Living Poets

'''''Sarah Burges Watson'''''
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Best-loved of the tragedians, Sophocles won at least twenty times in the Athenian dramatic festivals. He died in 406/5 BCE, aged around ninety. He wrote over a hundred and twenty plays ({{#lemma: ''Suda'' | [[Suda, ς 815 Adler | ''Suda'', s.v. Sophocles]]}}); seven survive complete: ''Ajax'', ''Electra'', ''Women of Trachis'', ''Antigone'', ''Oedipus Tyrannus'', ''Philoctetes'' (409 BCE), ''Oedipus at Colonus'' (401 BCE). The {{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} transmitted with his plays is probably Hellenistic (see Bing 1993), but biographical stories circulated during Sophocles’ lifetime. Sources on Sophocles are collected by Radt (1977).

== A ‘Blessed’ Life ==

If classicism is the product of nostalgia for an idealized past (see Porter 2006), Sophocles represents its acme. His ‘Life’ is perfectly harmonized with his poetry (cf. Graziosi 2006: 160-5). Considered through the lens of Sophocles’ mighty champion Aristotle, it might actually qualify as ‘blessed’ (''Nicomachean Ethics'' 1.10). It apparently combines flourishing in accordance with the excellences of character and intellect (both contemplative and politically oriented) with good fortune—and no reversals. It certainly exemplifies the good timing said to be characteristic of his dramas ({{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} 20-1). Raised in prosperity, Sophocles receives an aristocratic education in gymnastics and ''mousikê'' and sings the paean after the victory at Salamis ({{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} 3). His career coincides with Athens’ heyday, ending before her catastrophic defeat by Sparta. He influences and is influenced by luminaries like Herodotus (see Dewald/Marincola 2006), whom he celebrates in an {{#lemma: epigram | [[Plutarch, Whether an old man should engage in public affairs 3, 785a | Plut. ''An Seni'' 3, 785a]]}}. Taking what is best from Aeschylus, he brings tragedy to what Aristotle considers its natural fulfillment. Thereafter, Sophocles represents the golden mean between his principal rivals, Aeschylus and Euripides (see Hunter 2009). 

== Sophocles and Religion ==

Whilst Euripides subverts traditional religion and Aeschylus is accused of profaning the mysteries (see [[Guide to Aeschylus]]), Sophocles is ‘more pious than anyone else’ ({{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} 12, 16; see Jouanna 2007: 73-90). He enjoys reciprocal divine favour and possesses vatic authority ({{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} 12, 15, 17). When Heracles’ shrine is robbed, the hero reveals the thief’s identity to Sophocles in a dream ({{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} 11, cf. {{#lemma: Cicero | [[Cicero, On Divination 1.25, 54 | Cic. ''Div.'' 1.25, 54]]}}), as he reveals Philoctetes’ destiny in Sophocles’ tragedy. The {{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} (11) says that Sophocles was priest of a healer-hero, Halon. Some suspect confusion with Amynus, attested in {{#lemma: inscriptions | [[Inscriptiones Graecae II/III 1252 | ''IG'' II/III 1252]]<br />[[Inscriptiones Graecae II/III 1253 | ''IG'' II/III 1253]]}} with Asclepius and ‘Dexion’—Sophocles’ cult-name in a {{#lemma: Byzantine lexicon | [[Etymologicum Magnum 256.6 ‘Dexion’ | ''Etym. Magn.'' s.v. ‘Dexion’]]}}. Supposedly derived from his ‘reception’ (''dexis'') of Asclepius (cf. {{#lemma: Plutarch | [[Plutarch, Life of Numa 4.8, 62c | Plut. ''Num.'' 4.8, 62c]]<br />[[Plutarch, That Epicurus actually makes a pleasant life impossible 22, 1103 a | Plut. ''Non Posse'' 22, 1103 a]]}}, Lefkowitz 2012, Connolly 1998), {{#lemma: the name may pun on his poetic dexterity | [[Phrynichus Muses, fr. 32 Kassel-Austin| Phry. Com. ''Muses'', fr. 32 KA]]<br />[[Athenaeus, Sophists at Dinner 13, 603e | Ath. 13, 603e]]}}. A Sophoclean paean to Asclepius (Page, ''PMG'' 737) was still performed in Athens in {{#lemma: Philostratus’ | [[Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 3.17 | Philostr. ''VA'' 3.17]]}} day. 

