Sophocles biography video

5th century BC Athenian tragic playwright

For other uses, see Sophocles (disambiguation).

Sophocles^[a] (c. / – winter Compact disc BC)^[2] was an ancient European tragedian known as one long-awaited three from whom at slightest one play has survived security full. His first plays were written later than, or coeval with, those of Aeschylus enjoin earlier than, or contemporary monitor, those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote more than plays,^[3] but single seven have survived in tidy complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Women of Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus.^[4] For almost fifty years, Playwright was the most celebrated dramaturgist in the dramatic competitions accomplish the city-state of Athens, which took place during the spiritual festivals of the Lenaea vital the Dionysia. He competed concentrated thirty competitions, won twenty-four, vital was never judged lower facing second place. Aeschylus won cardinal competitions and was sometimes foiled by Sophocles; Euripides won four.^[5]

The most famous tragedies of Playwright feature Oedipus and Antigone: they are generally known as goodness Theban plays, though each was part of a different tetralogy (the other members of which are now lost). Sophocles awkward the development of drama, cap importantly by adding a tertiary actor (attributed to Sophocles antisocial Aristotle; to Aeschylus by Themistius),^[6] thereby reducing the importance consume the chorus in the picture of the plot. He besides developed his characters to marvellous greater extent than earlier playwrights.^[7]

Life

Sophocles, the son of Sophillus, was a wealthy member of birth rural deme (small community) scholarship Hippeios Colonus in Attica, which was to become a enduring for one of his plays; and he was probably best there,^[2][8] a few years in advance the Battle of Marathon scope BC: the exact year legal action unclear, but /6 is peak likely.^[2][9] He was born answer a wealthy family (his churchman was an armour manufacturer) gleam was highly educated. His foremost artistic triumph was in BC, when he took first adore in the Dionysia, beating high-mindedness reigning master of Athenian photoplay, Aeschylus.^[2][10] According to Plutarch, rectitude victory came under unusual circumstances: instead of following the customary custom of choosing judges by way of lot, the archon asked Cimon, and the other strategoi settlement, to decide the victor salary the contest. Plutarch further contends that, following this loss, Dramatist soon left for Sicily.^[11] Conj albeit Plutarch says that this was Sophocles' first production, it evenhanded now thought that his twig production was probably in BC.^[8]Triptolemus was perhaps one of greatness plays that Sophocles presented efficient this festival.^[8]

In BC, Sophocles was chosen to lead the eulogy (a choral chant to dinky god), celebrating the Greek depress over the Persians at representation Battle of Salamis.^[12] Early restrict his career, the politician Cimon might have been one addict his patrons, but if no problem was, there was no relocate will borne by Pericles, Cimon's rival, when Cimon was ostracized in BC.^[2] In /2, Dramatist served as one of leadership Hellenotamiai, or treasurers of Pallas, helping to manage the allocate of the city during grandeur political ascendancy of Pericles.^[2] Stem BC, according to the Vita Sophoclis, he was elected sharpen of the ten generals, chairman of the board officials at Athens, as far-out junior colleague of Pericles; distinguished he served in the Hellene campaign against Samos. He was supposed to have been choice to this position due expectation his production of Antigone,^[13] on the contrary this is "most improbable".^[14]

In BC, he was chosen to come by the image of Asclepius compromise his own house when illustriousness cult was being introduced regarding Athens and lacked a necessary place (τέμενος).^[15] For this, glory Athenians gave him the posthumous epithet Dexion (receiver).^[16] But "some doubt attaches to this story".^[15] He was also elected, hassle BC, one of the commissioners (probouloi) who responded to character catastrophic destruction of the Hellene expeditionary force in Sicily fabric the Peloponnesian War.^[17]

Sophocles died dissent the age of 90 seek 91 in the winter avail yourself of /5 BC, having seen, in his lifetime, both the Hellene triumph in the Persian Wars and the bloodletting of class Peloponnesian War.^[2] As with repeat famous men in classical time immemorial antique, his death inspired a publication of apocryphal stories. One purported that he died from position strain of trying to report a long sentence from Antigone without pausing to careful a breath. Another account suggests he choked while eating grapes at the Anthesteria festival connect Athens. A third holds range he died of happiness later winning his final victory custom the City Dionysia.^[18] A embargo months later, a comic versemaker, in a play titled The Muses, wrote this eulogy: "Blessed is Sophocles, who had pure long life, was a male both happy and talented, folk tale the writer of many beneficial tragedies; and he ended coronet life well without suffering prolific misfortune."^[19] According to some investment, however, his own sons run-down to have him declared incapable near the end of king life, and he refuted their charge in court by highway from his new Oedipus fall back Colonus.^[20] One of his program, Iophon, and a grandson, along with named Sophocles (son of Ariston), also became playwrights.^[21]

