603, upon, may be
regarded
as dividing the public life
604; Anon.
604; Anon.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - c
]
the following article a branch of the Sophiani be- SO'PHILUS (Zápidos), a comic poet of the
longed. We may perhaps identify him with the middle comedy, was a native of Sicyon or of
Sophianus, a Greek, who translated into Latin, and Thebes, and composed the following dramas (Suid.
addressed to Lelio del Valle, a work De Re Militari | ε. ε. ): Κιθαρωδός, Φίλαρχος, Τυνδάρεως ή Λήδα,
& de Militaribus Instrumentis, which is extant in annía, 'Eyxeipídioy (or Xoipidov, but the other
the MS. in the Medicean library at Florence, or reading is more probably correct), and Tapakata-
with the author of a work In Topicu Aristotelis, of Onam, to which must be added, from Athenaeus,
Epistolae in Laudem ipsius, and of Epigrammata Européxovtes, and 'Av&pokañs. Diogenes Laërtius
Sacra, all in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. (ii. 120) refers to a play of Sophilus, entitled
(Montfaucon, Biblioth. Bibliothecar. vol. i. pp. 331, répon, in which Stilpo was attacked ; but the
502. )
reading of the passage is very doubtful, and Mei-
2. NICOLAUS. Raphael Volaterranus (Commen neke has shown reasons for supposing that the play
tar. Urban. Lib. xxi. ) mentions among the emi- referred to is the ráuos of Diphilus or of Phile-
nent persons of a then recent period, Sophianus, mon. Meineke also remarks that Zápidos must
a Greek, who had taught Greek at Rome, but had not be confounded with Lópios or Lógirlos, which
not much cultivated an acquaintance with Latin. was a different name: the father of the poet
This notice would rather lead us to identify him Sophocles was named Lópinos. There are very
with the Michael Sophianus just mentioned. (No. few fragments of Sophilus remaining. The time at
1. ) But Vossius (De Natura Artium, lib. ii. seu which he flourished is supposed by Meineke to
De Philologia, c. xi. $ 21 ; Lib. iii. seu De Mathesi have been about Ol. 108, B. C. 348. (Meineke,
seu De Scientiis Mathematicis, c. lxviii. § 14) Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. pp. 424–426, vol. iii.
identifies him with Nicolaus Sophianus, a Greek pp. 581–584 ; Ed. Min. , p. 794, &c. ) [P. S. ]
of Corfu, who drew a map of ancient Greece, which SO'PHOCLES (Eopukaņs). 1. The celebrated
was públished, and had its value at the time, tragic poet.
though partaking considerably of the imperfection The ancient authorities for the life of Sophocles
of the geographical science of that day. Mont- are very scanty. Duris of Samos wrote a work
faucon (l. c. p. 187) mentions among the MSS. of Tepl Eúpınídov kal Lopokhéovs (Ath. iv. p. 184,
the Library of Card. Ottoboni at Rome Nicolai d. ); Ister, Aristoxenus, Neanthes, Satyrus, and
Sophiani Grammatica, apparently a Greek grammar, others are quoted as authorities for his life ; and it
and in the Library of St. Mark at Venice there is a cannot be doubted that, amidst the vast mass oí
!
VOL. III.
3 к
## p. 866 (#882) ############################################
866
SOPHOCLES.
SOPHOCLES.
a
Alexandrian literature, there were many treatises | most distinguished citizens of Athens. To both of
respecting him, besides those on the general subject the two leading branches of Greek education, music
of tragedy ; but of these stores of information, the and gymnastics, he was carefully trained, in com-
only remnants we possess are the respectable ano- pany with the boys of his own age, and in both he
nymous compilation, Bios Lopokhéous, which is gained the prize of a garland. He was taught
prefixed to the chief editions of the poet's works, music by the celebrated Lamprus (Vit. Anon. ). Of
and is also contained in Westermann's Vitarum the skill which he had attained in music and
Scriptores Graeci Minores, the very brief article of dancing in his sixteenth year, and of the perfection
Suidas, and the incidental notices scattered through of his bodily form, we have conclusive evidence in
the works of Plutarch, Athenaeus, and other ancient the fact that, when the Athenians were assembled
writers. Of the numerous modern writers who in solemn festival around the trophy which they
have treated of the 'life, character, and works of had set up in Salamis to celebrate their victory
Sophocles, the chief are:Lessing, whose Leben over the fleet of Xerxes, Sophocles was chosen
des Sophokles is a masterpiece of aesthetic disqui- to lead, naked and with lyre in hand, the chorus
sition, left unfortunately incomplete ; Schlegel, in which danced about the trophy, and sang the
his Lectures on Dramatic Art and Criticism, which songs of triumph, B. C. 480. (Ath. i. p. 20, f. ;
are now familiar to English readers ; F. Schultz, Vit. Anon. )
de Vita Sophoclis, Berol. 1836, 8vo. ; Schöll, Sopho. The statement of the anonymous biographer, that
kles, sein Leben und Wirken, Frankfort, 1842, Sophocles learnt tragedy from Aeschylus, has been
8vo. , with the elaborate series of reviews by C. F. objected to on grounds which are perfectly conclu-
Hermann, in the Berliner Jahrbücher, 1843: to sive, if it be understood as meaning any direct and
these must be added the standard works on Greek formal instruction ; but, from the connection in
tragedy by Böckh (Poet. Trag. Graec. Princ. ), which the words stand, they appear to express
Welcker (die Griechischen Tragödien), and Kayser nothing more than the simple and obvious fact,
(Hist. Crit. Tragicorum Graec. ), and also the that Sophocles, having received the art in the
standard histories of Greek Literature in general, form to which it had been advanced by Aeschylus,
and of Greek Poetry in particular, by Müller, made in it other improvements of his own.
Ulrici, Bode, and Bernhardy.
