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Sophocles
Ancient Greek
: Σοφοκλῆς,
Sophoklēs
,
Greek pronunciation:. 497/6 BC – winter 406/5 BC)
[1]
is one of three
ancient Greek
tragedians
whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of
Aeschylus
, and earlier than or contemporary with those of
Euripides
. According to the
Suda
, a 10th century
encyclopedia
, Sophocles wrote 123 plays during the course of his life, but only seven have survived in a complete form:
Ajax
,
Antigone
,
The Women of Trachis
,
Oedipus the King
,
Electra
,
Philoctetes
and
Oedipus at Colonus
.
[2]
For almost 50 years, Sophocles was the most-
fêted
playwright in the dramatic competitions of the
city-state
of
Athens
that took place during the religious festivals of the
Lenaea
and the
Dionysia
. He competed in around 30 competitions, won perhaps 24, and was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won 14 competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles, while Euripides won only 4 competitions.
[3]
The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature
Oedipus
and
Antigone
: they are generally known as the
Theban plays
, although each play was actually a part of a different
tetralogy
, the other members of which are now lost. Sophocles influenced the development of the drama, most importantly by adding a third actor, thereby reducing the importance of the
chorus
in the presentation of the
plot
. He also developed his
characters
to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus.
[4]
Life
Sophocles, the son of Sophilus, was a wealthy member of the rural
deme
(small community) of
Colonus Hippius
in
Attica
, which was to become a setting for one of his plays, and he was probably born there.
[1]
[5]
He was born a few years before the
Battle of Marathon
in 490 BC: the exact year is unclear, although 497/6 is the most likely.
[1]
[6]
Sophocles' first artistic triumph was in 468 BC, when he took first prize in the
Dionysia
theatre competition over the reigning master of Athenian drama,
Aeschylus
.
[1]
[7]
According to
Plutarch
the victory came under unusual circumstances. Instead of following the usual custom of choosing judges by lot, the archon asked
Cimon
and the other
strategoi
present to decide the victor of the contest. Plutarch further contends that following this loss Aeschylus soon left for Sicily.
[8]
Although Plutarch says that this was Sophocles' first production, it is now thought that his first production was probably in 470 BC.
[5]
Triptolemus
was probably one of the plays that Sophocles presented at this festival.
[5]
At the age of 16, Sophocles was chosen to lead the paean (a choral chant to a god), celebrating the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. He was elected as one of ten strategoi, high executive officials that commanded the armed forces, as a junior colleague of Pericles. Sophocles was born into a wealthy family (his father was an armour manufacturer) and was highly educated. 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
[1]
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.
[1]
According to the
Vita Sophoclis
he served as a general in the Athenian campaign against
Samos
, which had revolted in 441 BC; he was supposed to have been elected to his post as the result of his production of
Antigone
.
[9]
In 420 BC he welcomed and set up an altar for the image of
Asclepius
at his house, when the deity was introduced to Athens. For this he was given the posthumous epithet
Dexion
(receiver) by the Athenians.
[10]
He was also elected, in 413 BC, one of the commissioners (
probouloi
) who responded to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force in
Sicily
during the
Peloponnesian War
.
[11]
Sophocles died at the age of ninety or ninety-one in the winter of 406/5 BC, having seen within his lifetime both the Greek triumph in the
Persian Wars
and the bloodletting of the Peloponnesian War.
[1]
As with many famous men in classical antiquity, his death inspired a number of apocryphal stories. The most famous is the suggestion that he died from the strain of trying to recite a long sentence from his
Antigone
without pausing to take a breath. Another account suggests he choked while eating grapes at the
Anthesteria
festival in Athens. A third holds that he died of happiness after winning his final victory at the City Dionysia.
[12]
A few months later, a comic poet, in a play titled
The Muses
, wrote this eulogy: "Blessed is Sophocles, who had a long life, was a man both happy and talented, and the writer of many good tragedies; and he ended his life well without suffering any misfortune."
[13]
According to some accounts however his own sons tried to have him declared incompetent near the end of his life; he is said to have refuted their charge in court by reading from his as yet unproduced
Oedipus at Colonus
.
[14]
One of his sons, Iophon, and a grandson, also called Sophocles, also became playwrights.
[15]
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