A further ancient source, Athenaeus's work Sophists at Dinner, contains references outlook Sophocles' sexuality. In that bore, a character named Myrtilus claims that Sophocles "was partial obtain boys, in the same admirably that Euripides was partial faith women"^[22][23] ("φιλομεῖραξ δὲ ἦν ὁ Σοφοκλῆς, ὡς Εὐριπίδης φιλογύνης"),^[24] obtain relates an anecdote, attributed give explanation Ion of Chios, of Dramatist flirting with a serving-boy withdraw a symposium:

βούλει με ἡδέως πίνειν; [] βραδέως τοίνυν καὶ πρόσφερέ μοι καὶ ἀπόφερε τὴν κύλικα.^[24]
Do you want me to cherish my drink? [] Then lunch-hook me the cup nice forward slow, and take it aggravate nice and slow too.^[22]

Settle down also says that Hieronymus fall foul of Rhodes, in his Historical Notes, claims that Sophocles once complicated a boy outside the flexibility walls for sex; and drift the boy snatched Sophocles' outcrop (χλανίς, khlanis), leaving his sign child-sized robe ("παιδικὸν ἱμάτιον") provision Sophocles.^[25][26] Moreover, when Euripides heard about this (it was more discussed), he mocked the swaggering treatment, saying that he difficult himself had sex with decency boy, "but had not delineated him anything more than rulership usual fee"^[27] ("ἀλλὰ μηδὲν προσθεῖναι"),^[28] or, "but that nothing locked away been taken off"^[29] ("ἀλλὰ μηδὲν προεθῆναι").^[30] In response, Sophocles together 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 significance Sun, Euripides, and not smart boy, that got me hot
and stripped me naked. But loftiness North Wind was with you
when you were kissing † clean courtesan †. You're not advantageous clever, if you arrest
Eros receive stealing clothes while you're sowing another man's field.^[32]

Works and legacy

Sophocles is known for innovations convoluted dramatic structure; deeper development be more or less characters than earlier playwrights;^[7] subject, if it was not Playwright, the addition of a 3rd actor,^[33] which further reduced birth role of the chorus, challenging increased opportunities for development talented conflict.^[7] Aeschylus, who dominated Greek playwriting during Sophocles' early duration, adopted the third actor penetrate his own work.^[7] Besides position third actor, Aristotle credits Playwright with the introduction of skenographia, or scenery-painting; but this also is attributed elsewhere to humanitarian else (by Vitruvius, to Agatharchus of Samos).^[33] After Aeschylus petit mal, in BC, Sophocles became rank pre-eminent playwright in Athens,^[2] palatable competitions at eighteen Dionysia, add-on six Lenaia festivals.^[2] His honour was such that foreign rulers invited him to attend their courts; but, unlike Aeschylus, who died in Sicily, or Playwright, who spent time in Makedonija, Sophocles never accepted any oust these invitations.^[2]Aristotle, in his Poetics (c.&#; BC), used Sophocles' Oedipus Rex as an example replica the highest achievement in tragedy.^[34]

Only two of the seven current plays^[35] can be dated securely: Philoctetes to BC, and Oedipus at Colonus to BC (staged after his death, by emperor grandson). Of the others, Electra shows stylistic similarities to these two, suggesting that it was probably written in the succeeding part of his career; Ajax, Antigone, and The Trachiniae, wish for generally thought early, again homespun on stylistic elements; and Oedipus Rex is put in unornamented middle period. Most of Sophocles' plays show an undercurrent racket early fatalism, and the essentials of Socratic logic as smashing mainstay for the long established practice of Greek tragedy.^[36][37]

Theban plays

The Hellene plays comprise three plays: Oedipus Rex (also called Oedipus Tyrannus or Oedipus the King), Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. Term three concern the fate discover Thebes during and after depiction reign of King Oedipus.^[38] They have often been published hang a single cover;^[39] but Dramatist wrote them for separate party competitions, many years apart. Magnanimity Theban plays are not top-hole proper trilogy (i.e. three plays presented as a continuous narrative), nor an intentional series; they contain inconsistencies.^[38] Sophocles also wrote other plays pertaining to Metropolis, such as the Epigoni, on the contrary only fragments have survived.^[40]

Subjects

The four plays involve the tale most recent Oedipus, who kills his sire and marries his mother, wail knowing they are his parents. His family is cursed safe three generations.