His first appearance as a dramatist took place in
i. The Life of Sophocles. -Sophocles was a native the year B. c. 468, under peculiarly interesting cir-
of the Attic village of Colonus, which lay a little cumstances; not only from the fact that Sophocles,
more than a mile to the north-west of Athens, and at the age of twenty-seven, came forward as the
the scenery and religious associations of which rival of the veteran Aeschylus, whose supremacy
have been described by the poet, in his last and had been maintained during an entire generation,
greatest work, in a manner which shows how but also from the character of the judges. It was,
powerful an influence his birth-place exercised on in short, a contest between the new and the old
the whole current of his genius. The date of his styles of tragic poetry, in which the competitors
birth, according to his anonymous biographer, was were the greatest dramatists, with one exception,
in Ol. 71. 2, B. C. 495 ; but the Parian Marble who ever lived, and the umpires were the first men,
places it one year higher, B. C. 496. Most in position and education, of a state in which
modern writers prefer the former date, on the almost every citizen had a nice perception of the
ground of its more exact agreement with the other beauties of poetry and art. The solemnities of the
passages in which the poet's age is referred to (see Great Dionysia were rendered more imposing by
Clinton, F. H. s. 2. ; Müller, Hist. Lit. p. 337, the occasion of the return of Cimon from his ex-
Eng. trans. ). But those passages, when closely pedition to Scyros, bringing with him the bones of
examined, will be found hardly sufficient to deter- Theseus. Public expectation was so excited re-
mine so nice a point as the difference of a few specting the approaching dramatic contest, and
months. With this remark by way of caution, we party feeling ran so high, that Apsephion, the
place the birth of Sophocles at B. C. 495, five years Archon Eponymus, whose duty it was to appoint
before the battle of Marathon, so that he was about the judges, had not yet ventured to proceed to the
thirty years younger than Aeschylus, and fifteen final act of drawing the lots for their election, when
years older than Euripides. (The anonymous bio. Cimon, with his nine colleagues in the command,
grapher also mentions these differences, but his having entered the theatre, and made the customary
numbers are obviously corrupt. )
libations to Dionysus, the Archon detained them at
His father's name was Sophilus, or Sophillus, the altar, and administered to them the oath ap-
respecting whose condition in life it is clear from pointed for the judges in the dramatic contests.
the anonymous biography that the grammarians Their decision was in favour of Sophocles, who
knew nothing for certain. According to Aristoxe- received the first prize ; the second only being
nus, he was a carpenter or smith ; according to awarded to Aeschylus, who was so mortified at his
Ister, a swordmaker ; while the biographer refuses defeat that he left Athens and retired to Sicily.
to admit either of these statements, except in the (Plut. Cim. 8 ; Marm. Par. 57. ) The drama which
sense that Sophilus had slaves who practised one Sophocles exhibited on this occasion is supposed,
or other of those handicrafts, because, he argues, it from a chronological computation in Pliny (H. N.
is improbable that the son of a common artificer xviii. 7. 8. 12), to have been the Triptolemus, re-
should have been associated in military command specting the nature of which there has been much
with the first men of the state, such as Pericles and disputation: Welcker, who has discussed the
Thucydides, and also because, if he had been low- question very fully, supposes that the main subject
born, the comic poets would not have failed to of the drama was the institution of the Eleusinian
attack him on that ground. There is some force mysteries, and the establishment of the worship of
in the latter argument.
Demeter at Athens by Triptolemus.
At all events it is clear that Sophocles received From this epoch there can be no doubt that So-
an education not inferior to that of the sons of the phocles held the supremacy of the Athenian stage
## p. 867 (#883) ############################################
SOPHOCLES. '
867
SOPHOCLES.
(except in so far as it was shared by Aeschylus was one chief cause of his being associated with
during the short period between his return to him in the Samian War.
Athens and his final retirement to Sicily), until a A still more interesting subject connected with
formidable rival arose in the person of Euripides, this period of the poet's life, is his supposed inti-
who gained the first prize for the first time in the macy with Herodotus, which is also touched upon
year B. C. 441. We possess, however, no parti- by Mr. Donaldson (l. c. ), who has discussed the
culars of the poet's life during this period of twenty- matter at greater length in the Transactions of the
eight yea
Philological Society, vol. i. No. 15. We learn from
The year B. C. 440 (Ol. 84, 4) is a most im- Plutarch (An Seni sil Gerend. Respub. 3, p. 784, b. )
portant era in the poet's life. In the spring of that that Sophocles composed a poem for Herodotus,
year, most probably, he brought out the earliest commencing with the following inscription :
and one of the best of his extant dramas, the
'Ωιδήν Ηροδότο τεύξεν Σοφοκλής έτέων ων
Antigone, a play which gave the Atheninns such
πεντ' επί πεντήκοντα:
satisfaction, especially on account of the political
wisdom it displayed, that they appointed him one where the poet's age, 55 years, carries us to about
of the ten strategi, of whom Pericles was the chief, the period of the Samian War. Upon this founda.
in the war against the aristocratical faction of tion Mr. Donaldson constructs the theory that
Samos, which lasted from the summer of B. C. 440 | Herodotus was still residing at Samos at the period
to the spring of B. C. 439. The anonymous bio- when Sophocles was engaged in the war, and that
grapher states that this expedition took place seven a familiar intercourse subsisted between the great
years before the Peloponnesian War, and that poet and historian, for the maintenance of which at
Sophocles was 65 years old at the time. A full other times the frequent visits of Herodotus to
account of this war will be found in Thirlwall's Athens would give ample opportunity. The chro-
History of Greece, vol. iii. pp. 48, foll. From an nological part of the question, though important in
anecdote preserved by Athenaeus from the Travels its bearing upon the history of Herodotus, is of
of the poet Ion, it appears that Sophocles was en- little consequence with regard to Sophocles: the
gaged in bringing up the reinforcements from Chios, main fact, that such an intercourse existed between
and that, amidst the occupations of his military the poet and the historian, is sufficiently established
command, he preserved his wonted tranquillity of by the passage of Plutarch ; and the influence of
mind, and found leisure to gratify bis voluptuous that intimacy may still be traced in those striking
tastes and to delight his comrades with his calm parallelisms in their works, which have generally
and pleasant conversation at their banquets. From been referred to an imitation of Herodotus by Só
the same narrative it would seem that Sophocles phocles, but which Mr. Donaldson has brought
neither obtained nor sought for any military repu- forward strong arguments to account for in the op-
tation: he is represented as good-humouredly re- posite way. (Compare especially Herod. iii. 119,
peating the judgment of Pericles concerning bin, with Antig. 924. )
that he understood the making of poetry, but not The epoch, which has now been briefly dwelt
the commanding of an army. (Ath. xiii. pp.
