as a tragedian, was attended by a very remarkable circumstance. Cimon removed the bones of Theseus from Scyrus to Athens (468 B.C.'). He arrived at Athens about the time of the tragic contests, and Eschylus and Sophocles were among the competitors. The celebrity of the former, and the personal beauty, rank, popularity, and known accomplishments of the latter, excited a great sensation. When therefore Cimon and his nine colleagues entered the theatre of Bacchus, to perform the usual libations, the Archon, Apsephion, instead of choosing judges by lot, detained the ten generals in the theatre, and having administered an oath to them, made them decide between the rival tragedians. The first prize was awarded to Sophocles, and, as we have seen, Æschylus departed immediately for Sicily. This decision does not imply any disregard of the Eschylean Tragedy on the part of the Athenians. The contest was, as has been justly observed, not between two individual works of art, but between two species or ages of art; and if, as we think has been fully demonstrated', the Triptolemus was one of the plays which Sophocles exhibited on that occasion, we can readily conceive that when the minds of the people were full of their old national legends, the subject which the young poet had chosen, and the desire to encourage

4 Marm. Par. No. vii. ἀφ ̓ οὗ Σοφοκλῆς ὁ Σοφίλλου ὁ ἐκ Κολωνοῦ ἐνίκησε τραγῳδίᾳ, ἐτῶν ὢν ΔΔΠΙΙΙ, ἔτη ΗΗΠΙ, ἄρχοντος ̓Αθήνησιν ̓Αψηφίονος. “ These were the greater Dionysia, or the Alovúσia rà iv äort, in the month Elaphebolion; because the Archon Eponymus, Apsephion, presided; and, o uèv apxwv diarionoi Alovúσia, o de Bariλevs (conf. Aristoph. Acharn. 1224, et Schol. ad loc.) πpośσrNKE Anvaiwv. Pollux, viii. 89, 50.”—Clinton, F. H. ii. P. 39.

5 ̓́Εθεντο δ ̓ εἰς μνήμην αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὴν τῶν τραγῳδῶν κρίσιν ὀνομαστὴν γενομένην πρώτην γὰρ διδασκαλίαν τοῦ Σοφοκλέους ἔτι νέου καθέντος, Αφεψίων, ὁ ἄρχων, φιλονεικίας οὔσης καὶ παρατάξεως τῶν θεατῶν, κριτὰς μὲν οὐκ ἐκλήρωσε τοῦ ἀγῶνος ὡς δὲ Κίμων μετὰ τῶν συστρατηγῶν προελθὼν εἰς τὸ θέατρον ἐποιήσατο τῷ θεῷ τὰς νενομισμένας σπονδάς, οὐκ ἀφῆκεν αὐτοὺς ἀπελθεῖν, ἀλλ ̓ ὁρκώσας, ἠνάγκασε καθίσαι καὶ κρῖναι δέκα ὄντας, ἀπὸ φυλῆς, μιᾶς ἕκαστον· ὁ μὲν οὖν ἀγὼν καὶ διὰ τὸ τῶν κριτῶν ἀξίωμα τὴν φιλοτιμίαν ὑπερέβαλε. νικήσαντος δὲ Σοφοκλέους, λέγεται τὸν Αἰσχύλον περιπαθῆ γενόμενον, καὶ βαρέως ἐνέγκοντα, χρόνον οὐ πολὺν ̓Αθήνησι διαγαγεῖν, εἶτ ̓ οἴχεσθαι. δι ̓ ὀργὴν εἰς ZIKEλiav. Plutarch, Cimon, c. viii.

There is probably an allusion to this in Aristoph. Ran. 1109, seqq., where the chorus says, that the military character of the spectators fits them to be judges of the contest between Æschylus and Euripides, ἐστρατευμένοι γάρ εἰσι.

• Welcker, Trilogie, p. 513.