== Death and Hero Cult ==

The tragic poet dies a Dionysian death ({{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} 14) by choking on an unripe grape during the Dionysian festival Anthesteria; or from joy at the ''Antigone’''s victory (cf. {{#lemma: Diodorus | [[Diodorus of Sicily, The Library of History 13.103.4 | Diod. Sic. 13.103.4]]}}); or because he ran out of breath whilst reciting a long passage (an anecdote which may have arisen in a didactic context). {{#lemma: Dionysus prescribes burial honours for ‘the new Siren’ | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']] (ch. 15)<br />[[Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.21.1 | Paus. 1.21.1]]}}. Pausanias understands the title as a reference to the seductiveness of (his) poetry. Sophocles is made a hero ({{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} 17), perhaps in imitation of his (posthumous) ''Oedipus at Colonus''—Sophocles’ own deme. (See Lefkowitz 2012: 84 and Currie 2012, with further bibliography). His canon-/hero-ization is already underway in 405 BCE in Phrynichus’ {{#lemma: ''Muses'' | [[Phrynichus Muses, fr. 32 Kassel-Austin | Phry. Com. ''Muses'', fr. 32 KA]]}} (Harvey 2000) and Aristophanes’ {{#lemma: ''Frogs'' | [[Aristophanes, Frogs 76-82 | Ar. ''Ran.'' 76-82]]<br />[[Aristophanes, Frogs 786-794 | Ar. ''Ran.'' 786-794]]<br />[[Aristophanes, Frogs 1515-1519 | Ar. ''Ran.'' 1515-1519]]}}. In the latter, Sophocles floats peacefully above his quarrelsome rivals, surrendering life and the infernal Chair of Tragedy as graciously as he surrenders the sexual pleasures of his youth in {{#lemma: Plato | [[Plato, Republic 329 b | Pl. ''Resp.'' 329b]]}}.

== Sophoclean Charm ==

The charm (''charis'') of Sophocles personality matches the ''charis'' of his poetry ({{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} 7). His Life exemplifies his declaration (in Aristotle’s {{#lemma: ''Poetics'' | [[Aristotle, Poetics 25, 1460b32 | Arist. ''Poet.'' 25, 1460b32]]<br />[[Aristotle, Poetics 3, 1448a25 | Arist. ''Poet.'' 3, 1448a25]]}}) that he (like Homer), depicted men as they should be (the proper mode for tragedy); Euripides as they are. Aristophanes’ flattering portrait may reflect {{#lemma: Sophocles’ tribute to Euripides | [[Life of Euripides 2 (1, 13, 11 Schwartz) | ''Life of Euripides'' (2)]]}}, who died in the same year. The tragedian seems never to have missed an opportunity to display his excellence. He is the antitype of the antisocial Euripides (see [[Guide to Euripides]], Davidson 2012). {{#lemma: Athenaeus | [[Athenaeus, Sophists at Dinner 13, 603e | Ath. 13, 603e]]}} constructs their sexualities as opposite: Euripides is a woman-lover; Sophocles likes boys. {{#lemma: Elsewhere | [[Plato, Republic 329 b | Pl. ''Resp.'' 329b]]<br />[[Plutarch, Life of Pericles 8.8 | Plut. ''Per.'' 8.8]]<br />[[Athenaeus, Sophists at Dinner 13, 592a | Ath. 13 592a]]}}, however, Sophocles pursues women even in old age (''pace'' Plato). {{#lemma: He falls for a courtesan and leaves her his property | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]<br />[[Athenaeus, Sophists at Dinner 13, 592a | Ath. 13 592a]]<br />[[Scholion to Aristophanes’ Frogs 78 | Schol. Ar. ''Ran.'' 78]]}}. The ''Vita'' says that his son/s charged him with dementia and that Sophocles was acquitted after reading from the ''OC''; a story found in {{#lemma: other sources | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']] (ch. 13)<br />[[Scholion to Aristophanes’ Frogs 78 | Schol. Ar. ''Ran.'' 78]]<br />[[Cicero, Cato Maior 22 | Cic. ''Cato Maior'' 22]]}}.

Anecdotes involving (the conspicuously un-erotic) Aeschylus are restricted to poetics. {{#lemma: Sophocles | [[Athenaeus, Sophists at Dinner 10, 428f | Ath. 10. 428f]]<br />[[Plutarch, fragment 130 Sandbach | Plut. fr. 130 Sandbach]]}} comments in Socratic fashion on the older poet’s instinctive creativity (see [[Guide to Aeschylus]]) and, in {{#lemma: Plutarch | [[Plutarch, How a young man may become aware of his progress in virtue 7, 79b | Plut. ''Quomodo adul.'' 7, 79b]]}}, charts his relationship to Aeschylus in teleological terms (see Pelling 2007). {{#lemma: Aeschylus is said to have left Athens in indignation | [[Life of Aeschylus | ''Life of Aeschylus'']] (ch. 8)<br />[[Plutarch, Life of Cimon 8, 483e | Plut. ''Cim.'' 8, 483e]]}} when defeated by Sophocles’ first production.