603, upon, may be regarded as dividing the public life
604; Anon. Vit. Soph. ; Aristoph. Byz. Arg. in of Sophocles into two almost equal portions, each
Antig. ; Plut. Per. 8; Strab. xiv. p. 446 ; Schol. extending over the period of about one generation,
ad Aristoph. Pac. 696 ; Suid. s. v. Méantos; Cic. but the latter rather the longer of the two ; namely
Off. i. 40; Plin. H. N. xxxvii. 2; Val. Max. iv. B. C. 468–439, and B. C. 439–405. The second
3. ) On another occasion, if we may believe Plu- of these periods, extending from the 56th year of
tarch (Nic. 15), Sophocles was not ashamed to his age to his death, was that of his greatest poetical
confess that he had no claim to military distinction; activity, and to it belong all his extant dramas.
for when he was serving with Nicias, upon being Respecting his personal history, however, during
asked by that general his opinion first, in a council this period of forty-four years, we have scarcely
of war, as being the eldest of the strategi, he re- any details. The excitement of the Peloponnesian
plied " I indeed am the eldest in years, but you in War seems to have had no other influence upon
counsel. : * ('Εγώ, φάναι, παλαιότατός είμι, συ δε | him than to stimulate his literary efforts by the
πρεσβύτατος).
new impulse which it gave to the intellectual
Mr. Donaldson, in his recent edition of the An- activity of the age ; until that disastrous period
tigone (Introduction, $ 2), has put forward the after the Sicilian expedition, when the reaction of
view, that, at this period of his life, Sophocles was unsuccessful war led to anarchy at home. Then
a personal and political friend of Pericles ; that the we find him, like others of the chief literary men
political sentiments expressed in the Antigone were of Athens, joining in the desperate attempt to stay
intended as a recommendation of the policy of the ruin of their country by means of an aristocratic
that statesman, just as Aeschylus, in the Eume revolution ; although, according to the accounts
nides, had put forth all his powers in support of which have come down to us of the part which
the opposite system of the old conservative party Sophocles took in this movement, he only assented.
of Aristeides ; that Pericles himself is circumstan- to it as a measure of public safety, and not from
tially, though indirectly, referred to in various pas- any love of oligarchy. When the Athenians, on
sages of the play (especially vv. 352, foll. ); and the news of the utter destruction of their Sicilian
that the poet's political connection with Pericles army (B. C. 413), appointed ten of the elders of the
city, as a sort of committee of public salvation,
The occasion with which Plutarch connects under the title of apolovioi (Thuc. viii. 1), So.
this anecdote is the Sicilian expedition ; but we phocles was among the ten thus chosen. * As he
have no other evidence that Sophocles was engaged
in that war, nor is it at all probable ; still the It has, however, been doubted whether this
anecdote may be true in substance, though its time Sophocles was not another person (See below,
is misplaced.
No. 4).
3к2
## p. 868 (#884) ############################################
868
SOPHOCLES.
SOPHOCLES.
was then in his eighty-third year, it is not likely ciliation was referred to in the lines of the Oedipus
that he took any active part in their proceedings, at Colonus, where Antigone pleads with her father
or that he was chosen for any other reason than to forgive Polyneices, as other fathers had been
to obtain the authority of his name. All that we induced to forgive their bad children (vv. ) 192, foll. ).
are told of his conduct in this office is that he con- Whether Sophocles died in, or after the com-
tented to the establishment of the oligarchical pletion of, his ninetieth year, cannot be said with
Council of Four Hundred, B. C. 411, though he absolute certainty. It is clear, from the allusions
acknowledged the mensure to be an evil one, be- to him in the Frogs of Aristophanes and the Musue
cause, he said, there was no better course (Aristot. of Phrynichus, that he was dead before the repre-
Rhet. jii. 18, Pol. vi. 5). The change of govern. sentation of those dramas at the Lenaca, in Fe-
ment thus effected released him, no doubt, from all bruary, B. C. 405, and hence several writers, an-
further concern with public affairs.
cient as well as modern, have placed his death in
One thing at least is clear as to his political the beginning of that year. (Diod. xiii. 103 ;
principles, that he was an ardent lover of his Marm. Par. No. 65; Arg. III. ad Oed. Col. ;
country. The patriotic sentiments, which we still Clinton, F. H. , s. a. ) But, if we make allowance
admire in his poems, were illustrated by his own con- for the time required for the composition and pre-
duct ; for, unlike Simonides and Pindar, Aeschylus, paration of those dramas, of which the Frogs, at
Euripides, and Plato, and others of the greatest poets least, not only refers to his death, but presupposes
and philosophers of Greece, Sophocles would never that event in the very conception of the comedy,
condescend to accept the patronnge of monarchs, or we can hardly place it later than the spring of
to leave his country in compliance with their re- B. C. 106, and this date is confirmed by the
peated invitations. (Vit. Anon. ) His affections statement of the anonymous biographer, that bis
were fixed upon the land which had produced the death happened at the feast of the Choës, which
heroes of Marathon and Salamis, whose umphs must have been in 406, and not in 405, for the
were associated with his earliest recollections ; and Choës took place a month later than the Lenaca.