7 By Lessing, Leben des Sophocles (note I.), from a passage in Plin. H. N. xviii. 7: Sophoclis Triptolemus ante mortem Alexandri annis fere 145. But Alexander died 323 B.C., and 323 +145 = 468. On the Triptolemus in general, see Welcker, Tril. 514, (who thinks it was certainly not a satyrical drama,) and Niebuhr, Hist. Rom. vol. i. p. 17, 18. The arguments adduced by Gruppe (Ariadne, p. 358, foll.) to prove that the Rhesus was the play which Sophocles exhibited on this occasion, are all in favour of Lessing's opinion.

his first attempt, would be sufficient to overweigh the reputation of his antagonist, coupled as it was with anti-popular politics, especially as the Eschylean Tragedy lacked that freshness of novelty and loveliness of youth which hung around the form and the poetry of the beautiful son of Sophillus. Sophocles rarely appeared on the stage, in consequence of the weakness of his voice: we are told, however, that he performed on the lyre, in the character of Thamyris, and distinguished himself by the grace with which he played at ball in his own play called Nausicaa'. In 440 B.C. he brought out the Antigone, and we are informed that it was to the political wisdom exhibited in that play, that he owed his appointment as colleague of Pericles and Thucydides in the Samian war'. On this occasion he met with Herodotus, and composed a lyrical poem for that historian'. It does not appear that he distinguished himself in his military capacity. He received many invitations from foreign courts, but loved Athens too well to accept them. He held several offices in his old age. He was priest of the hero Alon, and in the year 413 B.C. was elected one

• Πρῶτον καταλύσας τὴν ὑπόκρισιν τοῦ ποιητοῦ διὰ τὴν ἰδίαν ἰσχνοφωνίαν. Vit. Anonym.

See the passage of Athen. (i. p. 20) quoted above. "The Nausicaa was, according to all appearances, a satyric drama. The Odyssee was in general a rich storehouse for the satyrical plays. The character of Ulysses himself makes him a very convenient satyrical impersonation." Lessing, Leben des Sophocles, note K. (vol. vi. p. 342.)

Scholiast.

1 Strabo xiv. p. 446. Suidas v. Méλirog. Athen. xiii. p. 603, F. Aristoph. Pax. v. 696. Cic. de Off. i. 40. Plutarch, Pericl. c. viii. Plin. H. N. xxxvii. 2. Val. Max. iv. 3: all testify that the true cause is assigned by Aristophanes of Byzantium in the argument to the Antigone: Φασὶ δὲ τὸν Σοφοκλέα ἠξιῶσθαι τῆς ἐν Σάμῳ στρατηγίας εὐδοκιμήσαντα ἐν τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ τῆς ̓Αντιγόνης. A similar distinction was conferred upon Phrynichus, Ælian, V. H. iii. 8. It is probable that Sophocles conciliated the favour of the more popular party, by the way in which he speaks of Pericles, v. 662, and they were perhaps willing to take the hint in v. 175, where we may observe, in passing, poóvnua signifies "political opinions," as in the phrases, ἐμπέδοις φρονήμασιν, τοιόνδ ̓ ἐμὸν φρόνημα, ἴσον φρονῶν, which occur in the same play. On the meanings of opovεiv and opóvnμa in Sophocles, see the notes on the translation of the Antigone, pp. 155, 168.

2 Plutarch An seni, &c. c. 3. iv. 153, Wyttenb. On this subject the student may consult the Introduction to the Antigone, p. xvii., and Transactions of the Philol. Soc. I. No. 15, where it will be seen that Herodotus was an imitator of Sophocles.

3 At least if we may credit the tale told of him by Ion, a contemporary poet, (Athenæus, xiii. 604,) where he is made to say of himself-Meλerw σтparηyεiv, w ἄνδρες· ἐπειδήπερ Περικλῆς ποιεῖν μὲν ἔφη με, στρατηγεῖν δ ̓ οὐκ ἐπίστασθαι. 4 Εσχε δὲ καὶ τὴν τοῦ ̓Αλωνος ἱερωσύνην, ὃς ἥρως ἦν μετὰ ̓Ασκληπιοῦ παρὰ Xeipovi. Vit. Anonym.

