The most famous tragedies of Sophocles featureOedipus andAntigone: 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),[6] thereby reducing the importance of thechorus in the presentation of theplot. He alsodeveloped his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights.[7]
Sophocles, the son of Sophillus, was a wealthy member of the ruraldeme (small community) ofHippeius Colonus inAttica, which was to become a setting for his playOedipus at Colonus. He was also probably born there,[2][8] a few years before theBattle of Marathon in 490 BC: the exact year is unclear, but 497/6 is most likely.[2][9] 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.[2][10] According toPlutarch, the victory came under unusual circumstances: instead of following the usual custom of choosing judges by lot, thearchon askedCimon, and the otherstrategoi 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's first production, it is now thought that his first production was probably in 470 BC.[8]Triptolemus was perhaps one of the plays that Sophocles presented at this festival.[8]
In 480 BC, Sophocles was chosen to lead thepaean (a choral chant to a god), celebrating the Greek victory over thePersians at theBattle of Salamis.[12] Early in his career, the politicianCimon might 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.[2] 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.[2] 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 due to his production ofAntigone,[13] but this is "most improbable".[14]
In 420 BC, he was chosen to receive the image ofAsclepius in his own house when the cult was being introduced to Athens and lacked a proper place (τέμενος).[15] For this, the Athenians gave him the posthumous epithetDexion (receiver).[16] But "some doubt attaches to this story".[15] He was also elected, in 411 BC, one of the commissioners (probouloi) who responded to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force inSicily during thePeloponnesian 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 thePersian 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 hisAntigone without pausing to take a breath. Another account suggests he choked while eating grapes at theAnthesteria 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 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."[19] 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 newOedipus at Colonus.[20] One of his sons,Iophon, and a grandson, also named Sophocles (son ofAriston), also became playwrights.[21]
Sophocles, ancient Roman mosaic
An ancient source,Athenaeus's workSophists 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"[22][23] ("φιλομεῖραξ δὲ ἦν ὁ Σοφοκλῆς, ὡς Εὐριπίδης φιλογύνης"),[24] 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.[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 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's cloak (χλανίς,khlanis), leaving his own child-sized robe ("παιδικὸνἱμάτιον") 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]
Sophocles is known for innovations indramatic structure; deeper development of characters than earlier playwrights;[7] and, if it was not Aeschylus, the addition of a third actor,[33] which further reduced the role of thechorus, and increased opportunities for development and conflict.[7] Aeschylus, who dominatedAthenian playwriting during Sophocles's early career, adopted the third actor into his own work.[7] 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).[33] After Aeschylus died, in 456 BC, Sophocles became the pre-eminent playwright in Athens,[2] winning competitions at eighteenDionysia, and sixLenaia festivals.[2] 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.[2]Aristotle, in hisPoetics (c. 335 BC), used Sophocles'sOedipus Rex as an example of the highest achievement intragedy.[34]
Only two of the seven surviving plays[35] can be dated securely:Philoctetes to 409 BC, andOedipus 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, andThe Trachiniae, are generally thought early, again based on stylistic elements; andOedipus Rex is put in a middle period. Most of Sophocles's plays show an undercurrent of earlyfatalism, and the beginnings ofSocratic logic as a mainstay for the long tradition of Greek tragedy.[36][37]
The Theban plays comprise three plays:Oedipus Rex (also calledOedipus Tyrannus orOedipus the King),Oedipus at Colonus, andAntigone. All three concern the fate ofThebes during and after the reign of KingOedipus.[38] They have often been published under a single cover;[39] 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.[38] Sophocles also wrote other plays pertaining to Thebes, such as theEpigoni, but only fragments have survived.[40]
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 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]
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 sonsPolyneices andEteocles. They fight, and simultaneously run each other through.
InAntigone, 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.
The plays were written across 36 years of Sophocles's 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,Creon is the undisputed king at the end ofOedipus 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 daughtersAntigone andIsmene at the end ofOedipus Rex. By contrast, in the other plays there is some struggle with Oedipus's sonsEteocles andPolynices in regard to the succession. InOedipus 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 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.[38]
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.[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 whenAchilles's armor is presented toOdysseus instead of himself. Despite their enmity toward him, Odysseus persuades the kingsMenelaus andAgamemnon to grant Ajax a proper burial.
The Women of Trachis (named for the Trachinian women who make up the chorus) dramatizesDeianeira's accidentally killingHeracles 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.