his eminently religious spirit loved to dwell upon Lucian (Macrob. 24) certainly exaggerates, when
the sacred city of Athena, and the hallowed groves he says that Sophocles lived to the age of 95.
of his native Colonus. In his later days he filled All the various accounts of his death and funeral
the office of priest to a native hero, Halon, and the are of a fictitious and poetical complexion ; as are
gods were said to have rewarded his devotion by so many of the stories which have come down to
granting him supernatural revelations. (réyove se us respecting the deaths of the other Greek poets :
και θεοφιλής ο Σοφοκλής ως ουκ άλλος, &c. Fii. nay, we often find the very same marvel attending
Anon. )
the decease of different individuals, as in the cases
The family dissensions, which troubled his last of Sophocles and Philemon [Philemon, p. 263,
years, are connected with a well-known and beau- b). According to Ister and Neanthes, he was
tiful story, which bears strong marks of authen-choked by a grape (l'it. Anon. ); Satyrus related
ticity, and which, if true, not only proves that he that in a public recitation of the Antigone he
preserved his mental powers and his wonted calm- sustained his voice so long without a pause that,
ness to the last, but also leaves us with the satis- through the weakness of extreme age, he lost his
factory conviction that his domestic peace was breath and his life together (ibid. ); while others
restored before he died. His family consisted of ascribed his death to excessive joy at obtaining a
two sons, Jophon, the offspring of Nicostrate, who victory (ibid. ). These legends are of course the
was a free Athenian woman, and Ariston, his son offspring of a poetical feeling which loved to con-
by Theoris of Sicyon*; and Ariston had a son nect the last moments of the great tragedian with
named Sophocles, for whom his grandfather showed his patron god. In the same spirit it is related
the greatest affection. Iophon, who was by the that Dionysus twice appeared in vision to Ly-
laws of Athens his father's rightful heir, jealous sander, and commanded him to allow the interment
of his love for the young Sophocles, and apprehend of the poet's remains in the family tomb on the
ing that Sophocles purposed to bestow upon his road to Deceleia (l'it. Anon. ; comp. Paus. i. 21).
grandson a large proportion of his property, is said | According to Ister, the Athenians honoured his
to have summoned his father before the opátopes, memory with a yearly sacrifice (Vit. Anon. ).
who seem to have had a sort of jurisdiction in family No doubt the ancient writers were quite right
affairs, on the charge that his mind was affected in thinking that, in the absence of details respect-
by old age. As his only reply, Sophocles ex- ing the matter of fact, the death of Sophocles was
claimed, - If I am Sophocles, I am not beside a fair subject for a poetical description ; but, in-
myself; and if I am beside myself, I am not So- stead of resorting to trifling and contradictory le-
phocles ;” and then he read from his Oedipus at gends, they might have found descriptions of his
Colonus, which was lately written, but not yet decease, at once poetical and true, in the verses of
brought out, the magnificent parodos, beginning – contemporary poets, who laid aside the bitter satire
Ευίππου, ξένε, τάσδε χώρας,
of the Old Comedy to do honour to his memory.
Thus Phrynichus, in his Moñoai, which was acted
whereupon the judges at once dismissed the case, with the Frogs of Aristophanes, in which also the
and rebuked lophon for his undutiful conduct. memory of Sophocles is treated with profound re-
(Plut. An Seni sit Gerend. Respub. 3. p. 775, b. ; spect, referred to the poet's death in these beautiful
l'it. Anon. ) That Sophocles forgave his son might lines :-
almost be assumed from his known character; and
Μάκαρ Σοφοκλέης, ός πολύν χρόνον βιούς
the ancient grammarians supposed that the recon-
απέθανεν, ευδαίμων ανήρ και δεξίος,
πολλές ποιήσας και καλάς τραγωδίας»
* Suidas mentions three other sons - Leosthenes,
καλώς δ' ετελεύτησ' ουδεν υπομείνας κακόν.
Stephanus, and Menecleides — of whom we know
nothing.
(Arg. III. ad Oed. Col. ; Meincke, Frag. Com.
## p. 869 (#885) ############################################
1
B. C.
war.
SOPHOCLES.
SOPHOCLES.
809
Gracc. vo. . ii. p. 592 ; Editio Minor, p. 233. ) And ) ideal representations, rather than actual likenesses.
if the last line is not specific enough for those who Philostratus (Imag. 13) describes several such por-
are curious to know the details of the death of traits by different artists, and an account of those
such a man, we venture to say that the want may which now exist will be found in Müller's Archiv
be supplied by those exquisite verses in which the logie der Kunst, $ 420, n. 5, p. 731, ed. Welcker.
poet himself relates the decease of Oedipus, when 'The following chronological summary exhibits
restored by a long expiation to that religious calm the few leading events, of which the date can be
in which he himself had always lived --- a descriptixed, in the life of Sophocles :
tion so exactly satisfying our idea of what the
OI.
death of Sophocles must and ought to have been,
71. 2. 495. Birth of Sophocles.
that we at once perceive, by a sort of instinct, that | 73. 4.
484. Aeschylus gains the first prize.
it was either written in the direct anticipation of
Birth of Herodotus.
his own departure, or perhaps even thrown into 75. 1. 480. Battle of Salamis. Sophocles (net.
its present forın by the younger Sophocles, to make
15-16) leads the chorus round
it an exact picture of his grandfather's death
the trophy. Birth of Euripides.
where Oedipus, having been summoned by a divine 77. 4. 468. First tragic victory of Sophocles.
voice from the solemn recesses of the grove of the
Defeat and retirement of Aeschy:
Eumenides, in terms which might well be used to
lus. Birth of Socrates.
the pout of ninety years of nge (Oed. Col. 1627, 78. 1. 469. Death of Simonides.
1628):-
80. 2. 458.
The 'Opeotela of Aeschylus.
ω ούτος, ούτος, Οιδίπους, τι μέλλομεν
81. 1. 456. Death of Aeschylus.