== Sophocles and Politics ==

While his rivals’ biographies end in exile, Sophocles is ‘most Athens-loving’ ({{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} 10; see Hanink 2010). Indeed, {{#lemma: after serving as treasurer | [[Inscriptiones Graecae I, 269.36 | ''IG'' I, 269.36]]}}  in 443/2, {{#lemma: he held the highest political office (general) | [[Scholion to Aristides p. 485, 28 Dindorf | Schol. ''Aristid.'' p. 485, 28 Dindorf]]<br />[[Hypothesis to Sophocles Antigone (1.69.17 Dain)]]<br />[[Plutarch, Life of Nicias 15.2, 533b | Plut. ''Nic.'' 15.2, 533b]]}} at least once—with Pericles—during the Samian revolt of 441/0 BCE. According to the ''Antigone''’s {{#lemma: hypothesis | [[Hypothesis to Sophocles Antigone (1.69.17 Dain)]]}}, Sophocles was elected because of the play’s popularity (the dating conflicts with {{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} 14). In an anecdote ascribed to {{#lemma: Ion of Chios | [[Athenaeus, Sophists at Dinner 13, 603e | Ath. 13, 603e]]}}, Sophocles playfully challenges Pericles’ observation that he is a better poet than general by ensnaring a slave-boy at a symposium (see Ford 2002: 191-3). This follows a virtuosic erotic/poetic display which, when challenged by a pedantic symposiast, becomes another demonstration of ‘how men should be’. Dexterity in ''mousikê'' is crucial for elite social competition, but Ion judges Sophocles politically unremarkable. In the ''Frogs'', where questions about poetry’s educational status are central, Sophocles’ absence from the fray exonerates Aristophanes from exploring how good the poet’s advice to the people actually was, at least when he left the theatre. This subject was perhaps best avoided, not least since a committee on which Sophocles served had established a (despotic) oligarchic regime in 411 BCE. As {{#lemma: Aristotle | [[Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric 3.18, 1419a25 | Arist. ''Rh.'' 3.18, 1419a25]]<br />[[Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric 1.14, 1374b34 | Arist. ''Rh.'' 1.14, 1374b34]]<br />[[Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric 3.15, 1416a13 | Arist. ''Rh.'' 3.15, 1416a13]]}} attests, Sophocles was questioned about his role by his fellow-counsellor Peisander, probably during the latter’s prosecution for a suicide, for which Sophocles proposed the death penalty (see Jameson 1971). 

== Sophocles the ‘Homer-Lover’ ==

Aristophanes said that Sophocles’ mouth ({{#lemma: like Pindar’s elsewhere | [[Guide to Pindar]]}}) was smeared with honey ({{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} 22). In the {{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} (20), his honey/''charis'' is gathered from what is sweetest in his forebears, above all Homer—the ultimate classic. He is dubbed ''philhomeros'' by the Homerist Eustathius and ‘the tragic Homer’ by the Academician {{#lemma: Polemon | [[Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers 4.20 | Diog. Laert. 4.20]]}} (see Schein 2012). These judgments echo Aristotle. {{#lemma: Aeschylus | [[Athenaeus, Sophists at Dinner 1, 20e | Ath. 1, 20e]]}} allegedly described his own tragedies as slices from Homer’s banquet; the {{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} (20) apparently endorses the judgment that ‘only Sophocles was a student of Homer’.

== Sophocles as Thamyras ==

Sophocles is said to have performed onstage twice in Homeric roles. According to {{#lemma: Athenaeus | [[Athenaeus, Sophists at Dinner 1, 20e | Ath. 1, 20e]]}}, he played a memorable ball-game as Nausicaa. His other character, Thamyras, was said in Asclepiades Tragilus’ summary of tragic plots (fourth-century BCE), to have competed with the Muses, demanding to sleep with all of them, if victorious. His defeat was punished with blindness (see Wilson 2009: 59-79). We do not know how much of this Sophoclean. In one fragment (245 Radt with Wilson 2009: 67-70), Thamyras may described himself as entering the Assembly under the compulsion of ''mousikê''—an intriguing parallel with Sophocles’ political activities. The statement ({{#lemma: ''Vita'' | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']]}} 4) that Sophocles abandoned acting because his voice was weak may echo Thamyras’ loss of song. It may also reflect the play’s interests in the professionalization of ''mousikê''—formerly the aristocrat’s preserve (see Wilson 2004, 2009: 70-9). From the perspective of poetics, Sophocles’ alignment with Thamyras is remarkable. In the ''Iliad'' (2.594-600), the positioning of his confrontation with the Muses within Homer’s Muse-inspired Catalogue of Ships suggests that Thamyras is a negative antitype of Homer, since he not only loses his eyesight but also the gift of song (on Homer’s blindness see [[Guide to Homer]]). Whatever the resonances of this Homeric story in Sophocles’ biography, it has a comparable erotic/musical counterpart in the {{#lemma: Siren placed on his tomb | [[Life of Sophocles | ''Life of Sophocles'']] (ch. 15)<br />[[Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.21.1 | Paus. 1.21.1]]}}.

