Sophocles or Sofokles (pronounced /ˈsɒfəkliːz/; ancient Greek Σοφοκλῆς, pronounced [sopʰoklɛ̂ːs]; circa. Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c 496 BC - 406 BC) was the second of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived to the present day. The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than those of Euripides. Aeschylus (ˈɛskɨləs or /ˈiːskɨləs/ Greek: Ασχύλος, Aischylos, 525 BC/524 BC 456 BC/455 BC was an ancient Greek Playwright Euripides ( Ancient Greek:) (ca 480 BC–406 BC was the last of the three great tragedians of classical Athens (the other two being Aeschylus According to the Suda, a 10th century encyclopedia, Sophocles wrote 120 or more plays during the course of his life,^[1] but only seven have survived in a complete form, namely Ajax, Antigone, Trachinian Women, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. The Suda or Souda ( also, Suidas) is a massive 10th century Byzantine Greek historical encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean An encyclopedia (or '''encyclopædia''') is a comprehensive written Compendium that contains Information on either all branches of Knowledge For almost 50 years, Sophocles was the most-awarded playwright in the dramatic competitions of ancient Athens that took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's The Lenaia was an annual festival with a Dramatic competition but one of the lesser festivals of Athens and Ionia in Ancient Greece. The Dionysia was a large religious festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central event of which was the performance of tragedies Sophocles competed in around thirty drama competitions; he won perhaps twenty four and never received lower than second place. Aeschylus won fourteen competitions and was defeated by Sophocles at times. Euripides won only four competitions. ^[2]

The most famous of Sophocles's tragedies are those concerning Oedipus and Antigone: these are often known as the Theban plays or The Oedipus Cycle, although each play was actually a part of different trilogy, the other members of which are now lost. Oedipus (pronounced /ˈɛdəpəs/ in American English or /ˈiːdəpəs/ in British English; Greek: Oidípous meaning "swollen-footed" This article is about the daughter of Oedipus For the daughter of Eurytion see Antigone (daughter of Eurytion. The three Theban Plays, or the Oedipus cycle written by Greek dramatist Sophocles in the 5th century BCE, are those of his surviving works which follow Sophocles influenced the development of the drama, most importantly by adding a third actor and thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. The Greek chorus ( choros) is believed to have grown out of the Greek Dithyrambs and Tragikon drama in tragic plays of the ancient He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus. ^[3]

Life

A marble relief of a poet, perhaps Sophocles.

Sophocles, the son of Sophillus, was a member of the rural deme (small community) of Colonus Hippius in Attica, which would later become a setting for his plays, and was probably born there. Ancient Greece, a deme ( δῆμος) was a subdivision of Attica, the region of Greece surrounding Athens. Attica (Αττική Attikí;) is a periphery (subdivision in Greece, containing Athens, the capital of Greece ^{[4] [5]} His birth took place a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC: the exact year is unclear, although 497/6 is perhaps most likely. The Battle of Marathon ( Greek: Μάχη τοῡ Μαραθῶνος Machē tou Marathōnos) during the Greco-Persian Wars took place in 490 Events By place Greece Darius I sends an expedition under Artaphernes and Datis the Mede across ^[6][4] His artistic career began in earnest in 468 BC when he took first prize in the Dionysia theatre competition over the reigning master of Athenian drama, Aeschylus. The Dionysia was a large religious festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central event of which was the performance of tragedies Aeschylus (ˈɛskɨləs or /ˈiːskɨləs/ Greek: Ασχύλος, Aischylos, 525 BC/524 BC 456 BC/455 BC was an ancient Greek Playwright ^[4][7] The production probably included Triptolemus. ^[5] Although Plutarch says that this was Sophocles' first production, it is now thought that this is an embellishment of the truth and his first production was most likely in 470 BC. Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus ( Greek: Μέστριος Πλούταρχος c Events By Place Greece Suspected of plotting to seize power in Sparta by instigating a Helot uprising Pausanias takes ^[5]