Philoctetes retells the story ofPhiloctetes, an archer who had been abandoned onLemnos by the rest of the Greek fleet while on the way toTroy. After learning that they cannot win theTrojan War without Philoctetes's bow, the Greeks sendOdysseus andNeoptolemus to retrieve him; due to the Greeks' earlier treachery, however, Philoctetes refuses to rejoin the army. It is only Heracles'sdeus ex machina appearance that persuades Philoctetes to go to Troy.
Although more than 120 titles of plays associated with Sophocles are known and presented below,[43] little is known of the precise dating of most of them.Philoctetes is known to have been written in 409 BC, andOedipus 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 theGreek festivals was 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's own lifetime, and are therefore not a trilogy (which they are sometimes erroneously seen as).
Fragments ofIchneutae (Tracking Satyrs) were discovered inEgypt in 1907.[44] These amount to about half of the play, making it the best preservedsatyr play after Euripides'sCyclops, which survives in its entirety.[44] Fragments of theEpigoni were discovered in April 2005 by classicists atOxford University with the help ofinfrared technology previously used forsatellite imaging. The tragedy tells the story of the second siege ofThebes.[40] A number of other Sophoclean works have survived only in fragments, including:
There is a passage ofPlutarch's tractDe Profectibus in Virtute 7 in which Sophocles discusses his own growth as a writer. A likely source of this material for Plutarch was theEpidemiae 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's 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'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."[47]
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,[48] 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".[49] Sophocles's 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.[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]
^The exact number is unknown; theSuda says he wrote 123, another ancient source says 130, but no exact number "is possible", see Lloyd-Jones 2003, p. 3.
^LLoyd-Jones, H. (ed. and trans.) (1997).Introduction, inSophocles I. Sophocles. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. p. 9.ISBN9780674995574.
^Clinton, Kevin, "The Epidauria and the Arrival of Asclepius in Athens", inAncient Greek Cult Practice from the Epigraphical Evidence, edited by R. Hägg, Stockholm, 1994.
^abAthenaeus (2011).The Learned Banqueters, Volume VII. Douglas Olson, S. (ed. and trans.). Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. p. 53.ISBN9780674996731.
^abAthenaeus (2011).The Learned Banqueters, Volume VII. Douglas Olson, S. (ed. and trans.). Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. p. 52.ISBN9780674996731.
^Athenaeus (2011).The Learned Banqueters, Volume VII. Douglas Olson, S. (ed. and trans.). Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. pp. 56–57.ISBN9780674996731.
^Fortenbaugh, William Wall.Lyco and Traos and Hieronymus of Rhodes: Text, Translation, and Discussion. Transaction Publishers (2004).ISBN978-1-4128-2773-7. p. 161.
^Athenaeus (2011).The Learned Banqueters, Volume VII. Douglas Olson, S. (ed. and trans.). Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. p. 57.ISBN9780674996731.
^Athenaeus (2011).The Learned Banqueters, Volume VII. Douglas Olson, S. (ed. and trans.). Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. p. 56.ISBN9780674996731.
^Sophocles (1992).Greek Lyric, Volume IV: Bacchylides, Corinna, and Others. Campbell, D. A. (ed. and trans.). Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. p. 333.ISBN9780674995086.
^Sophocles (1992).Greek Lyric, Volume IV: Bacchylides, Corinna, and Others. Campbell, D. A. (ed. and trans.). Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. p. 332.ISBN9780674995086.
^Athenaeus (2011).The Learned Banqueters, Volume VII. Douglas Olson, S. (ed. and trans.). Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. p. 58.ISBN9780674996731.
^Athenaeus (2011).The Learned Banqueters, Volume VII. Douglas Olson, S. (ed. and trans.). Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. p. 59.ISBN9780674996731.
^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.
^Scullion, pp. 85–86, rejects attempts to dateAntigone to shortly before 441/0 based on an anecdote that the play led to Sophocles' election as general. On other grounds, he cautiously suggestsc. 450 BC.
^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.
^Sophocles.Oedipus the King.The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. Gen. ed. Peter Simon. 8th ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 1984. 648–52. Print.ISBN0-393-92572-2.
^Sophocles (1997).Sophocles I. Lloyd-Jones, H. (ed. and trans.). Cambridge, MA; London, England: Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. p. 11.ISBN9780674995574.
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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.
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Plato.Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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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.
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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.
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