χωρείν ; πάλαι δη τάπό σου βραδύνεται,-
81. ). 455. Euripides begins to exhibit.
84.
the following article a branch of the Sophiani be- SO'PHILUS (Zápidos), a comic poet of the
longed. We may perhaps identify him with the middle comedy, was a native of Sicyon or of
Sophianus, a Greek, who translated into Latin, and Thebes, and composed the following dramas (Suid.
addressed to Lelio del Valle, a work De Re Militari | ε. ε. ): Κιθαρωδός, Φίλαρχος, Τυνδάρεως ή Λήδα,
& de Militaribus Instrumentis, which is extant in annía, 'Eyxeipídioy (or Xoipidov, but the other
the MS. in the Medicean library at Florence, or reading is more probably correct), and Tapakata-
with the author of a work In Topicu Aristotelis, of Onam, to which must be added, from Athenaeus,
Epistolae in Laudem ipsius, and of Epigrammata Européxovtes, and 'Av&pokañs. Diogenes Laërtius
Sacra, all in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. (ii. 120) refers to a play of Sophilus, entitled
(Montfaucon, Biblioth. Bibliothecar. vol. i. pp. 331, répon, in which Stilpo was attacked ; but the
502. )
reading of the passage is very doubtful, and Mei-
2. NICOLAUS. Raphael Volaterranus (Commen neke has shown reasons for supposing that the play
tar. Urban. Lib. xxi. ) mentions among the emi- referred to is the ráuos of Diphilus or of Phile-
nent persons of a then recent period, Sophianus, mon. Meineke also remarks that Zápidos must
a Greek, who had taught Greek at Rome, but had not be confounded with Lópios or Lógirlos, which
not much cultivated an acquaintance with Latin. was a different name: the father of the poet
This notice would rather lead us to identify him Sophocles was named Lópinos. There are very
with the Michael Sophianus just mentioned. (No. few fragments of Sophilus remaining. The time at
1. ) But Vossius (De Natura Artium, lib. ii. seu which he flourished is supposed by Meineke to
De Philologia, c. xi. $ 21 ; Lib. iii. seu De Mathesi have been about Ol. 108, B. C. 348. (Meineke,
seu De Scientiis Mathematicis, c. lxviii. § 14) Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. pp. 424–426, vol. iii.
identifies him with Nicolaus Sophianus, a Greek pp. 581–584 ; Ed. Min. , p. 794, &c. ) [P. S. ]
of Corfu, who drew a map of ancient Greece, which SO'PHOCLES (Eopukaņs). 1. The celebrated
was públished, and had its value at the time, tragic poet.
though partaking considerably of the imperfection The ancient authorities for the life of Sophocles
of the geographical science of that day. Mont- are very scanty. Duris of Samos wrote a work
faucon (l. c. p. 187) mentions among the MSS. of Tepl Eúpınídov kal Lopokhéovs (Ath. iv. p. 184,
the Library of Card. Ottoboni at Rome Nicolai d. ); Ister, Aristoxenus, Neanthes, Satyrus, and
Sophiani Grammatica, apparently a Greek grammar, others are quoted as authorities for his life ; and it
and in the Library of St. Mark at Venice there is a cannot be doubted that, amidst the vast mass oí
!
VOL. III.
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SOPHOCLES.
SOPHOCLES.
a
Alexandrian literature, there were many treatises | most distinguished citizens of Athens. To both of
respecting him, besides those on the general subject the two leading branches of Greek education, music
of tragedy ; but of these stores of information, the and gymnastics, he was carefully trained, in com-
only remnants we possess are the respectable ano- pany with the boys of his own age, and in both he
nymous compilation, Bios Lopokhéous, which is gained the prize of a garland. He was taught
prefixed to the chief editions of the poet's works, music by the celebrated Lamprus (Vit. Anon. ). Of
and is also contained in Westermann's Vitarum the skill which he had attained in music and
Scriptores Graeci Minores, the very brief article of dancing in his sixteenth year, and of the perfection
Suidas, and the incidental notices scattered through of his bodily form, we have conclusive evidence in
the works of Plutarch, Athenaeus, and other ancient the fact that, when the Athenians were assembled
writers. Of the numerous modern writers who in solemn festival around the trophy which they
have treated of the 'life, character, and works of had set up in Salamis to celebrate their victory
Sophocles, the chief are:Lessing, whose Leben over the fleet of Xerxes, Sophocles was chosen
des Sophokles is a masterpiece of aesthetic disqui- to lead, naked and with lyre in hand, the chorus
sition, left unfortunately incomplete ; Schlegel, in which danced about the trophy, and sang the
his Lectures on Dramatic Art and Criticism, which songs of triumph, B. C. 480. (Ath. i. p. 20, f. ;
are now familiar to English readers ; F. Schultz, Vit. Anon. )
de Vita Sophoclis, Berol. 1836, 8vo. ; Schöll, Sopho. The statement of the anonymous biographer, that
kles, sein Leben und Wirken, Frankfort, 1842, Sophocles learnt tragedy from Aeschylus, has been
8vo. , with the elaborate series of reviews by C. F. objected to on grounds which are perfectly conclu-
Hermann, in the Berliner Jahrbücher, 1843: to sive, if it be understood as meaning any direct and
these must be added the standard works on Greek formal instruction ; but, from the connection in
tragedy by Böckh (Poet. Trag. Graec. Princ. ), which the words stand, they appear to express
Welcker (die Griechischen Tragödien), and Kayser nothing more than the simple and obvious fact,
(Hist. Crit. Tragicorum Graec. ), and also the that Sophocles, having received the art in the
standard histories of Greek Literature in general, form to which it had been advanced by Aeschylus,
and of Greek Poetry in particular, by Müller, made in it other improvements of his own.
Ulrici, Bode, and Bernhardy.