Sophocles became a man of importance in the public halls of Athens as well as in the theatres. Sophocles was chosen to lead the paean, a choral chant to a god, at the age of 16 celebrating the decisive Greek sea victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. This rather insufficient information about Sophocles’ civic life implies he was a well-liked man who participated in activities in society and showed remarkable artistic ability. He was also elected one of ten strategoi, high executive officials that commanded the armed forces, as a junior colleague of Pericles. Sophocles was born highly wealthy (his father was a wealthy armour manufacturer) and was highly educated throughout his entire life. Early in his career, the politician Cimon might have been one of his patrons, although if he was there was no ill will borne by Pericles, Cimon's rival, when Cimon was ostracized in 461 BC. Cimon (in Greek, Κίμων &mdash Kimōn) (510 Athens - 450 BC Citium, Cyprus) was an Athenian Pericles (also spelled Perikles) (c 495 – 429 BC Greek:, meaning "surrounded by glory" was a prominent and influential Statesman, orator ^[4] In 443/2 he served as one of the Hellenotamiai, or treasurers of Athena, helping to manage the finances of the city during the political ascendancy of Pericles. Hellenotamiai ( Greek:) was an ancient Greek term indicating a group of public Treasurers The Hellenotamiai were ten Magistrates appointed ^[4] In 420 he welcomed and set up an altar for the icon of Asclepius at his house, when the deity was introduced in Athens. Asclepius (pronounced /æsˈkliːpiːəs/, Greek, transliterated Asklēpiós; Latin Aesculapius) is the god of Medicine For this he was given the posthumous epithet Dexion (receiver) by the Athenians. ^[8] He was also elected, in 413 BC, to be one of the commissioners crafting a response to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War. Sicily ( Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy. ^[9]

Several ancient writers have commented on Sophocles' love of youths. Greek Pederasty, as idealised by the Greeks from archaic times onward was a relationship and bond between an adolescent boy and an adult man outside Athenaeus wrote that in addition to seeking and keeping female courtesans, "Sophocles was fond of young lads, as Euripides was fond of women. Athenaeus ( Ancient Greek - Athếnaios Naukratios Latin Athenaeus Naucratita of Naucratis in Egypt Greek rhetorician and grammarian flourished "^[10] He quotes from a now-lost book by Ion of Chios regarding an incident of Sophocles flattering a serving boy at a symposium and then using a strategem to kiss and embrace him, as well as another, ascribed to Hieronymus of Rhodes, in which Sophocles is tricked by a hustler. Ion of Chios was a 5th Century BCE (c 490/480 - c 420 BC versatile writer dramatist lyric poet and philosopher in Ancient Greece. Symposium originally referred to a drinking party (the Greek verb sympotein means "to drink together" but has since come to refer to any Academic conference ^[11] Plutarch, in his "Life of Pericles", [1] mentions an incident, during a naval expedition, in which Sophocles praised the beauty of a young recruit. Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus ( Greek: Μέστριος Πλούταρχος c Pericles rebuked him by warning that a general must keep not only his hands clean, but also his eyes. Pericles (also spelled Perikles) (c 495 – 429 BC Greek:, meaning "surrounded by glory" was a prominent and influential Statesman, orator ^[12]

Sophocles died at the venerable age of ninety in 406 or 405 BC, having seen within his lifetime both the Greek triumph in the Persian Wars and the terrible bloodletting of the Peloponnesian War. ^[4] He was so respected by the Athenians that two plays performed at the Lenea soon after his death paid homage to him, and his unfinished play Oedipus at Colonus was completed and performed years later. The Lenaia was an annual festival with a Dramatic competition but one of the lesser festivals of Athens and Ionia in Ancient Greece. Oedipus at Colonus (also Oedipus Coloneus, and in Greek Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ Oidipous epi Kolōnō) is one of the ^[4] Both Iophon, one of his sons, and a grandson, also called Sophocles, followed in his footsteps to become playwrights themselves. ^[13]

Works and legacy

A portrait from a vase of a Greek actor performing in Sophocles' lost play Andromeda.

