Sophocles (;Jones, Daniel; Roach, Peter, James Hartman and Jane Setter, eds. Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary. 17th edition. Cambridge UP, 2006. , , Sophoklễs; 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. 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,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. but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Women of Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus.Suda (ed. Finkel et al.): s.v. . 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.Freeman, p. 247.
Life
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,Sommerstein (2007), p. xi. a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC: the exact year is unclear, but 496/7 is most likely.Lloyd-Jones 1994a, p. 7. 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.Freeman, p. 246. 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.Life of Cimon 8. Plutarch is mistaken about Aeschylus' death during this trip; he went on to produce dramas in Athens for another decade. 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.McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama: An International Reference Work in 5 Volumes, Volume 1, "Sophocles". 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,Beer 2004, p. 69. but the classicist Hugh Lloyd-Jones calls this "most improbable".Lloyd-Jones 1994a, p. 12.
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).Lloyd-Jones 1994a, p. 13. For this, the Athenians gave him the posthumous epithet Dexion (receiver).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. 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.Lloyd-Jones 1994, pp. 12–13.
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.Schultz 1835, pp. 150–51. 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."Lucas 1964, p. 128. 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.Cicero recounts this story in his De Senectute 7.22. One of his sons, Iophon, and a grandson, also named Sophocles (son of Ariston), also became playwrights.Sommerstein (2002), pp. 41–42.
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.Fortenbaugh, William Wall. Lyco and Traos and Hieronymus of Rhodes: Text, Translation, and Discussion. Transaction Publishers (2004). . p. 161. 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
Sophocles is known for innovations in dramatic structure; deeper development of characters than earlier playwrights; and, if it was not due to Aeschylus, the addition of a third actor,Lloyd-Jones 1994a, p. 9. 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.Aristotle. Ars Poetica.
Only two of the seven surviving playsThe first printed edition of the seven plays is by Aldus Manutius in Venice 1502: Sophoclis tragaediae 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. 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.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.
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.Sophocles, ed Grene and Lattimore, pp. 1–2. They have often been published under a single cover;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. 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.Murray, Matthew, "Newly Readable Oxyrhynchus Papyri Reveal Works by Sophocles, Lucian, and Others. ", Theatermania, 18 April 2005. Retrieved 9 July 2007.
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.