His first appearance as a dramatist took place in
i. The Life of Sophocles. -Sophocles was a native the year B. c. 468, under peculiarly interesting cir-
of the Attic village of Colonus, which lay a little cumstances; not only from the fact that Sophocles,
more than a mile to the north-west of Athens, and at the age of twenty-seven, came forward as the
the scenery and religious associations of which rival of the veteran Aeschylus, whose supremacy
have been described by the poet, in his last and had been maintained during an entire generation,
greatest work, in a manner which shows how but also from the character of the judges. It was,
powerful an influence his birth-place exercised on in short, a contest between the new and the old
the whole current of his genius. The date of his styles of tragic poetry, in which the competitors
birth, according to his anonymous biographer, was were the greatest dramatists, with one exception,
in Ol. 71. 2, B. C. 495 ; but the Parian Marble who ever lived, and the umpires were the first men,
places it one year higher, B. C. 496. Most in position and education, of a state in which
modern writers prefer the former date, on the almost every citizen had a nice perception of the
ground of its more exact agreement with the other beauties of poetry and art. The solemnities of the
passages in which the poet's age is referred to (see Great Dionysia were rendered more imposing by
Clinton, F. H. s. 2. ; Müller, Hist. Lit. p. 337, the occasion of the return of Cimon from his ex-
Eng. trans. ). But those passages, when closely pedition to Scyros, bringing with him the bones of
examined, will be found hardly sufficient to deter- Theseus. Public expectation was so excited re-
mine so nice a point as the difference of a few specting the approaching dramatic contest, and
months. With this remark by way of caution, we party feeling ran so high, that Apsephion, the
place the birth of Sophocles at B. C. 495, five years Archon Eponymus, whose duty it was to appoint
before the battle of Marathon, so that he was about the judges, had not yet ventured to proceed to the
thirty years younger than Aeschylus, and fifteen final act of drawing the lots for their election, when
years older than Euripides. (The anonymous bio. Cimon, with his nine colleagues in the command,
grapher also mentions these differences, but his having entered the theatre, and made the customary
numbers are obviously corrupt. )
libations to Dionysus, the Archon detained them at
His father's name was Sophilus, or Sophillus, the altar, and administered to them the oath ap-
respecting whose condition in life it is clear from pointed for the judges in the dramatic contests.
the anonymous biography that the grammarians Their decision was in favour of Sophocles, who
knew nothing for certain. According to Aristoxe- received the first prize ; the second only being
nus, he was a carpenter or smith ; according to awarded to Aeschylus, who was so mortified at his
Ister, a swordmaker ; while the biographer refuses defeat that he left Athens and retired to Sicily.
to admit either of these statements, except in the (Plut. Cim. 8 ; Marm. Par. 57. ) The drama which
sense that Sophilus had slaves who practised one Sophocles exhibited on this occasion is supposed,
or other of those handicrafts, because, he argues, it from a chronological computation in Pliny (H. N.
is improbable that the son of a common artificer xviii. 7. 8. 12), to have been the Triptolemus, re-
should have been associated in military command specting the nature of which there has been much
with the first men of the state, such as Pericles and disputation: Welcker, who has discussed the
Thucydides, and also because, if he had been low- question very fully, supposes that the main subject
born, the comic poets would not have failed to of the drama was the institution of the Eleusinian
attack him on that ground. There is some force mysteries, and the establishment of the worship of
in the latter argument.
Demeter at Athens by Triptolemus.
At all events it is clear that Sophocles received From this epoch there can be no doubt that So-
an education not inferior to that of the sons of the phocles held the supremacy of the Athenian stage
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SOPHOCLES.
(except in so far as it was shared by Aeschylus was one chief cause of his being associated with
during the short period between his return to him in the Samian War.
Athens and his final retirement to Sicily), until a A still more interesting subject connected with
formidable rival arose in the person of Euripides, this period of the poet's life, is his supposed inti-
who gained the first prize for the first time in the macy with Herodotus, which is also touched upon
year B. C. 441. We possess, however, no parti- by Mr. Donaldson (l. c. ), who has discussed the
culars of the poet's life during this period of twenty- matter at greater length in the Transactions of the
eight yea
Philological Society, vol. i. No. 15. We learn from
The year B. C. 440 (Ol. 84, 4) is a most im- Plutarch (An Seni sil Gerend. Respub. 3, p. 784, b. )
portant era in the poet's life. In the spring of that that Sophocles composed a poem for Herodotus,
year, most probably, he brought out the earliest commencing with the following inscription :
and one of the best of his extant dramas, the
'Ωιδήν Ηροδότο τεύξεν Σοφοκλής έτέων ων
Antigone, a play which gave the Atheninns such
πεντ' επί πεντήκοντα:
satisfaction, especially on account of the political
wisdom it displayed, that they appointed him one where the poet's age, 55 years, carries us to about
of the ten strategi, of whom Pericles was the chief, the period of the Samian War. Upon this founda.
in the war against the aristocratical faction of tion Mr. Donaldson constructs the theory that
Samos, which lasted from the summer of B. C. 440 | Herodotus was still residing at Samos at the period
to the spring of B. C. 439. The anonymous bio- when Sophocles was engaged in the war, and that
grapher states that this expedition took place seven a familiar intercourse subsisted between the great
years before the Peloponnesian War, and that poet and historian, for the maintenance of which at
Sophocles was 65 years old at the time. A full other times the frequent visits of Herodotus to
account of this war will be found in Thirlwall's Athens would give ample opportunity. The chro-
History of Greece, vol. iii. pp. 48, foll. From an nological part of the question, though important in
anecdote preserved by Athenaeus from the Travels its bearing upon the history of Herodotus, is of
of the poet Ion, it appears that Sophocles was en- little consequence with regard to Sophocles: the
gaged in bringing up the reinforcements from Chios, main fact, that such an intercourse existed between
and that, amidst the occupations of his military the poet and the historian, is sufficiently established
command, he preserved his wonted tranquillity of by the passage of Plutarch ; and the influence of
mind, and found leisure to gratify bis voluptuous that intimacy may still be traced in those striking
tastes and to delight his comrades with his calm parallelisms in their works, which have generally
and pleasant conversation at their banquets. From been referred to an imitation of Herodotus by Só
the same narrative it would seem that Sophocles phocles, but which Mr. Donaldson has brought
neither obtained nor sought for any military repu- forward strong arguments to account for in the op-
tation: he is represented as good-humouredly re- posite way. (Compare especially Herod. iii. 119,
peating the judgment of Pericles concerning bin, with Antig. 924. )
that he understood the making of poetry, but not The epoch, which has now been briefly dwelt
the commanding of an army. (Ath. xiii. pp.