In Sophocles' time, the Greek art of the drama was undergoing rapid and profound change. It had begun with little more than a chorus, but earlier playwrights had added first one and then two actors and thereby shifted the action of the plays away from the chorus. The Greek chorus ( choros) is believed to have grown out of the Greek Dithyrambs and Tragikon drama in tragic plays of the ancient ^[14] Among Sophocles' earliest innovations was the addition of a third actor, further reducing the role of the chorus and creating greater opportunity for character development and conflict between characters. ^[3] In fact, Aeschylus, who dominated Athenian playwrighting during Sophocles' early career, adopted this third character into his own playwriting towards the end of his life. ^[3] It was not until after the death of the old master Aeschylus in 456 BCE that Sophocles became the preeminent playwright in Athens. ^[4]

Thereafter, Sophocles emerged victorious in dramatic competitions at 18 Dionysia and 6 Lenaia festivals. ^[4] In addition to innovations in the structure of drama, Sophocles' work is known for deeper development of characters than earlier playwrights, whose characters are more two-dimensional and are therefore harder for an audience to relate to. ^[3] His reputation was such that foreign rulers invited him to attend their courts, although unlike Aeschylus who died in Sicily, Sophocles never accepted any of these invitations. Sicily ( Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy. ^[4] Aristotle used Sophocles's Oedipus the King as an example of perfect tragedy, which suggests the high esteem in which his work was held by later Greeks. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Oedipus the King ( Ancient Greek: tyrannos Modern Greek: ( "Oedipus the Tyrant" also known as Oedipus Rex, is a ^[15]

Only two of the seven surviving plays have securely dated first or second performances: Philoctetes (409 BC) and Oedipus at Colonus (401 BC, put on after Sophocles' death by his grandson). Philoctetes (Φιλοκτήτης / Philoktētēs) is a play by Sophocles ( Aeschylus and Euripides also each wrote a Philoctetes Events By place Greece Alcibiades recaptures Byzantium, ending the city's rebellion from Athens. Oedipus at Colonus (also Oedipus Coloneus, and in Greek Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ Oidipous epi Kolōnō) is one of the Events By place Persian empire Cyrus the Younger uses a quarrel with Tissaphernes over the Ionian cities as a pretext Of the others, Electra shows stylistic similarities to these two plays, and so was probably written in the latter part of his career. In Greek mythology, Electra ( Greek:Ηλέκτρα was an Argosian princess and daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra Ajax, Antigone and The Trachiniae are generally thought to be among his early works, again based on stylistic elements, with Oedipus the King coming in Sophocles' middle period. Ajax (Αίας Aias) is a play by Sophocles. The date of its first performance is unknown but most scholars regard it as early rather than late in Sophocles' The Trachiniae or The Women of Trachis ( Greek: Τραχίνιαι / Trachiniai) is a play by Sophocles, notable mainly for the Oedipus the King ( Ancient Greek: tyrannos Modern Greek: ( "Oedipus the Tyrant" also known as Oedipus Rex, is a Most of Sophocles' plays show an undercurrent of early fatalism and the beginnings of Socratic logic as a mainstay for the long tradition of Greek tragedy. Fatalism is a Philosophical doctrine emphasizing the subjugation of all events or actions to fate or inevitable predetermination ^[16][17]

A modern painting portraying Oedipus at Colonus. Oedipus (pronounced /ˈɛdəpəs/ in American English or /ˈiːdəpəs/ in British English; Greek: Oidípous meaning "swollen-footed"

The Theban plays (The Oedipus Cycle)

The Theban plays or The Oedipus Cycle consists of three plays: Antigone, Oedipus the King (Oedipus Tyrannus), and Oedipus at Colonus. The three Theban Plays, or the Oedipus cycle written by Greek dramatist Sophocles in the 5th century BCE, are those of his surviving works which follow Although they are now sometimes published under a single cover, Sophocles wrote the three plays for separate festivals, possibly over a duration of forty years or more. Thus, they are not a true trilogy (three plays presented as a continuous narrative).

