The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Sophocles
SOPHOCLES, sǒf′ō-klēz (496–406 B.C.), was born in the deme of Colonus near Athens. His father, Sophillus, was a man of middle rank and owner of many slaves. Hence he had the means to give his son a good education. Naturally, then, Sophocles was early introduced to Homer, who has left his impress on all the poet wrote. Music was not neglected. In this branch the young Sophocles was trained by the famous musician, Lamprus. He also frequented the palæstra and won prizes in gymnastic and athletic contests. His beauty and natural grace were exceptional. At the age of 15 he was chosen to lead the chorus that sang the pæan of victory of Athenian arms over Oriental despotism. Of the poet’s relation to the great philosophers we know nothing; but we may be reasonably sure, from the internal evidence of his works, that his mind was not eager to pry into the unknown. With Voltaire he might have said «Adorons Dieu sans vouloir percer ses mystères.»
Sophocles was born when Athens was beginning to rise toward the zenith of her glory and he died in his 90th year, just before her brilliant sun had set. He lived to witness the passing success of Athenian arms at Arginusæ, but died before her star was obscured by the cloud of Ægospotami. It was the century of Cimon and Pericles, of Phidias and Ictinus. Greece was the centre of the world, Athens the hearthstone of Hellas, the home of art, literature, science. But amid all this unrest, opportunity and glory, Sophocles lived a life of imperturbable placidity. Calm and self-possessed, he dedicated his life to his art. As Browning has well said, his even-balanced soul business could not make dull nor passion wild. Only one cloud case a momentary shadow over his long and serene life; his son Iophon arraigned him before his deme as incapable of managing property. The old man refuted the charge by reciting the ode he had just composed on his native Colonus. For public affairs the poet showed no great aptitude. Pericles did not have a very high opinion of his strategic abilities, and the great statesman had an excellent opportunity of judging, for Sophocles was elected to serve with him as a general to conduct the Samian War. The appointment, we are told, was due to the success of his ‘Antigone.’ Later he became a colleague of Nicias. He was also a minor priest, and one of the treasurers that managed the tribute paid to Athens by her allies. The poet met Herodotus and composed an ode in honor of the historian. Sophocles was probably also acquainted with a great many other distinguished men. There is a wealth of ideas, a sprightly grace and a delicacy of views in his works that could not have developed in any other atmosphere. After the Sicilian reverse he was elected a member of the college of six magistrates created to propose measures of safety. In 411 he was appointed on a committee of 30 to modify the constitution; but he was conservative in politics and withdrew from all participation in their work when they proposed to rule without consulting the general assembly.
With his first tetralogy Sophocles competed with Æschylus for the tragic prize and won (468), although he was only 28 years of age. We are told that when the archon was hesitating to draw lots, Cimon, who had just returned from his conquest of Scyrus, entered the theatre and proceeded to pour out a libation to Dionysus, whereupon he and his fellow-generals were detained to act as judges. Henceforth Sophocles was master of the stage. He produced on an average one tetralogy every two years. No other tragic poet ever secured a greater number of prizes. Sometimes, in the earlier days, he took the leading part himself. He not only played acceptably the title rôle of Nausicaa, but he also distinguished himself by his grace in dancing. Æschylus died in distant Sicily; Euripides mid the wilds of Macedonia; but Sophocles, though invited by foreign potentates to their splendid courts, lived and died in the city of his birth. Sophocles[’] manners were affable and pleasing. His conversation was full of that Socratic irony which we find so charming in the dialogues of Plato. Endowed with a serene composure of manner and gifted with gentleness, beauty and intellect, small wonder that his contemporaries believed that the poet was beloved by the gods. After death the Athenians worshipped him as a hero. To the whole Greek world we was known as the Attic Bee. But in the natural sweetness of his temper there was something bitter—a tang which produced the flavor. It was his charm and grace that commended Sophocles especially to the Greeks. He was a more perfect artist than Æschylus and Euripides. The Periclean Age showed a decided preference for him over the other two. In the eyes of the Athenians, Sophocles was next to Homer, unsurpassed in wit, sweetness, discourse, art.
Sophocles found the art-form already developed. But he tempered the tone of tragedy, the material of which he narrowed to the compass of a single play: there is no nexus between the parts of his trilogies. In Sophocles, too, the characterization becomes sharper, and the dialogue moves more briskly, the action becomes more complicated, the meshes of intrigue finer. There is also a marked difference between Sophocles and Æschylus in the space devoted to the chorus. The lyric simply reflects, no longer bears the piece, though it is still an integral part of the action. But the plot is developed with consummate skill and with the most exact thoughtfulness. The plot of ‘Œdipus Rex’ is so subtly articulated that each episode, each period, each verse, becomes an indispensable part of the whole. Not even Edgar Allan Poe strove more earnestly for totality of effect. It is this articulation that makes conspicuous the “irony” that runs through Sophocles. But it is particularly in the portrayal of character that Sophocles is in advance of Æschylus. The latter evokes fear, Euripides pity, Sophocles both—and in due proportion. The plot assists in the development of the character. The poet’s theme is man. His heroes are ideal, but they show genuinely human traits. The gods are kept in the background. As in Æschylus, they control the action, but from a point so high above our horizon that we are not conscious of their domination until we reach the dénouement. Sophocles was not only a dramatist: he was also a poet. In all Greek poetry there is a strong current of feeling for external nature; but in Sophocles this feeling is always exquisitely adapted to dramatic effect.
Many innovations were made by Sophocles. He increased the number in the chorus from 12 to 15, developed the parados, introduced a third actor and made great use of stage scenery. Sophocles has his inevitable perfection; but he is not uniform enough to be faultily faultless. His poetry is never jejune, but succulent, full of sap and marrow; and he is the one consummate master of style, melody, vocabulary and versification, the one poet that always maintains a noble Homeric grace, that never sinks below the calm level of high art. His style is vigorous, but it is also marvelously subtle. No poet better combines severity with variety and sweetness with vigor in his rhythmic measures. He always adapts rhythm to expression. His choral songs are constructed with the skill of a master architect. Of the hundred and more plays which Sophocles wrote seven have come down to us. In ‘Œdipus Rex’ Sophoclean art reaches its highest point. The ‘Trachiniæ’ is the least popular; nevertheless, it is a good play. The ‘Œdipus at Colonus’ is the least dramatic, but its charm and breadth indicate that it is the work of the poet’s best years. The earliest extant play is the ‘Ajax’ (451). The ‘Antigone’ was produced three years later. The ‘Philoctetes’ is one of the latest (409), while the ‘Œdipus at Colonus’ was brought out (401) by his grandson after the poet’s death. The ‘Electra,’ though hard for a modern to appreciate, is the only one on this theme that thoroughly satisfies, the ‘Chœphori’ of Æschylus and the ‘Electra’ of Euripides being inferior.
Joseph E. Harry,
Author of ‘The Greek Tragic Poets,’ etc.