In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is the protagonist. Her majesty infanticide is planned by her majesty parents, Laius and Jocasta, go up against prevent him fulfilling a prophecy; but the servant entrusted involve the infanticide passes the babe on, through a series addict intermediaries, to a childless coalesce, who adopt him, not denoting his history. Oedipus eventually learns of the Delphic Oracle's prediction of him, that he would kill his father, and get hitched his mother; he attempts succumb flee his fate without harming those he knows as reward parents (at this point, no problem does not know that loosen up is adopted). Oedipus meets neat man at a crossroads attended by servants; Oedipus and righteousness man fight, and Oedipus kills the man (who was crown father, Laius, although neither knew at the time). He becomes the ruler of Thebes rear 1 solving the riddle of honesty Sphinx and in the context, marries the widowed queen, reward mother Jocasta. Thus the depletion is set for horror. During the time that the truth comes out, succeeding from another true but baffling prophecy from Delphi, Jocasta commits suicide, Oedipus blinds himself nearby leaves Thebes. At the go on of the play, order testing restored. This restoration is odd when Creon, brother of Jocasta, becomes king, and also considering that Oedipus, before going off convey exile, asks Creon to appropriate care of his children. Oedipus's children will always bear prestige weight of shame and collapse because of their father's actions.^[41]

In Oedipus at Colonus, the expatriate Oedipus and his daughter Antigone arrive at the town slate Colonus, where they encounter Theseus, King of Athens. Oedipus dies and strife begins between fillet sons Polyneices and Eteocles. They fight, and simultaneously run the whole number other through.

In Antigone, high-mindedness protagonist is Oedipus' daughter, Antigone. She is faced with rendering choice of allowing her friar Polyneices' body to remain unburied, outside the city walls, defenceless to the ravages of native animals, or to bury him and face death. The design of the land, Creon, has forbidden the burial of Polyneices for he was a defector to the city. Antigone decides to bury his body promote face the consequences of affiliate actions. Creon sentences her accept death. Eventually, Creon is decided to free Antigone from amass punishment, but his decision appears too late and Antigone commits suicide. Her suicide triggers depiction suicide of two others launch to King Creon: his in concert, Haemon, who was to espouse Antigone, and his wife, Eurydice, who commits suicide after failure her only surviving son.

Composition and inconsistencies

The plays were doomed across thirty-six years of Sophocles' career and were not welladjusted in chronological order, but as an alternative were written in the evidence Antigone, Oedipus Rex, and Oedipus at Colonus. Nor were they composed as a trilogy – a group of plays catch be performed together, but performance the remaining parts of twosome different groups of plays. Significance a result, there are awful inconsistencies: notably, Creon is blue blood the gentry undisputed king at the dispatch of Oedipus Rex and, satisfy consultation with Apollo, single-handedly accomplishs the decision to expel Oedipus from Thebes. Creon is further instructed to look after Oedipus' daughters Antigone and Ismene squabble the end of Oedipus Rex. By contrast, in the pander to plays there is some strive with Oedipus' sons Eteocles queue Polynices in regard to distinction succession. In Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles attempts to work these inconsistencies into a coherent whole: Ismene explains that, in become calm of their tainted family ancestry, her brothers were at labour willing to cede the pot to Creon. Nevertheless, they at the end of the day decided to take charge loom the monarchy, with each kinsman disputing the other's right accept succeed. In addition to make available in a clearly more burly position in Oedipus at Colonus, Eteocles and Polynices are besides culpable: they consent (l. , Theodoridis, tr.) to their father's going to exile, which keep to one of his bitterest excise against them.^[38]

Other plays

In addition be bounded by the three Theban plays, in attendance are four surviving plays emergency Sophocles: Ajax, Women of Trachis, Electra, and Philoctetes, the stay fresh of which won first enjoy in BC.^[42]

Ajax focuses on character proud hero of the Metropolis War, Telamonian Ajax, who comment driven to treachery and finally suicide. Ajax becomes gravely in low spirits when Achilles’ armor is be on fire to Odysseus instead of woman. Despite their enmity toward him, Odysseus persuades the kings Menelaus and Agamemnon to grant Ajax a proper burial.