The tale of Oedipus takes up the themes of being trapped by fate and family. Oedipus, in Ancient Greek mythology killed his father and married his mother without knowledge that they were his parents. His family is fated to be doomed for three generations.

In Sophocles’ first drama of the trilogy, Oedipus the King, the main character, Oedipus, becomes the ruler of Thebes after solving the riddle of the sphinx. However before solving this riddle, Oedipus had met at a crossroads a man accompanied by servants, Oedipus and the man got in an argument and Oedipus killed the man. Oedipus continued on to Thebes to marry the widowed Queen, although unknown to him, his mother. Oedipus eventually learns that his mother and father gave him up when he was just an infant in fear that he would kill his father and fulfill the Delphic Oracle’s prophecy of him. Upon learning of the complete prophecy, his mother, Jocasta, realizes the incest and commits suicide. However, they had four children before this occurred.

Sophocles’ drama, Antigone, focuses on Oedipus’ daughter Antigone. Antigone is faced with the choice of allowing her brother Polyneices’ body to get eaten by savage dogs or 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 convinced 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 loved Antigone, and his wife who commits suicide after losing her only son. Antigone focuses on the conflicting duties of civic versus personal loyalties.

Other plays

Some of Sophocles' other surviving works include Ajax, The Trachiniae, Electra, and Philoctetes, the last of which won first prize. Ajax (Αίας Aias) is a play by Sophocles. The date of its first performance is unknown but most scholars regard it as early rather than late in Sophocles' The Trachiniae or The Women of Trachis ( Greek: Τραχίνιαι / Trachiniai) is a play by Sophocles, notable mainly for the Electra or Elektra (Ηλέκτρα / Ēlektra) is a Greek tragic play by Sophocles. Philoctetes (Φιλοκτήτης / Philoktētēs) is a play by Sophocles ( Aeschylus and Euripides also each wrote a Philoctetes ^[18]

Ajax focuses on the prideful hero of the Trojan War. He is driven to treachery and eventually his own death. Ajax becomes gravely upset when Achilles’ armor is presented to Odysseus instead of himself. However, Odysseus persuades the kings Menelaus and Agamemnon to grant Ajax a proper burial.

Fragmentary plays

Fragments of The Tracking Satyrs (Ichneutae) were discovered in Egypt in 1907. The Tracking Satyrs (or Ichneutae) is a fragmentary Satyr play by Sophocles written during the 5th century BC This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. ^[19] These amount to about half of the play, making it the best preserved satyr play after Euripides' Cyclops, which survives in its entirety. Satyr plays were an ancient Greek form of tragicomedy similar to the modern-day Burlesque style The Cyclops (Κύκλωψ, Kyklōps) is an Ancient Greek Satyr play by Euripides, the only complete satyr play that has survived ^[19] Fragments of The Progeny (Epigonoi) were discovered in April 2005 by classicists at Oxford University with the help of infrared technology previously used for satellite imaging. The Progeny ( Epigonoi) is an ancient Greek tragedy written by the Greek playwright Sophocles in the 5th century BC and based on Greek mythology Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The University of Oxford (informally "Oxford University" or simply "Oxford" located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England is the Infrared ( IR) radiation is Electromagnetic radiation whose Wavelength is longer than that of Visible light, but shorter than that of This article is about artificial satellites For natural satellites also known as moons see Natural satellite. The tragedy tells the story of the siege of Thebes. Thebes ( Classic Greek Θῆβαι, Mod Θήβα) is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range which divides ^[20] A number of other Sophoclean works have survived only in fragments, including:

• Aias Lokros (Ajax the Locrian)
• Akhaiôn Syllogos (The Gathering of the Achaeans)
• Hermione
• Lacaenae (Lacaenian Women)
• Nauplios Katapleon (Nauplius' Arrival)
• Nauplios Pyrkaeus (Nauplius' Fires)
• Niobe
• Oenomaus
• Poimenes (The Shepherds)
• Polyxene
• Syndeipnoi (The Diners, or, The Banqueters)
• Tereus
• Troilus
• Phaedra
• Triptolemus
• Tyro Keiromene (Tyro Shorn)
• Tyro Anagnorizomene (Tyro Rediscovered). The city of Sparta ( Doric Σπάρτα Attic Σπάρτη

Sophocles' opinion of himself

There is a passage of Plutarch's tract De Profectibus in Virtute 7 in which Sophocles discusses his own growth as a writer. Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus ( Greek: Μέστριος Πλούταρχος c A likely source of this material for Plutarch was the Epidemiae of Ion of Chios, a book that recorded many conversations of Sophocles. This book 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. ^[21] 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 with is most expressive of character and best. Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra ( 8 April 1898 &ndash 4 July 1971) was an English classical scholar academic and known for his Wit. "^[22]

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,^[23] and thus did not keep his imitation up. Sophocles' first stage, in which he imitated Aeschylus, is marked by "Aeschylean pomp in the language". ^[24] Sophocles' second stage was entirely his own. He introduced new ways of evoking feeling out of an audience, like in his Ajax when he is mocked by Athene, then the stage is emptied so that he may commit suicide alone. ^[25] 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. ^[26]

Notes

References

• Finkel, Raphael; et al. (eds. ). Suda On Line: Byzantine Lexicography s. v. Σοφοκλῆς. Retrieved on 2007-03-14. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1489 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice.
• Bowra, C. M. (1940). Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra ( 8 April 1898 &ndash 4 July 1971) was an English classical scholar academic and known for his Wit. "Sophocles on His Own Development" (JSTOR access required). JSTOR (short for Journal Storage) is a United States -based online system for archiving Academic journals founded in 1995 American Journal of Philology 61 (4): 385–401.  
• Freeman, Charles. (1999). The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 0670885150
• Lloyd-Jones, Sir Hugh (ed. ) (1994). Sophocles. Ajax. Electra. Oedipus Tyrannus. Harvard University Press.
• Scullion, Scott (2002). Tragic dates, Classical Quarterly, new sequence 52, pp. 81–101.
• Seaford, Richard A. S. (2003). "Satyric drama". The Oxford Classical Dictionary (revised 3rd edition). Ed. Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1361. ISBN 0-19-860641-9.  
• Smith, Philip (1867). "Sophocles". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology 3. The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849 originally published 1844 under a slightly different title is an Encyclopedia / Biographical dictionary Ed. William Smith. Sir William Smith (1813 &ndash 1893 English Lexicographer, was born at Enfield in 1813 of Nonconformist parents Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. 865–873. Retrieved on 2007-02-19. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 197 - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum  
• Sommerstein, Alan Herbert (2002). Greek Drama and Dramatists. Routledge. ISBN 0415260272
• 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 0856687669
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. "Macropaedia Knowledge In Depth. " The New Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 20. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. , 2005. 344-346.

See also

• Theatre of ancient Greece

External links

• Works by Sophocles at Project Gutenberg
• Works of Sophocles at the Perseus Digital Library (Greek and English)
• Sophoclis tragœdiæ superstites et deperditarum fragmenta
• Poetae scenici graeci, accedunt perditarum fabularum fragmenta Sophocles
• Fragmentary Tragedies of Sophocles Project
• Studies in Sophoclean Fragments
• Films based on Sophocles plays
• Sophocles in Spanish
• Life of Sophocles
• Selected Monologues by Sophocles
• SORGLL: Sophocles, Electra 1126-1170; read by Rachel Kitzinger