Sophocles
Sophocles 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. Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor, 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
Sophocles, the son of Sophillus, was a wealthy member of the rural deme 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 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, 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 the classicist Hugh Lloyd-Jones calls this "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. For this, the Athenians gave him the posthumous epithet Dexion. But "some doubt attaches to this story". He was also elected, in 411 BC, one of the commissioners 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, 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", 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, leaving his own child-sized robe for Sophocles. Moreover, when Euripides heard about this, 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", or, "but that nothing had been taken off". 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, 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. 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. 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, 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, 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
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. Thebes is suffering from a plague, and Oedipus has sent Creon, the brother of his wife Jocasta, to seek advice from the Delphic Oracle. It is gradually revealed, partly through the testimony of the prophet Tiresias, that Oedipus himself is the reason for the plague. Unknown to himself, he is the son of Jocasta and the former king, Laius; having received a prophecy that their son would kill his father and marry his mother, the parents ordered a slave to kill him as a baby. However, the slave instead left the child on Mount Cithaeron, where he was found and adopted by a childless couple. As a young man, Oedipus had met and killed a man on the road to Thebes; unknown to either of them, this man was his father, Laius. Oedipus became the ruler of Thebes after solving the riddle of the Sphinx and in the process, marries the widowed queen, his mother Jocasta. When the truth comes out, following Creon's return from Delphi, Jocasta commits suicide, and Oedipus blinds himself. Creon becomes king, Oedipus goes into exile, and Creon forbids him to take his children with him.
In Oedipus at Colonus, the banished Oedipus and his daughter Antigone arrive at the town of Colonus, where they encounter Theseus, King of Athens. Creon demands that Oedipus return to Thebes, since an oracle has foretold that the city shall not know peace unless Oedipus is buried there. Theseus protects Oedipus, who refuses to return, and also refuses the exhortation of his son Polynices to help him overthrow Creon. At the end of the play, Oedipus dies peacefully.
In Antigone, the protagonist is Oedipus's daughter, Antigone. Her brother, Polyneices, has been killed shortly before the opening of the action, as part of the unsuccessful attack of the Seven against Thebes. Creon has forbidden his body to be buried, and Antigone is required to choose between leaving it outside the city walls, exposed to the ravages of wild animals, or to bury him and face death. 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.