of the póßovλot. This was a board of commissioners, all πρόβουλοι. old men, which was established immediately after the disastrous termination of the Syracusan expedition, to devise expedients for meeting the existing emergencies'. The constitution of such a committee was necessarily aristocratic, and two years after, B. c. 411, Sophocles, once the favourite of the people and the colleague of Pericles, fell into the plans of Peisander and the other conspirators, and consented in the temple of Neptune, at his own Colonus, to the establishment of a council of four hundred; in other words, to the subversion of the old Athenian constitution'. He afterwards defended his policy on the grounds of expediency'. Nicostrata had borne him a son, whom he named Iophon: he had another son Ariston, by Theoris of Sicyon, whose son, Sophocles, was a great favourite with his grandfather and namesake. From this reason, or because, according to Cicero, his love for the stage made him neglect his affairs, his son Iophon charged him with dotage and lunacy, and brought him before the proper court, with a view to remove him from the management of his property. The poet read to his judges a part of the Edipus at Colonus, which he had just finished, and triumphantly asked "if that was the work of an idiot?" Of course the charge was dismissed'. We are sorry to say that this very pretty story is a mere fabrication, for the Edipus at Colonus must have been acted, at least for the first time, before the breaking out of the Peloponnesian war'.

So

5 Thucyd. viii. 1 : καὶ ἀρχήν τινα τῶν πρεσβυτέρων ἀνδρῶν ἑλέσθαι οἵτινες περὶ τῶν παρόντων ὡς ἂν καιρὸς ἢ προβουλεύσουσι. We consider these πρόβουλοι to have been most problably elected to serve as Evyypapñs (Thucyd. viii. 67), for it was the Evyypapñs who brought about the revolution, and we learn from Aristotle (see below) that Sophocles contributed to it in his character of πрóßovλoç.

• Aristot. Polit. vi. 5, 10 : δεῖ γὰρ εἶναι τὸ συνάγον τὸ κύριον τῆς πολιτείας. καλεῖται δ' ἔνθα μὲν πρόβουλοι διὰ τὸ προβουλεύειν· ὅπου δὲ τὸ πλῆθός ἐστι βουλὴ μᾶλλον.

1 Thucyd. viii. 67 : ξυνέκλησαν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν εἰς τὸν Κολωνόν (ἔστι δὲ ἱερὸν Ποσειδῶνος ἔξω πόλεως ἀπέχον σταδίους μάλιστα δέκα) κ. τ. λ.

8 Καὶ συμπεραινόμενον, ἐὰν ἐρώτημα ποιῇ τὸ συμπέρασμα, τὴν αἰτίαν εἰπεῖν· οἷον Σοφοκλῆς ἐρωτώμενος ὑπὸ Πεισάνδρου, “ εἰ ἔδοξεν αὐτῷ, ὥσπερ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις προβούλοις, καταστῆσαι τοὺς τετρακοσίους ;” ἔφη—" Τί δὲ οὐ πονηρά σοι ταῦτα ἐδόκει είναι ;” ἔφη. “Οὐκ οὖν σὺ ταῦτα ἔπραξας τὰ πονηρά ;” “ Ναί,” ἔφη, “ οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἄλλα βελτίω.” Aristot. Rhet. iii. 18.

Val. Max. viii.

66

Vit. Anonym. Cicero de Senectute, § 7. 1 See Reisig. Enarrat. (Ed. Col. p. v. seqq. J. W. Süvern" On some historical and political allusions in ancient tragedy," pp. 6. 8. Lachmann in the Rhein. Mus. for 1827, p. 313, fol. Hermann in Zimmermann's Zeitschrift, 1837, No. 98, p. 803, sqq., inclines to the opinion that the Edip. Col. was written before, but not published till after, the Peloponnesian war.

phocles died in the very beginning of the year 405 B.C.; according to Ister and Neanthes he was choked by a grape, which the actor Callippides brought him from Opus, at the time of the Anthesteria. Satyrus tells us that he died in consequence of exerting his voice too much while reading the Antigone aloud': others say that his joy at being proclaimed tragic victor was too much for his decayed strength. His family burial-place was Decelea, and as that town was in the possession of the Lacedæmonians, it was not possible to bring him there until Lysander, having heard from the deserters that the great poet was dead, permitted his ashes to rest with those of his ancestors. There is a legend, that Bacchus appeared twice to Lysander in a dream, and enjoined him to allow the interment to take place'. According to one account, they placed the image of a Siren over his tomb, according to another, a bronze swallow. Ister informs us that the Athenians decreed him an annual sacrifice. He wrote, besides Tragedies, an Elegy, Pæans, and a prose work on the Chorus, against Thespis and Chorilus. Only seven of his tragedies have come down to us; but an ingenious attempt has been lately made to show that the Rhesus, which is generally attributed to Euripides, was the first of the plays of Sophocles'.

