Hellenotamiai', or treasurers
of Athena, helping to manage the finances of the city during the
political ascendancy of Pericles. 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 due to his production of 'Antigone', but this
is "most improbable".

In 420 BC, he was chosen to receive the image of Asclepius in his own
house when the cult was being introduced to Athens and lacked a proper
place (τέμενος). For this, the Athenians gave him the posthumous
epithet 'Dexion' (receiver). 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 in Sicily during the Peloponnesian 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 the
Persian 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 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. 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." According to
some accounts, however, his own sons tried to have him declared
incompetent near the end of his life, and he refuted their charge in
court by reading from his new 'Oedipus at Colonus'. One of his sons,
Iophon, and a grandson, also named Sophocles (son of Ariston), also
became playwrights.

An ancient source, Athenaeus's work 'Sophists at Dinner', contains
references to Sophocles's 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 to Ion of
Chios, of Sophocles flirting with a serving-boy at a symposium: 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's cloak (χλανίς, 'khlanis'), leaving his
own child-sized robe ("παιδικὸν ἱμάτιον") 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:

Works and legacy
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Sophocles is known for innovations in dramatic 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 the chorus, and increased opportunities for development and
conflict. Aeschylus, who dominated Athenian playwriting during
Sophocles's early career, adopted the third actor into his own work.
Besides the third actor, Aristotle credits Sophocles with the
introduction of 'skenographia', or scenery-painting; but this too is
attributed elsewhere to someone else (by Vitruvius, to Agatharchus of
Samos). After Aeschylus died, in 456 BC, Sophocles became the
pre-eminent playwright in Athens, winning competitions at eighteen
Dionysia, and six Lenaia festivals. His reputation was such that
foreign rulers invited him to attend their courts; but, unlike
Aeschylus, who died in Sicily, or Euripides, who spent time in
Macedon, Sophocles never accepted any of these invitations. Aristotle,
in his 'Poetics' (), used Sophocles's 'Oedipus Rex' as an example of
the highest achievement in tragedy.

Only two of the seven surviving plays can be dated securely:
'Philoctetes' to 409 BC, and 'Oedipus at Colonus' to 401 BC (staged
after his death, by his grandson). Of the others, 'Electra' shows
stylistic similarities to these two, suggesting that it was probably
written in the later part of his career; 'Ajax', 'Antigone', and 'The
Trachiniae', are generally thought early, again based on stylistic
elements; and 'Oedipus Rex' is put in a middle period. Most of
Sophocles's plays show an undercurrent of early fatalism, and the
beginnings of Socratic logic as a mainstay for the long tradition of
Greek tragedy.

Theban plays
==============
The Theban plays comprise three plays: 'Oedipus Rex' (also called
'Oedipus Tyrannus' or 'Oedipus the King'), 'Oedipus at Colonus', and
'Antigone'. All three concern the fate of Thebes during and after the
reign of King Oedipus. They have often been published under a single
cover; 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. Sophocles also wrote other plays
pertaining to Thebes, such as the 'Epigoni', but only fragments have
survived.

Subjects
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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 'Oedipus Rex', Oedipus is the protagonist. 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
the Delphic 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 the 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.

In 'Oedipus at Colonus', the banished Oedipus and his daughter
Antigone arrive at the town of Colonus, where they encounter Theseus,
King of Athens. Oedipus dies and strife begins between his sons
Polyneices and Eteocles. They fight, and simultaneously run each other
through.

In 'Antigone', the protagonist is Oedipus's daughter, Antigone. She is
faced with the choice of allowing her brother Polyneices's 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
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The plays were written across 36 years of Sophocles's career and were
not composed in chronological order, but instead were written in the
order 'Antigone', 'Oedipus Rex', and 'Oedipus at Colonus'. Nor were
they composed as a 'trilogy' - 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, 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's daughters
Antigone and Ismene at the end of 'Oedipus Rex'. By contrast, in the
other plays there is some struggle with Oedipus's 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.

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

'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's 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.

'The Women of Trachis' (named for the Trachinian women who make up the
chorus) dramatizes 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's
clothing; this poisoned robe causes Heracles to die an excruciating
death. Upon learning the truth, Deianeira kills herself.

'Electra' corresponds roughly to the plot of Aeschylus's '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's 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's deus ex
machina appearance 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. 'Philoctetes' is known to have been written in 409 BC,
and 'Oedipus at Colonus' is known to have only been performed in 401
BC, posthumously, at the initiation of Sophocles's grandson. The
convention on writing plays for the 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 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's own
lifetime, and are therefore not a trilogy (which they are sometimes
erroneously seen as).

Fragments of 'Ichneutae' ('Tracking Satyrs') were discovered in Egypt
in 1907. These amount to about half of the play, making it the best
preserved satyr play after Euripides's 'Cyclops', which survives in
its entirety. Fragments of the 'Epigoni' were discovered in April 2005
by classicists at Oxford University with the help of infrared
technology previously used for satellite imaging. The tragedy tells
the story of the second siege of Thebes. 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's 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. The former is a likely candidate to have
contained Sophocles's 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's 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."

Here Sophocles says that he has completed a stage of Aeschylus's work,
meaning that he went through a phase of imitating Aeschylus's style
but is finished with that. Sophocles's 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's style, and thus did
not keep his imitation up. Sophocles's first stage, in which he
imitated Aeschylus, is marked by "Aeschylean pomp in the language".
Sophocles's 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. 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
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* Sophocles (crater), a crater on Mercury.

See also
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* Theatre of ancient Greece

Sources
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* Beer, Josh (2004). 'Sophocles and the Tragedy of Athenian
Democracy'. Greenwood Publishing.
*
*
* Freeman, Charles. (1999). 'The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of
the Western World'. New York: Viking Press.
* 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).
[https://books.google.com/books?id=YfYOe0L0xqUC&q=schultz+de+vita
'De vita Sophoclis poetae commentatio']. Phil. Diss., Berlin.
* Scullion, Scott (2002). "Tragic dates", 'Classical Quarterly', new
sequence 52, pp. 81-101.
*
*
* Sommerstein, Alan Herbert (2002). 'Greek Drama and Dramatists'.
Routledge.
* 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.
* 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
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*
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*
[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/vor?x=0;y=0;lookup=Sophocles;target=en%2C0;alts=1;extern=1;group=fieldcat;collection=Perseus%3Acollection%3AGreco-Roman;doctype=Text
Works by Sophocles] at the Perseus Digital Library (Greek and English)
* [http://www.rhapsodes.fll.vt.edu/sophokles.htm SORGLL: Sophocles,
Electra 1126-1170; read by Rachel Kitzinger]

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