603, upon, may be regarded as dividing the public life
604; Anon. Vit. Soph. ; Aristoph. Byz. Arg. in of Sophocles into two almost equal portions, each
Antig. ; Plut. Per. 8; Strab. xiv. p. 446 ; Schol. extending over the period of about one generation,
ad Aristoph. Pac. 696 ; Suid. s. v. Méantos; Cic. but the latter rather the longer of the two ; namely
Off. i. 40; Plin. H. N. xxxvii. 2; Val. Max. iv. B. C. 468–439, and B. C. 439–405. The second
3. ) On another occasion, if we may believe Plu- of these periods, extending from the 56th year of
tarch (Nic. 15), Sophocles was not ashamed to his age to his death, was that of his greatest poetical
confess that he had no claim to military distinction; activity, and to it belong all his extant dramas.
for when he was serving with Nicias, upon being Respecting his personal history, however, during
asked by that general his opinion first, in a council this period of forty-four years, we have scarcely
of war, as being the eldest of the strategi, he re- any details. The excitement of the Peloponnesian
plied " I indeed am the eldest in years, but you in War seems to have had no other influence upon
counsel. : * ('Εγώ, φάναι, παλαιότατός είμι, συ δε | him than to stimulate his literary efforts by the
πρεσβύτατος).
new impulse which it gave to the intellectual
Mr. Donaldson, in his recent edition of the An- activity of the age ; until that disastrous period
tigone (Introduction, $ 2), has put forward the after the Sicilian expedition, when the reaction of
view, that, at this period of his life, Sophocles was unsuccessful war led to anarchy at home. Then
a personal and political friend of Pericles ; that the we find him, like others of the chief literary men
political sentiments expressed in the Antigone were of Athens, joining in the desperate attempt to stay
intended as a recommendation of the policy of the ruin of their country by means of an aristocratic
that statesman, just as Aeschylus, in the Eume revolution ; although, according to the accounts
nides, had put forth all his powers in support of which have come down to us of the part which
the opposite system of the old conservative party Sophocles took in this movement, he only assented.
of Aristeides ; that Pericles himself is circumstan- to it as a measure of public safety, and not from
tially, though indirectly, referred to in various pas- any love of oligarchy. When the Athenians, on
sages of the play (especially vv. 352, foll. ); and the news of the utter destruction of their Sicilian
that the poet's political connection with Pericles army (B. C. 413), appointed ten of the elders of the
city, as a sort of committee of public salvation,
The occasion with which Plutarch connects under the title of apolovioi (Thuc. viii. 1), So.
this anecdote is the Sicilian expedition ; but we phocles was among the ten thus chosen. * As he
have no other evidence that Sophocles was engaged
in that war, nor is it at all probable ; still the It has, however, been doubted whether this
anecdote may be true in substance, though its time Sophocles was not another person (See below,
is misplaced.
No. 4).
3к2
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SOPHOCLES.
SOPHOCLES.
was then in his eighty-third year, it is not likely ciliation was referred to in the lines of the Oedipus
that he took any active part in their proceedings, at Colonus, where Antigone pleads with her father
or that he was chosen for any other reason than to forgive Polyneices, as other fathers had been
to obtain the authority of his name. All that we induced to forgive their bad children (vv. ) 192, foll. ).
are told of his conduct in this office is that he con- Whether Sophocles died in, or after the com-
tented to the establishment of the oligarchical pletion of, his ninetieth year, cannot be said with
Council of Four Hundred, B. C. 411, though he absolute certainty. It is clear, from the allusions
acknowledged the mensure to be an evil one, be- to him in the Frogs of Aristophanes and the Musue
cause, he said, there was no better course (Aristot. of Phrynichus, that he was dead before the repre-
Rhet. jii. 18, Pol. vi. 5). The change of govern. sentation of those dramas at the Lenaca, in Fe-
ment thus effected released him, no doubt, from all bruary, B. C. 405, and hence several writers, an-
further concern with public affairs.
cient as well as modern, have placed his death in
One thing at least is clear as to his political the beginning of that year. (Diod. xiii. 103 ;
principles, that he was an ardent lover of his Marm. Par. No. 65; Arg. III. ad Oed. Col. ;
country. The patriotic sentiments, which we still Clinton, F. H. , s. a. ) But, if we make allowance
admire in his poems, were illustrated by his own con- for the time required for the composition and pre-
duct ; for, unlike Simonides and Pindar, Aeschylus, paration of those dramas, of which the Frogs, at
Euripides, and Plato, and others of the greatest poets least, not only refers to his death, but presupposes
and philosophers of Greece, Sophocles would never that event in the very conception of the comedy,
condescend to accept the patronnge of monarchs, or we can hardly place it later than the spring of
to leave his country in compliance with their re- B. C. 106, and this date is confirmed by the
peated invitations. (Vit. Anon. ) His affections statement of the anonymous biographer, that bis
were fixed upon the land which had produced the death happened at the feast of the Choës, which
heroes of Marathon and Salamis, whose umphs must have been in 406, and not in 405, for the
were associated with his earliest recollections ; and Choës took place a month later than the Lenaca.
his eminently religious spirit loved to dwell upon Lucian (Macrob. 24) certainly exaggerates, when
the sacred city of Athena, and the hallowed groves he says that Sophocles lived to the age of 95.
