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406 BC (search for this): entry sophocles-bio-1
enaea, in February, B. C. 405, and hence several writers, ancient as well as modern, have placed his death in the beginning of that year. (Diod. 13.103 ; Marm. Par. No. 65; Arg. III. ad Oed. Col. ; Clinton, F. H., s. a.) But, if we make allowance for the time required for the composition and preparation of those dramas, of which the Frogs, at least, not only refers to his death, but presupposes that event in the very conception of the comedy, we can hardly place it later than the spring of B. C. 406, and this date is confirmed by the statement of the anonymous biographer, that his death happened at the feast of the Choes, which must have been in 406, and not in 405, for the Choes took place a month later than the Lenaea. Lucian (Macrob. 24) certainly exaggerates, when he says that Sophocles lived to the age of 95. All the various accounts of his death and funeral are of a fictitious and poetical complexion; as are so many of the stories which have come down to us respecting the deat
413 BC (search for this): entry sophocles-bio-1
essful war led to anarchy at home. Then we find him, like others of the chief literary men of Athens, joining in the desperate attempt to stay the ruin of their country by means of an aristocratic revolution; although, according to the accounts which have come down to us of the part which Sophocles took in this movement, he only assented. to it as a measure of public safety, and not from any love of oligarchy. When the Athenians, on the news of the utter destruction of their Sicilian army (B. C. 413), appointed ten of the elders of the city, as a sort of committee of public salvation, under the title of pro/bouloi (Thuc. 8.1), Sophocles was among the ten thus chosen. * It has, however, been doubted whether this Sophocles was not another person (See below, No. 4). As he was then in his eighty-third year, it is not likely that he took any active part in their proceedings, or that he was chosen for any other reason than to obtain the authority of his name. All that we are told of his co
439 BC (search for this): entry sophocles-bio-1
ten strategi, of whom Pericles was the chief, in the war against the aristocratical faction of Samos, which lasted from the summer of B. C. 440 to the spring of B. C. 439. The anonymous biographer states that this expedition took place seven years before the Peloponnesian War, and that Sophocles was 55 years old at the time. A fule of Sophocles into two almost equal portions, each extending over the period of about one generation, but the latter rather the longer of the two; namely B. C. 468-439, and B. C. 439-405. The second of these periods, extending from the 56th year of his age to his death, was that of his greatest poetical activity, and to it belong B. C. 439-405. The second of these periods, extending from the 56th year of his age to his death, was that of his greatest poetical activity, and to it belong all his extant dramas. Respecting his personal history, however, during this period of forty-four years, we have scarcely any details. The excitement of the Peloponnesian War seems to have had no other influence upon him than to stimulate his literary efforts by the new impulse which it gave to the intellectual activity of the age;
441 BC (search for this): entry sophocles-bio-1
ubject of the drama was the institution of the Eleusinian mysteries, and the establishment of the worship of Demeter at Athens by Triptolemus. From this epoch there can be no doubt that Sophocles held the supremacy of the Athenian stage (except in so far as it was shared by Aeschylus during the short period between his return to Athens and his final retirement to Sicily), until a formidable rival arose in the person of Euripides, who gained the first prize for the first time in the year B. C. 441. We possess, however, no particulars of the poet's life during this period of twentyeight years. The year B. C. 440 (Ol. 84, 4) is a most important era in the poet's life. In the spring of that year, most probably, he brought out the earliest and one of the best of his extant dramas, the Antigone, a play which gave the Athenians such satisfaction, especially on account of the political wisdom it displayed, that they appointed him one of the ten strategi, of whom Pericles was the chief, i
411 BC (search for this): entry sophocles-bio-1
ro/bouloi (Thuc. 8.1), Sophocles was among the ten thus chosen. * It has, however, been doubted whether this Sophocles was not another person (See below, No. 4). As he was then in his eighty-third year, it is not likely that he took any active part in their proceedings, or that he was chosen for any other reason than to obtain the authority of his name. All that we are told of his conduct in this office is that he contented to the establishment of the oligarchical Council of Four Hundred, B. C. 411, though he acknowledged the measure to be an evil one, because, he said, there was no better course (Aristot. Rh. 3.18, Pol. 6.5). The change of government thus effected released him, no doubt, from all further concern with public affairs. One thing at least is clear as to his political principles, that he was an ardent lover of his country. The patriotic sentiments, which we still admire in his poems, were illustrated by his own conduct ; for, unlike Simonides and Pindar, Aeschylus, Eur