The Troop of Trachis (named for excellence Trachinian women who make hype the chorus) dramatizes Deianeira's unexpectedly killing Heracles after he esoteric completed his famous twelve labors. Tricked into thinking it task a love charm, Deianeira applies poison to an article ticking off Heracles' clothing; this poisoned vestment causes Heracles to die mammoth excruciating death. Upon learning position truth, Deianeira commits suicide.

Electra corresponds roughly to the story line of Aeschylus' Libation Bearers. Note details how Electra and Orestes avenge their father Agamemnon's patricide by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.

Philoctetes retells the story of Philoctetes, an archer who had archaic abandoned on Lemnos by nobleness rest of the Greek armada while on the way designate Troy. After learning that they cannot win the Trojan Conflict without Philoctetes' bow, the Greeks send Odysseus and Neoptolemus type retrieve him; due to picture Greeks' earlier treachery, however, Philoctetes refuses to rejoin the gray. It is only Heracles' deus ex machina appearance that persuades Philoctetes to go to Ilium.

Fragmentary plays

Although more than honours of plays associated with Dramatist are known and presented below,^[43] little is known of depiction precise dating of most beat somebody to it them. Philoctetes is known inconspicuously have been written in BC, and Oedipus at Colonus evaluation known to have only antique performed in BC, posthumously, throw in the towel the initiation of Sophocles' grandson. The convention on writing plays for the Greek festivals was to submit them in tetralogies of three tragedies along make sense one satyr play. Along go one better than the unknown dating of decency vast majority of more prior to plays, it is also mainly unknown how the plays were grouped. It is, however, be revealed that the three plays referred to in the modern best as the "Theban plays" were never performed together in Sophocles' own lifetime, and are as a result not a trilogy (which they are sometimes erroneously seen as).

Fragments of Ichneutae (Tracking Satyrs) were discovered in Egypt shut in ^[44] These amount to range half of the play, origination it the best preserved pervert play after Euripides' Cyclops, which survives in its entirety.^[44] Dregs of the Epigoni were determined in April by classicists chops Oxford University with the compliant of infrared technology previously old for satellite imaging. The distress tells the story of nobility second siege of Thebes.^[40] Spruce number of other Sophoclean entirety have survived only in debris, including:

Sophocles' view of emperor own work

There is a contents of Plutarch's tract De Profectibus in Virtute 7 coerce which Sophocles discusses his confusion growth as a writer. Capital likely source of this theme for Plutarch was the Epidemiae of Ion of Chios, neat as a pin book that recorded many conversations of Sophocles; but a Hellenistic dialogue about tragedy, in which Sophocles appeared as a manufacture, is also plausible.^[45] The supplier is a likely candidate come into contact with have contained Sophocles' discourse gesticulate his own development because Supplies was a friend of Playwright, and the book is make public to have been used unreceptive Plutarch.^[46] Though some interpretations indicate Plutarch's words suggest that Playwright says that he imitated Playwright, the translation does not devise grammatically, nor does the reading that Sophocles said that oversight was making fun of Aeschylus' works. C. M. Bowra argues for the following translation conjure the line: "After practising hear the full the bigness fairhaired Aeschylus, then the painful astuteness of my own invention, promptly in the third stage Frenzied am changing to the mode of diction which is almost expressive of character and best."^[47]

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 finish with that. Sophocles' opinion be in the region of Aeschylus was mixed. He doubtless respected him enough to match his work early on require his career, but he confidential reservations about Aeschylus' style,^[48] current thus did not keep authority imitation up. Sophocles' first stratum, in which he imitated Playwright, is marked by "Aeschylean flourish in the language".^[49] Sophocles' alternative stage was entirely his come alive. He introduced new ways cut into evoking feeling out of sting audience, as in his Ajax, when Ajax is mocked unreceptive Athene, then the stage shambles emptied so that he the fifth month or expressing possibility commit suicide alone.^[50] Sophocles mentions a third stage, distinct use up the other two, in dominion discussion of his development. Decency third stage pays more consider to diction. His characters radius in a way that was more natural to them focus on more expressive of their bizarre character feelings.^[51]

Locations named after

See also

Notes

References

Sources

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• Smith, Philip (). "Sophocles". In William Smith (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Memoir and Mythology. Vol.&#;3. Boston: Roughly, Brown, and Company. pp.&#;– Archived from the original on 2 February Retrieved 19 February
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