of his native Colonus. In his later days he filled All the various accounts of his death and funeral
the office of priest to a native hero, Halon, and the are of a fictitious and poetical complexion ; as are
gods were said to have rewarded his devotion by so many of the stories which have come down to
granting him supernatural revelations. (réyove se us respecting the deaths of the other Greek poets :
και θεοφιλής ο Σοφοκλής ως ουκ άλλος, &c. Fii. nay, we often find the very same marvel attending
Anon. )
the decease of different individuals, as in the cases
The family dissensions, which troubled his last of Sophocles and Philemon [Philemon, p. 263,
years, are connected with a well-known and beau- b). According to Ister and Neanthes, he was
tiful story, which bears strong marks of authen-choked by a grape (l'it. Anon. ); Satyrus related
ticity, and which, if true, not only proves that he that in a public recitation of the Antigone he
preserved his mental powers and his wonted calm- sustained his voice so long without a pause that,
ness to the last, but also leaves us with the satis- through the weakness of extreme age, he lost his
factory conviction that his domestic peace was breath and his life together (ibid. ); while others
restored before he died. His family consisted of ascribed his death to excessive joy at obtaining a
two sons, Jophon, the offspring of Nicostrate, who victory (ibid. ). These legends are of course the
was a free Athenian woman, and Ariston, his son offspring of a poetical feeling which loved to con-
by Theoris of Sicyon*; and Ariston had a son nect the last moments of the great tragedian with
named Sophocles, for whom his grandfather showed his patron god. In the same spirit it is related
the greatest affection. Iophon, who was by the that Dionysus twice appeared in vision to Ly-
laws of Athens his father's rightful heir, jealous sander, and commanded him to allow the interment
of his love for the young Sophocles, and apprehend of the poet's remains in the family tomb on the
ing that Sophocles purposed to bestow upon his road to Deceleia (l'it. Anon. ; comp. Paus. i. 21).
grandson a large proportion of his property, is said | According to Ister, the Athenians honoured his
to have summoned his father before the opátopes, memory with a yearly sacrifice (Vit. Anon. ).
who seem to have had a sort of jurisdiction in family No doubt the ancient writers were quite right
affairs, on the charge that his mind was affected in thinking that, in the absence of details respect-
by old age. As his only reply, Sophocles ex- ing the matter of fact, the death of Sophocles was
claimed, - If I am Sophocles, I am not beside a fair subject for a poetical description ; but, in-
myself; and if I am beside myself, I am not So- stead of resorting to trifling and contradictory le-
phocles ;” and then he read from his Oedipus at gends, they might have found descriptions of his
Colonus, which was lately written, but not yet decease, at once poetical and true, in the verses of
brought out, the magnificent parodos, beginning – contemporary poets, who laid aside the bitter satire
Ευίππου, ξένε, τάσδε χώρας,
of the Old Comedy to do honour to his memory.
Thus Phrynichus, in his Moñoai, which was acted
whereupon the judges at once dismissed the case, with the Frogs of Aristophanes, in which also the
and rebuked lophon for his undutiful conduct. memory of Sophocles is treated with profound re-
(Plut. An Seni sit Gerend. Respub. 3. p. 775, b. ; spect, referred to the poet's death in these beautiful
l'it. Anon. ) That Sophocles forgave his son might lines :-
almost be assumed from his known character; and
Μάκαρ Σοφοκλέης, ός πολύν χρόνον βιούς
the ancient grammarians supposed that the recon-
απέθανεν, ευδαίμων ανήρ και δεξίος,
πολλές ποιήσας και καλάς τραγωδίας»
* Suidas mentions three other sons - Leosthenes,
καλώς δ' ετελεύτησ' ουδεν υπομείνας κακόν.
Stephanus, and Menecleides — of whom we know
nothing.
(Arg. III. ad Oed. Col. ; Meincke, Frag. Com.
## p. 869 (#885) ############################################
1
B. C.
war.
SOPHOCLES.
SOPHOCLES.
809
Gracc. vo. . ii. p. 592 ; Editio Minor, p. 233. ) And ) ideal representations, rather than actual likenesses.
if the last line is not specific enough for those who Philostratus (Imag. 13) describes several such por-
are curious to know the details of the death of traits by different artists, and an account of those
such a man, we venture to say that the want may which now exist will be found in Müller's Archiv
be supplied by those exquisite verses in which the logie der Kunst, $ 420, n. 5, p. 731, ed. Welcker.
poet himself relates the decease of Oedipus, when 'The following chronological summary exhibits
restored by a long expiation to that religious calm the few leading events, of which the date can be
in which he himself had always lived --- a descriptixed, in the life of Sophocles :
tion so exactly satisfying our idea of what the
OI.
death of Sophocles must and ought to have been,
71. 2. 495. Birth of Sophocles.
that we at once perceive, by a sort of instinct, that | 73. 4.
484. Aeschylus gains the first prize.
it was either written in the direct anticipation of
Birth of Herodotus.
his own departure, or perhaps even thrown into 75. 1. 480. Battle of Salamis. Sophocles (net.
its present forın by the younger Sophocles, to make
15-16) leads the chorus round
it an exact picture of his grandfather's death
the trophy. Birth of Euripides.
where Oedipus, having been summoned by a divine 77. 4. 468. First tragic victory of Sophocles.
voice from the solemn recesses of the grove of the
Defeat and retirement of Aeschy:
Eumenides, in terms which might well be used to
lus. Birth of Socrates.
the pout of ninety years of nge (Oed. Col. 1627, 78. 1. 469. Death of Simonides.
1628):-
80. 2. 458.
The 'Opeotela of Aeschylus.
ω ούτος, ούτος, Οιδίπους, τι μέλλομεν
81. 1. 456. Death of Aeschylus.
χωρείν ; πάλαι δη τάπό σου βραδύνεται,-
81. ). 455. Euripides begins to exhibit.
84.