With regard to the whole number of plays composed by Sophocles; we have the authority of Aristophanes, of Byzantium, that 130 were ascribed to him, of which seventeen were spurious. It has been objected to this large number, that the Antigone, which was acted in 440, was the thirty-second play; and as Sophocles began to exhibit in 468, and died in 405, he would have written eighty-one pieces in the last thirty-six years of his literary life, and only thirty-two in the first twenty-seven years. Whereas it is not likely that he would have written more in his declining years than in the vigour of his life: and it has been conjectured that he wrote only about seventy plays. Reasons have, however,

? We have seen that ioxvopwvia was attributed to Sophocles: if it arose from delicate lungs, this account of his death is probable enough. There are chronological objections to the other two statements. See Clinton, F. H. ii. p. 85.

3 See vita Anonym. Pausanias, i. 21. § 1, gives a somewhat different story. Λέγεται δὲ Σοφοκλέους τελευτήσαντος ἐσβάλλειν εἰς τὴν ̓Αττικὴν Λακεδαιμονίους, καὶ σφῶν τὸν ἡγούμενον ἰδεῖν ἐπιστάντα οἱ Διόνυσον κελεύειν τιμαῖς, ὅσαι καθεστήκασιν ἐπὶ τοῖς τεθνεῶσι, τὴν Σειρῆνα τὴν Νέαν τιμᾷν. καί οἱ τὸ ὄναρ Σοφοκλέα καὶ τὴν Σοφοκλέους ποίησιν ἐφαίνετο ἔχειν.

Gruppe, Ariadne, p. 285-305.

5 By Böckh, de Gr. Trag. Princip. p. 107-109.

been lately given, which incline us to believe that Aristophanes is correct in assigning to him 113 genuine dramas. For, in the first place, the meaning of the words on which this objection is founded is not sufficiently clear: it is not certain that the grammarian is not referring to tragedies only, and in that case, even supposing that Sophocles wrote five separate plays in that time, we should have to add nine satyrical dramas to make up the tetralogies, and thus we should not have a very disproportionate number of trilogies for the remaining thirty-six years. Besides, we have a list of 114 names of dramas attributed to Sophocles, of which ninety-eight are quoted more than once as his, and it is exceedingly unlikely that many of these should have been written by his son Iophon, or his grandson, the younger Sophocles. It will be recollected too, that, in the earlier part of his life, Sophocles was much engaged in public affairs; he was a general, at least once', and went on several embassies; this, in addition to the greater facility in writing, which he might have acquired by long practice, would account for his pen being more prolific in the latter part of his life. He obtained the first prize eighteen, twenty', or twenty-four times', and it is not probable that his first and second prizes taken together were much fewer than thirty. Now it seems that about twenty-four of the dramas, the names of which have come down to us, were satyrical: we may suppose that he wrote about twenty-seven satyrical dramas on the whole: this would give us twenty-seven tetralogies, or 108 plays, and there remain five single plays to satisfy the statement of Suidas, that he contended with drama against drama. This statement we shall now proceed to examine. It certainly does not imply that he never contended with trilogies, for it is known that he wrote satyrical dramas, which in his time were never acted by themselves. One of the conjectures, which have been proposed with respect to the meaning of the words of Suidas, is, that Sophocles opposed to the trilogies of Æschylus three tragedies, not intimately connected with one another, like the Eschylean plays, but each complete in itself3. This presumes, however, that Suidas By Clinton, Phil. Museum, i. p. 74, fol.

7 Justin says, (lib. iii. 6,) that he served against the Lacedæmonians.

8 καὶ ἐν πρεσβείαις ἐξητάζετο. Vit. Anonym.

Diodor. xiii. 103.

1 Νίκας ἔλαβεν εἴκοσιν ὥς φησι Καρύστιος πολλάκις δὲ καὶ δευτερεῖα ἔλαβε. Vit. Anonym.

2 Suidas.

3 Welcker, Trilogie, p. 51.