440 BC (search for this): entry sophocles-bio-1
Sicily), until a formidable rival arose in the person of Euripides, who gained the first prize for the first time in the year B. C. 441. We possess, however, no particulars of the poet's life during this period of twentyeight years. The year B. C. 440 (Ol. 84, 4) is a most important era in the poet's life. In the spring of that year, most probably, he brought out the earliest and one of the best of his extant dramas, the Antigone, a play which gave the Athenians such satisfaction, especially on account of the political wisdom it displayed, that they appointed him one of the ten strategi, of whom Pericles was the chief, in the war against the aristocratical faction of Samos, which lasted from the summer of B. C. 440 to the spring of B. C. 439. The anonymous biographer states that this expedition took place seven years before the Peloponnesian War, and that Sophocles was 55 years old at the time. A full account of this war will be found in Thirlwall's History of Greece, vol. iii. pp
468 BC (search for this): entry sophocles-bio-1
othing more than the simple and obvious fact, that Sophocles, having received the art in the form to which it had been advanced by Aeschylus, made in it other improvements of his own. His first appearance as a dramatist took place in the year B. C. 468, under peculiarly interesting circumstances ; not only from the fact that Sophocles, at the age of twenty-seven, came forward as the rival of the veteran Aeschylus, whose supremacy had been maintained during an entire generation, but also from e epoch, which has now been briefly dwelt upon, may be regarded as dividing the public life of Sophocles into two almost equal portions, each extending over the period of about one generation, but the latter rather the longer of the two; namely B. C. 468-439, and B. C. 439-405. The second of these periods, extending from the 56th year of his age to his death, was that of his greatest poetical activity, and to it belong all his extant dramas. Respecting his personal history, however, during this
496 BC (search for this): entry sophocles-bio-1
les. Sophocles was a native of the Attic village of Colonus, which lay a little more than a mile to the north-west of Athens, and the scenery and religious associations of which have been described by the poet, in his last and greatest work, in a manner which shows how powerful an influence his birth-place exercised on the whole current of his genius. The date of his birth, according to his anonymous biographer, was in Ol. 71. 2, B. C. 495; but the Parian Marble places it one year higher, B. C. 496. Most modern writers prefer the former date, on the ground of its more exact agreement with the other passages in which the poet's age is referred to (see Clinton, F. H. s. a. ; Müller, Hist. Lit. p. 337, Eng. trans.). But those passages, when closely examined, will be found hardly sufficient to determine so nice a point as the difference of a few months. With this remark by way of caution, we place the birth of Sophocles at B. C. 495, five years before the battle of Marathon, so that he w
480 BC (search for this): entry sophocles-bio-1
y the celebrated Lamprus (Vit. Anon.). Of the skill which he had attained in music and dancing in his sixteenth year, and of the perfection of his bodily form, we have conclusive evidence in the fact that, when the Athenians were assembled in solemn festival around the trophy which they had set up in Salamis to celebrate their victory over the fleet of Xerxes, Sophocles was chosen to lead, naked and with lyre in hand, the chorus which danced about the trophy, and sang the songs of triumph, B. C. 480. (Ath. i. p. 20f. ; Vit. Anon.） The statement of the anonymous biographer, that Sophocles learnt tragedy from Aeschylus, has been objected to on grounds which are perfectly conclusive, if it be understood as meaning any direct and formal instruction; but, from the connection in which the words stand, they appear to express nothing more than the simple and obvious fact, that Sophocles, having received the art in the form to which it had been advanced by Aeschylus, made in it other improve
495 BC (search for this): entry sophocles-bio-1
escribed by the poet, in his last and greatest work, in a manner which shows how powerful an influence his birth-place exercised on the whole current of his genius. The date of his birth, according to his anonymous biographer, was in Ol. 71. 2, B. C. 495; but the Parian Marble places it one year higher, B. C. 496. Most modern writers prefer the former date, on the ground of its more exact agreement with the other passages in which the poet's age is referred to (see Clinton, F. H. s. a. ; Müller, Hist. Lit. p. 337, Eng. trans.). But those passages, when closely examined, will be found hardly sufficient to determine so nice a point as the difference of a few months. With this remark by way of caution, we place the birth of Sophocles at B. C. 495, five years before the battle of Marathon, so that he was about thirty years younger than Aeschylus, and fifteen years older than Euripides. (The anonymous biographer also mentions these differences, but his numbers are obviously corrupt.) Hi
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