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== Bibliography ==
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* Bing, P. 1993. ‘The Bios-Tradition and Poets’ Lives in Hellenistic Poetry.’ In R. Rosen and J. Farrell eds. ''Nomodeiktes. Greek Studies in Honor of Martin Ostwald.'' Ann Arbor. 619-31.
* Connolly, A. 1998. ‘Was Sophocles Heroised as Dexion?’ ''JHS'' 118: 1-21.
* Currie, B. 2012. ‘Sophocles and Hero Cult.’ In Ormand ed. 331-48.
* Davidson, J. 2012. ‘Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides.’ In Ormand ed. 38-52.
* Dewald, C. and Marincola, J. eds. 2006. ''The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus.'' Cambridge.
* Ford, A. 2002. ''The Origins of Criticism: Literary Culture and Poetic Theory in Classical Greece.'' Princeton.
* Graziosi, B. 2006. ‘Il rapporto tra autore ed opera nella tradizione biografica greca.’ In F. Roscalla ed. ''L’autore e l’opera. Attribuzioni, appropriazioni, apocrifi nella Grecia antica.'' Pisa. 155-75.
* Halliwell, S. 1986. ''Aristotle’s Poetics.'' Chapel Hill. 
* Hanink, J. 2010. ‘The Classical Tragedians, from Athenian Idols to Wandering Poets.’ In I. Gildenhard and M. Revermann eds. ''Beyond the Fifth Century. Interactions with Greek Tragedy from the Fourth Century BCE to the Middle Ages.'' Berlin. 39-68.
* Harvey, D. 2000. ‘Phrynichos and his Muses.’ In D. Harvey and J. Wilkins eds. ''The Rivals of Aristophanes.'' London. 91-134.
* Hunter, R. L. 2009. ''Critical Moments in Classical Literature: Studies in the Ancient View of Literature and its Uses.'' Cambridge.
* Jameson, M. 1971. ‘Sophocles and the Four Hundred.’ ''Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'' 20.5-6: 541-68.
* Jouanna, J. 2007. ''Sophocle.'' Paris.
* Lefkowitz, M. 2012 (1981). ''The Lives of the Greek Poets.'' Baltimore.
* Ormand, K. ed. 2012. ''A Companion to Sophocles.'' Chichester/Malden MA.
* Palomar Pérez, N. 1998. ‘La figure du poète tragique dans la Grèce ancienne.’ In N. Loraux and C. Miralles eds. ''Figures de l’Intellectuel en Grèce ancienne.'' Berlin. 65-106.
* Pelling, C. 2007. ‘Sophocles’ Learning Curve.’ In P. J. Finglass, C. Collard, and N. J. Richardson eds. ''Hesperos: Studies in Ancient Greek Poetry Present to M.L. West on his Seventieth Birthday.'' Oxford. 204-27.
* Porter, J. I. ed. 2006. ''Classical Pasts: the Classical Traditions of Greece and Rome.'' Princeton.
* Radt, S. 1999 (1977). ''Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta. Vol. 4. Sophocles.'' Göttingen.
* Schein, S. 2012. ‘Sophocles and Homer.’ In Ormand ed. 424-39.
* Scodel, R. 2012. ‘Sophocles’ Biography.’ In Ormand ed. 25-37. 
* Wilson, P. 2009. ‘Thamyris the Thracian: the Archetypal Wandering Poet?’ In R. Hunter and I. Rutherford eds. ''Wandering Poets in Ancient Greek Culture: Travel, Locality, and Panhellenism.'' Cambridge. 46-79.
* Wilson, P. ‘Athenian Strings’. In P. Wilson and P. Murray eds. ''Music and the Muses: the Culture of Mousike in the Classical Athenian City.'' Oxford. 269-306.
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[[Category:Guides by Sarah Burges Watson]]